The Glass Lake

1995, 1996 Dell edition
Maeve Binchy
The Glass Lake
Original price $7.50, purchase price 49 cents
Very worn paperback
B-

As I noted with Copper Beech, the natural object in the title is important to the story.  Discontented wife and mother Helen McMahon seems to drown in the lake that the very Binchy little town of Lough Glass is named for.  Her twelve-year-old daughter Kit burns the "farewell" note, so that apparent suicide Helen can be buried in the churchyard.  But Helen has run off with her lost love, Louis Gray. "Lena" had hoped to keep in touch with her children and thinks that their father is hiding the truth from them, so she starts writing to Kit, pretending to be Helen's school chum.  Kit visits London five years later and learns the truth.

In some ways, this is the best Binchy novel, in that it has an intriguing plot with a no-win situation, and deeper emotions than usual.  But there's so much about it that doesn't work and, unlike Firefly Summer, it doesn't really satisfy.  As in her past novels, the ending is rushed and a bit implausible (although she still hasn't hit the depths of Penny Candle).  I think this is the longest of the novels so far, over 700 pages, but she tries to do too much in the last 100 or so, especially the last twenty.  Also, I'm getting tired of the "cheating charmer" character, like in Penny Candle and, to a lesser degree, Circle of Friends.  It's soon obvious that Louis is no good, but Lena does what she can to hold on to him.  And then Binchy has a twist where Kit seems to be repeating her mother's history, but it's OK in her case because the promiscuous Stevie Sullivan reforms when he gets involved with her.  Also, I didn't like how Helen gives much less thought to her son, Emmet, when we're meant to think that she misses both children terribly.

As usual, there are chronological errors, but not the typical ones.  The story is set in the 1950s, from I think 1952 to 1959.  There's a heavy-handed bit, before Helen runs off, when she tells Kit that the 1960s will be a great time for women.  (She must've borrowed the time machine from Twisting Clare of Echoes.)  Equally annoying, Binchy can't keep straight the age difference between Kit and Emmet, nor that between Kit's frenemy Clio and kid sister Anna.  Anna is seven when the older girls are twelve, but acts sixteen when they're eighteen, and she's dating fifteen/seventeen-year-old Emmet and twenty-one-year-old Stevie.

I have to ask, did Binchy ever get a good editor?  This is the last of her books I own, although she kept writing right up to her death last year.

The Copper Beech

1992, 1993 Dell edition
Maeve Binchy
The Copper Beech
Original price $6.99, purchase price $1.98
Worn paperback
C+

The title is similar to Echoes and Firefly Summer in that it doesn't seem to have much to do with the story, although I think it's meant to be a symbol of the importance of the small-town school that the tree shades.  The story more reminded me of The Lilac Bus, in that it covers the same span over and over, from different perspectives, although this time it's roughly 30 years, rather than one weekend.  I didn't feel that technique worked as well at novel length, especially since I didn't care for some of the characters here, or at least what was done with them.  

This time the little Irish town is Shancarrig, which means "old rock," and the landscape does seem to matter more than in past novels, not just the beech but Barna Woods.  Some people meet secretly in the woods, including the "old maid" (20ish) schoolteacher and the young priest, who don't quite go Thornbirds but do have sexual tension.  Oh, and there's something hidden in the rockery at the rich family's home.  The "where are they now" (1970) ending is weak and somewhat pointless, although it might've been more effective if Binchy had just told events in order.

If I recall correctly, the lake in The Glass Lake, coming up in 1995, actually is important to the story....

Circle of Friends

1990, 1991 Dell edition
Maeve Binchy
Circle of Friends
Original price $6.50, purchase price $3.25
Very worn paperback with split spine
B-

I really enjoyed the 1995 film version (Minnie Driver's debut), but I haven't seen it since, so I don't know if it would bother me as much as this book now does.  My dislike ranges from an anachronism worse than the 1957 Twist in Echoes to the central romance.  The former is a 1957 letter that says in part, "She has read aloud to me your letters about being groovy and inviting me to where the action is.  She has begun to ask me what 'turning someone on' is about, and why do people say 'It's been real.'"  (What happened to Binchy in 1957?  Some time-travel mishap?) 

As for the romance, Benny (short for Bernadette) is very insecure and can't believe that someone as handsome, charming, and popular as Jack would want her for his girlfriend.  The tag on this edition says, "For everyone who ever thought the person they loved was out of their reach."  Translation, "You folks are damn lucky if it's true, because that unattainable guy would try to pressure you into sex and then cheat on you with one of your friends, who's secretly pregnant by another guy, who won't marry her.  But it could be worse, since your best friend would threaten her with a knife and cause her to have a miscarriage, so your ex won't marry her and will then want you back, but you'd have moved on by then."  Not to mention that Jack offers Benny almost zero support when her father dies and she suspects (correctly) that the family store's "loyal" employee is embezzling.  All Jack does is whinge about how she doesn't spend more time in town.  (They're students in Dublin, and she commutes almost daily to and from the small town of Knockglen.)

So what did I like?  I liked the friendship between Benny and Eve (the knife-wielder).  I liked Eve's story much more than Benny's, including her prickly relationship with her late mother's family.  As always, I liked Binchy's view of small-town life.  (Dublin is just sketched in, and I didn't really get a sense of student life, beyond scarves and fly-cemeteries [a type of pastry].)  There were things here and there I liked.  And I have to admit that I like that Binchy resisted the temptation that the film-makers gave into, of giving Jack and Benny a "happy" ending.  (And, no, nobody makes a Jack Benny joke, which would at least be more timely than a teddy-boy writing letters like a hippie.)

Next up on the Binchy list, 1992's The Copper Beech....

Firefly Summer

1988, 1989 Dell edition
Maeve Binchy
Firefly Summer
Original price $6.99, purchase price 99 cents
Very worn paperback
B

This is Binchy's best and longest so far, although the title is more misleading than Echoes.  It actually covers four years, with only the last summer (1966) as the one with any fireflies, and that's because Dara Ryan finally sees them (in France) after hearing about them from American Kerry O'Neill.  Kerry's father Patrick is a wealthy American whose impoverished father left Mountfern forty years ago, shortly before the local estate was burned down.  This was 1922 and the Irish were achieving their independence from the English (and the Anglo-Irish, like the Fern family).  Patrick wants to rebuild the estate as a hotel, while also finding his roots in the area, although no one remembers his family.

This story is mostly about the intertwined lives of the Ryan and O'Neill families.  Patrick's proposed hotel threatens the livelihood of the Ryans' pub.  Kate Ryan, Dara's energetic and forthright mother, doesn't notice signs on the construction site and is hit by a bulldozer, breaking her spine.  Less tragic but still dramatic, Patrick's vain but charming children (not just criminal Kerry but "good girl" Grace) break the hearts of Dara and her twin Michael.

Since this is Binchy, we do get a whole cast of villagers and outsiders, most notably Fergus the lawyer with the unobtrusive crush on Kate; and puppyish Maggie, whose death made me cry.  The characters are much realer in this book than usual for Binchy, although still a bit off, noticeably the Americans.  (Kerry never seems American or in his late teens.  And why do the O'Neills use a phrase like "mark your card," as in "tip you off"?)  I noticed that some reviewers on Amazon and elsewhere are bothered by the ending, but honestly, compared to Light a Penny Candle, it feels plausible and unrushed, even if there is a sense that it could've gone on to the next summer.  (Kate, her husband, and her doctor may not be worried about her pregnancy, but I am.)  Still, I think it's to Binchy's credit that we want to keep going a bit further.

As for the title, Dara learns that fireflies are too exotic for the Irish climate, suggesting that not only the O'Neills but Patrick's glamorous girlfriend, a divorced Jew, can't thrive there.  I don't think Binchy is entirely xenophobic-- the novel is more complex than that-- but there is a thread of cosy/nosy/local vs. exotic/threatening/foreign running throughout.

This edition has a "preview" of Silver Wedding, which I don't own, so the next Binchy will be the Very Famous Circle of Friends in 1990....

Echoes

1985, 1989 Dell edition
Maeve Binchy
Echoes
Original price $6.99, purchase price 99 cents
Worn paperback
B-

Binchy's second novel is about as good as her first, less melodramatic but less memorable.  Like Penny Candle, it's set mostly in a small Irish town, in the past, although this time the span is 1950 to '62, and the "big city" is Dublin rather than London.  The title refers to Echo Cave, which has a Delphic aspect, in that locals whisper questions and the echoes provide an answer.  The cave is dropped as motif (the cliffs are much more prominent), although there are other echoes, as when young Clare's life resembles the teacher Miss O'Hara's in some ways.

Angela O'Hara steals every scene, with her mix of common sense and Catholic guilt.  When her brother leaves the priesthood to marry a Japanese woman, Angela tries to keep it a secret, always dreading the visit of "Father Sean" and his new family.  Then when they show up, no one recognises him, and it's rather anti-climactic.  Similarly, many of the other plots and subplots fizzle out, although the death in the prologue is explained much more plausibly than that of Candle.

Binchy was born in 1940, but she makes two chronological errors that are glaring.  One is a baby born in the first half of 1960 and named "John Fitzgerald" after the "President."  If it was phrased as "the future president, we hope," or similar, it wouldn't bug me, but JFK didn't even have the nomination at that point.  Worse is the dance in 1957 where two girls are eager to demonstrate their Twisting skills.  You didn't know that Chubby Checker stole the dance from Castlebay did you?  He waited three years before he sang about it, just to be safe.

What does this matter?  Well, if Binchy is hoping to capture a certain time, she needs to get things like that right.  For all I know, some of the details of Irish culture may be wrong, too.  And anachronisms add to the feeling I get of her writing being not quite believable. 

Still, yes, I kept buying her books because I could pick them up so cheaply.  So, yes, I will be covering Firefly Summer in 1988....

The Lilac Bus

1984
The Lilac Bus
Maeve Binchy
(see Dublin 4 for more information)
B-

Tom takes seven people to Rathdoon and back to Dublin every weekend on the vehicle of the title.  Each chapter has a different perspective, so we see how the driver and passengers view each other, as well as the townspeople that they all know, like Celia's alcoholic mother.  The stories aren't all neatly tied up, but then this novella only covers one weekend (with flashbacks).  Themes and issues from before, not just alcoholism, but adultery, homosexuality (more here than in Dublin 4 or London Transports), and of course family, are addressed.  There's not as much of a sense of a little Irish town as in Light a Penny Candle, because of the split in setting (including on the road) as well as the length being less than that of the 1982 novel.  I didn't like Nancy, even after she had her "clueless person's realisation" ala Transports (maybe because I can see that same penny-pinching in myself at times, though not to that extreme), but the rest of the characters are interesting, flaws and all.

London Transports

1982, 1995 Dell edition
Maeve Binchy
London Transports
Original price $6.99, purchase price $1.98
Worn paperback
C+

This is another short story collection, set in and around London obviously.  (I think the titles are Underground stops, e.g. "Shepherd's Bush," "Victoria," and "Tottenham Court Road.")  They're not as good, since the formula seems to be mostly "Clueless and somewhat unpleasant person(s) getting his/her/their comeuppance or at least realisation in the end."  The story that's the greatest exception to this, and one of the better stories, is "King's Cross," where a super secretary remakes one woman's worklife every few months, and then moves on, sort of a nicer Nanny McPhee for the career woman.  As with Dublin 4, the time is the present, sometimes with old-fashioned characters having to deal with things like wife-swapping or porn bookshops.

The copyright page says 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982.  It also says, "This work was first published in Great Britain in 1978 and 1980," and then mentions copyright dates for a few of the specific stories, including "Euston" in '82.  Wikipedia says that Binchy published Central Line in '78, and Victoria Line in '80, then London Transports in '83.  Without digging further, my guess is that this is Central and Victoria put together.  (With maybe a bit of the Northern Line?)  So you can see why I decided, "Screw it, these three Binchys are going in '82."  And although Lilac comes before Light, Dublin is earlier alphabetically, and London is definitely last.  Thank goodness it's mostly novels for her from here on out.

Light a Penny Candle

1982, 1989 Dell edition
Maeve Binchy
Light a Penny Candle
Original price $6.50, purchase price $1.98
Worn paperback
B-

Unlike Dublin 4 but like some of the later novels, this is set in the past, in this case 1940 to 1960, mostly in London, England and Kilgarret, Ireland.  Binchy also contrasts Protestantism and Catholicism, the title referring to an Irish and/or Catholic custom.  During World War II, ten-year-old Elizabeth White goes to stay with the family of her mother's old classmate, Eileen O'Connor, since Ireland is not at war.  Eileen's daughter  Aisling is the same age as Elizabeth but much more outgoing.  We see the girls through awkward adolescences, unhappy relationships (particularly with Johnny, a man who takes both their virginities, years apart), and fairly successful careers, Elizabeth especially.

My two biggest problems with this novel are with the character of Eileen and the melodramatic ending.  Eileen is meant to be admirable, but I find it hard to forgive her for not accepting that the alcoholism and impotence of Tony, Aisling's husband, are grounds for leaving him.  Even when he hits Aisling, Eileen thinks she should forgive Tony.  OK, maybe Aisling can't get a divorce because it's against their faith, and Irish law, but why can't Eileen accept their separation?

As for the ending, it's foreshadowed in the prologue but comes almost out of nowhere.  Elizabeth's nice if insecure husband Henry first becomes a whinger like her father, and then becomes paranoid, and then gets drunk and decides to go have sex with Aisling, because she's had sex with a married man (Henry's friend Simon, although Henry doesn't know that).  Then, while rejecting Henry, Aisling accidentally reveals that Elizabeth had an abortion years ago (Henry knew about the long-term affair with Johnny, but not about the pregnancy), so he phones Johnny (who didn't know about the pregnancy either), and goes home to confront Elizabeth, who "accidentally" pushes him down the stairs when he threatens to take their daughter away.  Almost none of this is in character for anyone.  Only the last couple of pages, where Aisling and Elizabeth decide to endure, feels at all likely.  I realize that Binchy had a lot of loose ends to tie up, but I would've preferred something like Aisling telling Johnny about the abortion, and immediately regretting it.

So why have I read this book so many times?  Well, first of all, I'm a sucker for novels that show how people and their families change over time.  Secondly, I do like the two main characters for the most part, and sometimes Eileen.  There are a few supporting characters I like, in particular Aisling's kid brother Donal.  Binchy is good at creating little Irish towns that feel fully populated.  I appreciate that Aisling's mother-in-law and Elizabeth's stepfather are made into sympathetic human beings, rather than evil stereotypes.  Partly because of the length (500+ pages), Binchy goes much deeper than she did in any of the short stories in Dublin 4, but that makes the book all the more frustrating, the raised expectations. 

Next time (yes, three Binchys in a row), I'll go into the chronology of her writing a bit more.  For now I'll say that this is definitely her first novel, and yes, we'll be doing her second, Echoes, in 1985.

Dublin 4

1982, 1992 Dell edition
Maeve Binchy
Dublin 4, published with The Lilac Bus under the latter's title
Original price $5.99, purchase price $1.98
Worn paperback
B-

When Binchy died this past May, my first thought after the oddity of it happening the same day Gore Vidal died, was that it would be a long time till I got up to even the first of her books.  But here we are, seven months later, and we'll soon be at her second and third.  Dating these works is a bit tricky, since for one thing Lilac Bus was published in 1984.  But I decided this one is first, for reasons I'll discuss another time.

She married fairly late, at age 37, and published her first short story collection the next year, 1978.  I can't help wondering if this gave her a different perspective on things, two major life changes at the beginning of middle age.  Certainly her view of marriage, while not as bleak as that of Sinclair Lewis or Marilyn French, is surprisingly cynical for a writer celebrated for her cosiness.  And there are women in her stories who reinvent themselves in their 30s and 40s.

The "4" of the title are all set in the Irish capital and its suburbs, mostly with long-time residents, although "Flat in Ringsend" shows the paranoid fantasies of an 18-year-old country girl trying to adjust to the casualness of bedsitter life.  "Decision in Belfield" is also about a young woman, here a pregnant 21-year-old who remembers the mystery surrounding her older sister's pregnancy five years before.  "Dinner in Donnybrook" tells of a wife's revenge on her husband and his mistress.  And "Murmurs in Montrose" is the saddest story, about a "cured" alcoholic and his family.

Binchy is a strange writer for me to have so much of, because I don't entirely like her writing.  It's very readable, and I always want to see what happens next, even when I've read the books a few times before.  It's just there's something off, something not quite real, about her characters.  They always seem less vivid than she thinks they are.  Often the way other characters describe them, including characters whose opinions we're supposed to trust, feels exaggerated.  I didn't notice it so much in this collection, but it is notable in her longer fiction.  Here, I kept wondering, "How is it that these people seldom really talk with each other, when these stories are almost nothing but dialogue?"

Anyway, I'll try to articulate this more as I go along.