Maeve Binchy (1940–2012)

You know, the hero really didn't redeem himself here. Yes he's a musician and yes he's out of control but he kept talking about how he wanted his wife back without really showing that he wanted her back. He treated her like garbage and it was a hard read to see her falling for his wiles. The real romance that I wanted to see more of was between Tom and Lina.
They married in haste and then they fell out. He insulted her and when she moved out he installed a singer as his mistress in their show more house. Now she wants a child and he admits he wants one too to secure his inheritance. It's a mess and the relationship didn't feel quiite enough for me.

I wanted to like it but I felt like the relationship wasn't enough for the main story. show less

My sister-in-law Jane always knows best. You can just ask her! All joshing aside, Jane has been literally telling me for years that I needed to read Maeve Binchy. She couldn’t believe I hadn’t read one of her works already! But I always had so much to read, so I put it off. And off. And off. Until a colleague at work got me A Week in Winter.

OK, Jane. You’re right. Again.

Free spirit Geraldine “Chicky” Ryan runs away from Ireland’s backward and provincial West of Ireland with a show more fellow free spirit, handsome American Walter Starr, much to the consternation of Chicky’s hard-scrabble farming family and Walter’s patrician family. In New York City, Chicky and Walter live in a commune apartment, and she maintains a cordial, weekly letter-exchange with family and friends in the village of Stoneybridge.

But when restless Walter proves to be a little too free and decides to move on, Chicky needs to decide what to do. She’s determined never to return to judgmental Stoneybridge and her disapproving family. For years, she lives one life in New York and reports a more successful, exciting life to those left behind in Stoneybridge. But in the end, at middle age, Chicky returns — but not as a sorrowful penitent — but as a returning conqueror, someone who turns the crumbling Sheedy mansion, Stone House, into a one-of-a-kind seaside hotel. Assisted by Miss Queenie Sheedy, Chicky’s bright and business-savvy niece Orla, and Richard (nicknamed “Rigger”), the wayward illegitimate son of Chicky’s old friend Nuala, clever Chicky transforms not just broken-down Stone House but the broken spirits who pass through. Despite the bracing wind (read: “freezing blasts of air”) in the west of Ireland, Binchy made me long to spend a week in such a restorative home under the guidance of the generous Chicky Starr. And for a sun worshipper like me, someone who develops gooseflesh at the grocery store in August, that’s really saying something.

Those lucky enough to read the audio version will find that reader Rosalyn Landor a right treat, as the Irish say.

And, Jane, I hope all is forgiven. A Week in Winter won’t be my last Maeve Binchy. You were right — as usual. show less

This set of short stories is linked by each taking place at or starting at a particular stop on the London underground/overground network. It works reasonable well as a linking device, for a set of fairly disparate stories. It is, to me, a slightly surprising collection. I always think of the author as a bit fluffy and yet there's a fair amount of steel in the female characters she writes about. There's abortion and a certain feminist strand to some of the characters. The wife swopping one show more was probably the most overtly funny. It is a colleciton of it's time, in that there's nary a mobile phone here anywhere, but the people themselves seem real enough, even if time has moved on around them. Nothing positively outstanding, but no clunkers either, it's a comfortable type of listen. show less

Dr. Clara Casey was passed over for the position of head cardiologist at the hospital. Instead, she ends up appointed the director of the new heart clinic and she's less than thrilled about the prospect. She promises herself it will only be for a year, she'll get through it, and move on.

The new job is just the beginning of her troubles. She has two selfish daughters who are wrapped up in their own lives. Her estranged husband, who left her to live with a much younger woman, is finally asking show more for the divorce she won't grant, and Frank Ennis, the hospital board member overseeing the clinic, is an incredible thorn in her side.

At the clinic, she begins assembling a diverse and wonderful staff. Clara is a force and you begin to see the clinic find its home in the community and become a touchstone for so many of the characters in this book.

Maeve Binchy is a comfort read for me. She creates such immensely likable characters that I want to pick up and go to Dublin to meet these people. In this book, as with most Binchy novels, the story is told from several perspectives and you know what's going on in the lives of all the characters. Some of their stories are more interesting than others but it's the way they are all tied together that makes it work. Binchy does a good job of folding you into the story and you're hooked before you know it. The ending of this one felt a bit abrupt and the characters all work out their problems fairly quickly but that may also have been me not wanting to see this story come to an end at all.

This book does include characters from previous novels but you don't need to have read them all to understand what's going on here. It stands on its own but if you've read the other books, it's nice to see the characters you've met before are all doing fine. show less