Tara Road

BRILLIANT – it feels like you are actually living in Tara Road and as you read, you not only feel every emotion as those who live on the street, but see parts of their character in yourself.
This is the story of two very different women, Marilyn and Ria, who on a whim, exchange houses and in doing so, learn much about each other, as well as much about themselves. Ria lived on Tara Road in Dublin with her dashing husband, Danny, and their two children. She fully believed she was happily married, right up until the day Danny told her he was leaving her to be with his young, pregnant girlfriend. By a chance phone call, Ria meets Marilyn, a woman from New England unable to come to terms with her only son's death and now separated from her show more husband. The two women exchange houses for the summer with extraordinary consequences, each learning that the other has a deep secret that can never be revealed.
At the end of the summer, the women at last meet face-to-face. Having learned a great deal, about themselves and about each other, they find that they have become, firmly and forever, good friends. However, because of the exchange, each must keep a dark secret they witnessed from each other’s lives, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you”.
I totally loved reading this and just could not put it down*NB make sure you have tissues on standby. show less

Oh! What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

The only deadly sin that was not addressed was, perhaps, gluttony (but even the sister's heroin addiction may have been the candidate.) All the lies, deceit and half-truths bring our heroine to her new endeavor -a life without her husband, starting a new business with the help of her "best friend."

Danny never rang true with me....doubtful that he will be true to Bernadette, either. Rosemary, for all of her prowess in the business world, how she could live with herself as Ria's best friend and Danny's paramour?

Ria is so naïve and gullible. The best thing she did was agree to the house vacation with Marilyn. It is important to realize that you are your own person, not show more just a mother, wife or friend first.

It was 600+ pages of a soap opera. Thank goodness, it's over! show less

What a delicious escape! Such wonderful characters. I wanted to move onto Tara Road tomorrow! Very real but with lots of hope. A great way to see the world. Katherine Borowitz did a lovely job narrating this novel. I wish there were more of it.

My mom and sister and I refer to this as the "smell the milk" book. Sometimes you open the fridge and wonder what that horrible smell is, and you open the milk bottle and nearly pass out. But it's so bad someone else HAS to experience it to, so you ask whoever's nearby to smell the milk, too.

I picked this book up in a grocery store in Shannon, Ireland. I was hoping for a fun, light read during my vacation. It *was* fun and sort of light, but not in the way I expected.

I've truly enjoyed some of Ms. Binchy's other novels - especially Circle of Friends - but this one? Oh, the badness. Binchy skipped right over "cozy chicklit" and went straight to "soap opera drama". The characters didn't talk or act like real people. Ridiculous characters show more and events were thrown in like Binchy was cleaning out her fridge and making soup with the contents.

I finished it before the trip ended, so my mom decided to read the book on the flight home. She'd read passages out loud to me and we'd laugh. Later, I told my sister about how awful it was, (she loves Binchy's earlier work, too) and she had to read to see just how bad it was.

Honestly, I'd give it zero stars, but I got a lot of entertainment out of this book, and it remains on my bookshelf as a testimony to fun conversations with my family. Tara Road gets two stars for making me laugh. show less

In Tara Road, Maeve Binchy introduces us to Ria, a young Irish woman who falls in love with and marries a handsome real estate developer whose business dealings may not be quite as above-board as she believes; and Marilyn, an American woman who is consumed by a grief that is so private that she cannot bring herself to share it with anyone, not even her faithful and devoted husband. When life circumstances change for Ria, she flees to Marilyn's house in small-town Connecticut for a summer, while providing Marilyn with a home in Tara Road in Dublin where she too can deal with her situation. The two women lead very different lives, but the ways in which each is touched and touches the lives of others reveal them to be far more similar than show more they first seem.... I've fallen in love with Maeve Binchy's work over the past couple of months, and Tara Road is no exception to that love. I think this is the earliest of Binchy's books that I've read so far, but all of her stylistic and thematic tropes are in place here, including a large cast of characters whose interactions, while appearing gentle in the storytelling, reveal a great deal of stark and unhappy human behaviour that reflects, in the end, the real world in all its messiness. I find myself slowing down when I read these books, because long as they are (Tara Road is some 639 pages), I never want them to end! Recommended. show less

Tara Road, by Maeve Binchy, is primarily a story about women. Kind women, cruel women, homemakers, career-minded, wounded, and strong. Our main character is Ria, who grows up modestly in Dublin with her mother and sister. Tara Road basically tells the story of her life as she moves from teenager to working young woman to exuberant newlywed to mother—and details all of the dangers and joys along the way.I’m cutting the (long-ass) summary, via Amazon, a bit:Against all odds, two newlyweds manage to buy the house of their dreams. In 1982, property speculation is beginning to be a big, big thing in Dublin–and their street is very much in an up-and-coming part of town. But for its various inhabitants, the street is to become a show more boulevard of dreams–some broken, others created anew. Maeve Binchy has long proved herself a secure hand at multiple story lines, and over the course of 500 satisfying pages she focuses on Ria; her best friend, Rosemary Ryan, a beautiful, endlessly selfish career woman; Gertie, the battered wife of a drunkard; and several other intriguing women, each of whom has secrets not to be shared.After our supposedly happy housewife and mother of two is confronted by some inexorable home truths, a chance phone call from America will change her life, forcing her to discard her illusions about men, women, and marriage and start all over again. At the same time, the Connecticut caller, Marilyn Vine, has her own lessons to learn when she and Ria swap houses for the summer. Instead, Tara Road is a stirring look at the reality behind our consuming fantasies, and a page-turner to boot.SO now you know the story. My take on it: If you’ve seen the movie The Holiday, you’ll recognize the plot, but Binchy brings the dramz like no other. It’s actually a suspenseful read, what with the affairs and the shady business dealings and the DRUGS that come out of nowhere! Who ever said only thrillers could keep you on the edge of your seat??Binchy has a helluva knack for writing realistic female characters. These are complicated, fallible, whole people. You might not agree with the decisions they make, but you can understand why they’re making them. Honestly, though, there were still times when I wanted to reach into the book and shake Ria. No matter what shit went down, she STILL wanted Danny back. I know, I know, they were married for like 20 years and you can’t just let someone go in an instant, but yeesh. If you’re like me, you’ll spend about half the book cheering for Ria to grow a spine. (She does…eventually, kind of. Argh.)Our other main character, Marilyn, is also well-done, though I would have liked her to be introduced earlier in the novel—it’s very Ria-centric. It’s only when Ria’s life goes down the drain that Marilyn enters the scene, perhaps more than halfway through the book, so it feels a bit unbalanced. I love that both of their relationships—with their husbands, children, and friends—seem real, messy, and complex. For example, Ria’s mother always drops in unannounced; she considers yelling “Ria!” by the front gate enough advance warning. And, like, isn’t that something your mom or your friend’s mom totally does?? So yes, 1 for great characters and character interactions.Obligatory complaining: Binchy broke my heart with the character of Rosemary. She’s this powerful, collected, intelligent woman, one who was happy with the choices she had made, and who had succeeded in the male-dominated business world on her own terms. Near the end of the book, you discover (with what feels like a punch to the gut) that Rosemary has been doing something Very, Very Bad. And it just destroys any goodwill or admiration you might have had for her.While Circle of Friends is still my fav Binchy novel, Tara Road brings the same intense characters, betrayals, and triumphs, and I’d highly recommend it to women’s lit and Binchy fans! (Also, if anyone else has reviewed Tara Road, please let me know and I’ll happily add a link to your review here. Also also, apparently this became a movie starring Andie MacDowell? Hwah?)For more reviews like this, check out bookwanderer. show less

Picked up because I thought that I recalled Binchy's works as being like comfort reads, with mostly good people facing challenges. But the people here are mostly caricatures of innocent or corrupted, trusting or exploitive. I'm not quite done... I suspect it will get even worse but may end somewhat happily... based on the kind of telegraphing that's been happening all along.

The main thing it is, is a lesson to young women to protect themselves from predatory men, and for women of all ages to have their own security and friends. It takes place just as divorce finally became legal in Ireland, and as a prosperity boom came to Dublin.

And the second thing, I think, that Binchy is saying, is how important it is to forgive... to forgive show more oneself, one's spouse and friends.

I think it should say more about communication. Characters really don't know each other, even though they're friends for decades or even lifetimes, even though they're spouses. And with that naivety come consequences... sometimes very bad ones that could have been avoided.

The best thing I'm getting out of it is a sense of what Ireland was like in the 80s & 90s.

I thought that there was one character that I could identify with, because she valued her privacy and wasn't particularly social... but it turns out that something bad had happened to her, and when she learns to begin to cope, she comes out of her shell and becomes social like everyone else. And competent... hardly anyone is anywhere near as competent as they need to be at the beginning, but it looks like everyone will be by the end.
---
And done. And yes, it did end much as I predicted it would. I have 'Scarlet Feather' next, but if it's not measurably smarter & more authentic I guess I'm done w/ Binchy. show less