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Summary: Wish I could give it more than five stars!
Review: Fell in love with this book, and you will too! This is the first (and definitely not the last) book I have read by Maeve Binchy, and it was great. Just had a very hard time putting it down! Well worth reading!
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Summary: Love and Loss in Dublin
Review: I found the characters in this novel very interesting as usual. The character of Danny Lynch is rather confusing. I alway wonder why is he so different from his parents? I despised him for being such a philanderer, but at times it seemed that he still loved his wife. I find it hard to believe that Ria could be so naive and unsuspecting of her husband's true character.
I think Gertie Brennan,the wife in an abusive marriage, was very true to life-always standing up for her husband in spite of her beatings. I would like to see her find a worthy husband after Jack's death.
However,Rosemary, the beautiful career woman does not seem quite real or dimensional.
The plot is enjoyable and compelling.
I think in some ways that Glass Lake is a better book. I also reccommend the book of short stories, Victoria Line, Central Line,great characters!
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Summary: One of Binchy's more touching!!
Review: Maeve Binchy is my favorite author & I've read a lot of her books but this was very different from what she normally does. I was really suprised at how touching & emotional & personal Tara Road was. All of her books have that type of plot but she really showed the emotions the characters go through during the plot really rawly.She spent about the first 230 pages describing the plot very boringly & I didn't think I'd like this book very much due to that but ending up really enjoying it b/c I saw later the signifigance & reasoning for it. Maeve had to make a perfected existance for the character's family to show later how much it was really destroyed & how deeply the people were affected by it. I was astonished at this novel at how deep Binchy dug down to get those emotions & really make you feel it.
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Summary: wonderful storyteller
Review: I think she is the greatest storyteller. I have read TARA ROAD two times and I enjoyed every minute of it. After I was done with the book she had me wanting more. I was so involved with the characters I felt like I was a part of them. When I was done reading the book I was hoping there would be a part 2. This book is extraordinary and I would reccomend it to anyone!
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Summary: Another Set of Good Irish Friends
Review: Maeve Binchey has created another set of unforgetable characters in whose lives the reader quickly becomes engrossed, almost as though we lived on Tara Road also. Set in modern day Dublin, the novel features a cast of interesting people whose lives intertwine in various ways, some loving and others deceiving and heartbreaking. From grandmothers to children, each character reveals both themselves and their perspective of the world. The book deals with difficult modern problems from drug and alcohol addiction to adultery, as they affect the individual characters and those around them. The ability to present numerous philosophies and to represent Irish culture at the same time is a triumph of storytelling. As the reader traverses the highs and lows of modern society with the characters, he comes to understand and appreciate how hard it is to simply live day to day, to try to find peace and happiness in life and to also realize that everything does not always turn out for the best. As always, upon completion of a Binchey book, you long to know what happens next, to follow the characters and hope things will work out. This set of characters will stay in your mind and heart as will the warmth and caring that seems to stem from Irish society
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Summary: How Do You Play the Hand You're Dealt?
Review: Tara Road's strength is that you get an unusual degree of character development, both in quantity and quality. Many new novels reveal an unchanging character through one incident, combined with a brief reference or two to what the person was like when younger. Tara Road instead builds a long-term picture of the values, motives, and perspectives of a variety of characters by exposing them to ordinary life issues in both small and large ways. The characters often change in subtle and important ways, and they seem more real as a result. This connection is much like what you observe with family members, friends, and neighbors.Each character has the same flaw, an inability to see themselves objectively. The point seems to be that we are all fallible in that way. Eventually, developments occur that strip away some of that self-deception. How each person handles the reality is the ultimate test of what their essential characters are like. The good are reinforced in doing the right thing, and the corrupt drift off with the tides to their own best advantage. The book is also noteworthy for its structure. The first half deals with a series of family, friends, and neighbors in Dublin over more than a decade. It would make a novel in and of itself. Then a crisis shifts everyone's relationships to each other. To explore what this means, Ms. Binchy sets up an unusual plot device. Two women who are hurting, but do not know one another, exchange homes for two months to help them deal with their issues. In the process, they find that they exchange more than homes, and both grow from what they learn about the other person's life and issues. I was fascinated to see how this part of the book developed, and enjoyed it very much. I did not grade the book as a five-star effort because many themes are just dropped in with little explanation. In particular, there are a lot of people who have compromised their integrity. We are told that they did it, but we never quite get a full sense of what they did and why. So the perspective is as though you are hearing some vague gossip from someone who doesn't really know the facts. Some major plot developments are handled in exactly the same way. After it's all over, you wonder what in the world that development meant and where it came from. Ms. Bincy would be well advised to avoid writing mysteries, because of this tendency to be casual about details. I could not really imagine any reason that the story should have so much vagueness, when so much else is made crystal clear, other than from undealt-with plot development flaws. I found that I cared about these characters, even the most flawed ones, much more than almost any other fictional characters I have read about in years. The book made a significant emotional impact on me, and I thank Ms. Binchy for making that possible! People who have experienced personal losses will find this book full of potential strength. After you finish reading this book, consider for a moment what you may be missing about yourself. Who could help you get a more objective view? Engage important issues before they overwhelm you!
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Summary: Tara Road
Review: I bought this book on a whim and I am so glad I did. It is a wonderful tale of life and its unexpected turns. Ria, the main character, is an extroidinary woman who every woman can relate to. The story left me with an appreciation of life and the good things that can happen as a result of life's tragedies.
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Summary: Another good one from Maeve Binchy!
Review: I enjoy Maeve Binchy's writing; I've been hooked ever since I read "Circle of Friends." Ms. Binchy does not disappoint with "Tara Road." It is the story of Ria, an Irish woman who marries young and selflessly stays at home as a housewife, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children for her husband while he goes out and makes the money. Ria willingly and lovingly puts her all into what she does for the sake of her husband and children, whom she cherishes above all else in her life. Hers is a happy life life surrounded by family and friends, laughter and smiles. Naively, Ria believes that because she is happy and satisfied with her life, that her husband is too. Her husband, Danny, is quite an actor, as we soon find out. He pretends that he is satisfied with the life he has made with Ria and puts on quite a good show of it. Ria never suspects a thing for 15 years. Come to find out, her husband has been having extramarital affairs behind her back (and with various "friends" of hers) betraying her, and hiding secrets ever since they were first married. The book goes back and forth between all of the many characters in the story, giving you an omniscient view as you read about the characters' lives.I won't tell any more of the story's plot line. I will say that it is an interesting book, almost like a soap opera with all that is going on and all the little subplots. If you pick up this book, it will hard to put it down! A great beach read for the summer!
Rating:
Summary: Magnificant!
Review: Binchy's "Tara Road" is an amazing story of love and friendship and how they effect life. I couldn't put the book down, it rejuvinated my love for reading.
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Summary: Tara Road was everything I thought it would be and more....
Review: I simply loved this book. As an avid reader, for the longest time I kept telling myself that I would get around to reading a Binchy novel. Then, after seeing Binchy as a guest on Oprah's show, discussing Tara Road, and after hearing so many wonderful things from others who had read the book, I knew I had too had to read it. Finally, I bought it last month, and it has become the first Binchy book I have ever purchased or read. Now that I have read it, I am wondering what took me so long to discover this wonderful author? As others have stated, Binchy knows her craft. She is an expert when it comes to weaving intricate situations of well developed characters into a plausible story. In the process of doing this she also knows how to lure her readers into the worlds she has skillfully created for her characters. I felt like I was a part of Ria's life and was sorry she had to go through the heartache she went through in the same way I would have felt if it had been one of my real life friends. Then too, I became angry with her as I watched her helplessly stand by and fail to confront her dilemma the way I thought she should have. Danny Lynch's behaviour disgusted me and on many occasions I longed to be able to whack him upside the head for treating Ria with such disrespect. Earlier on I admired Rosemary for being the strong-willed woman she was and thought of her as the backbone in she and Ria's friendship. I admired her for speaking up for Ria when Ria didn't have the good sense to speak for herself. Well imagine my horror when I discovered she wasn't all that she claimed to be. I was then appalled at her behaviour too. I loved the way that Binchy wove Marilyn and Ria's lives together and enjoyed the way they discovered each other just when they needed each other the most. It was wonderful how virtual two strangers came to play a major part in each other's lives and in helping each other confront each of their own personal demons.
Tara Road was the first time in a long time that I actually laughed out loud while reading dialogue in a book. Several times while reading it on the way to work on the bus I caught myself laughing aloud. I'm sure passengers on the bus thought I was missing my marbles. But I was too lost in the story to care. I found myself looking forward to daily and nightly readings so that I could get back into the story and be with these people I felt like I knew personally. This book may have been a tad longer than some readers may have preferred, but personally, I had no problem with its length. Binchy needed the extra pages to continue telling the story in a detailed fashion and then ultimately wrap it up as her character's issues were resolved. When I finally arrived at the end of Tara Road, I hated to leave Ria and Marilyn behind and was left feeling as though I'd just lost two of my good friends. Binchy left me so impressed that I had to buy another one of her novels the other day, which I have already begun getting lost into. All I can say is kudos to Binchy for writing such wonderful stories and making them such such a joy to read.
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