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Summary: "Circle of Friends": A Surprise Favorite
Review: (age 15)
My mother recommended this book to me at the beginning of summer after I had just finished an immensely good book, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. I wasn't keen on Circle of Friends (we'll call it COF), so I started out the book rather negative. Boy, was I wrong.I enjoy the book better than I could have imagined. Benny, Eve, Nan...all seem so real. I learned many things from teh book too (I don't mean to sound so school-ish)...but I learned from Nan to not answer questions directly (LOL) and I learned from Benny an Eve how to remain strong. Its a wonderful book that captivates the reader and I was sad to have it end ( I wanted to know what happened next! ) So give it a try. I think you'll like it. WARNING! The movie is a let down, though I did enjoy watching it. They changed many things about the characters in the beginning right up until the end. I wondered what Maeve Binchy had to say about how it was changed---it changed Benny's morals to the extreme. Watch it anyway, though, M. Driver does a good performance.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read, but...
Review: I admit I really enjoyed this book and I definitely like Maeve Binchy's style of writing. But I could not help noticing that it was very much like "Tara Road", another of Maeve Binchy's great books. There is the plain, but nice girl who gets a man too good to be true, the "too-good-to-be-true" guy who starts out decently but ends up cheating on the nice plain girl, and then there is the smart, beautiful blond who is a friend of the nice girl and aspires to become great. In fact, Nan bore such a likeness to Rosemary in "Tara Road" in that she comes from a humble background but uses her good looks and seemingly effortless charm to make her way in the world, that they almost seemed like one person.
I plan to continue reading Maeve Binchy books, but I hope to see a little more creativity when conjuring up characters.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Book for a Rainy Day
Review: I had heard a lot about this book and finally checked it out of my library for a rainy weekend. I grew up at the same time as this story is set in, the 1950's, so a lot of it brought back memories. However, my small town in the Midwest wasn't quite so provincial as Knockglen. There were no Catholics and we didn't worry about class. There were too many references to Benny's large frame. Once or twice would have been enough. I felt sorry for her as the over-protected only child of a very boring couple. Thank goodness she escaped to Dublin. Simon was a real rat, but so I'm not surprised at the way he treated Nan. He obviously intended to marry money and she didn't have any. I liked all of the different characters, except Sean. All types seemed to be there. Mother Francis was very kind to Eve and everyone. I don't plan on seeing the movie after other reviewers have said what characters were left out and that the ending was different. I liked the way it ended.
Rating:
Summary: One of my all-time favorites...
Review: Having seen the film long before I read the book, I was excited. Circle of Friends had long been a favorite movie of mine. However, after reading the novel, I changed my point-of-view on the film. The film pales in comparison with the magnitude of this novel. There is much more to the novel than the film ever lets on. It is much more thorough, the characters are even more fully developed---generally, it's a masterpiece. It quickly became one of my favorite books of all time after reading it. Binchy's talent for writing about Ireland and the Irish people is unmatched. Her understanding of the Catholic faith, and the Catholic guilt that comes hand-in-hand with it is pure. The novel is a wonderful exploration of young people in Ireland, and it is exceedingly successful. The characters in this book will never leave my heart. The sights of Ireland, have been ingrained in my mind. The tales Binchy has woven to create this exquisite novel are unmatched. Having traveled to Ireland, and experienced the culture and sights, I can say with first-hand experience that Maeve Binchy is accurate, and weaves a beautiful tale that anyone who loves Ireland will enjoy.
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Summary: a real gem by Binchy
Review: As much as I loved the movie starring Minnie Driver and Chris O'Donnell, I loved this book far more. The movie skimmed the lives of everyone except Jack and Bernadette, nicknamed Benny. But the book shows exactly how large the circle of friends actually is. It delves more deeply into the lives of Eve, raised by nuns who love her as a daughter, and Nan, the beautiful friend from a wretched family. Eve is also a shunned relative of the rich family with whom Nan is attempting to affiliate herself. Benny's relationships with her parents are also more thoroughly examined, as is her growth from child to woman in the face of her father's death, going to college and meeting her first love -- and getting her heart broken. Also - Jack (O'Donnell in the movie) is not the golden good guy that Hollywood paints him out to be. He willingly and knowingly cheats on Benny with Nan, which is far more realistic than the film version where he is liquored up by Nan who then uses him. Again, Binchy's lilting writing style brings the little Irish vilage of Knockglen and the bustling city of Dublin to life, and she succeeds in keeping her myriad characters (more than in the movie!) on track, believable and interesting. I think every woman in the world can identify with Benny when she meets Jack --- can't quite believe such a great guy would look at her, much less make her his girlfriend. And you will feel for her and root for her.
Rating:
Summary: One of her best
Review: Maeve Binchy has such a beautiful writing style - if you're familiar with her other work: Firefly Summer, Light a Penny Candle, etc. you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Binchy is a good storyteller
Review: Despite their different backgrounds, Benny Hogan and Eve Malone are best friends while growing up in the small Irish town of Knockglen. After graduation they both go to Dublin to pursue an education. Their circle of friends grows to encompass a variety of other young people. Their friendship is strained somewhat by the presence of Nan Mahon, a beautiful and popular girl who seems to know what to do in every social situation. As the years go by, there are betrayals and shifting loyalties, but throughout this Benny and Eve continue a friendship which is enriched by the experiences that they share. Maeve Binchy can always be depended upon to weave a good story populated by interesting and loveable characters.
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Summary: Holds up to a reread!
Review: I just finished rereading this book for an online book group and have to say I loved it even more this time around!! The characters, the descriptions are timeless! I think there is a little bit of Benny, Eve and Nan in each one of us and that is what makes this book such a treasure--an accessible bit of comfort food to cure what ails you.
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Summary: One of the best books I ever read!!!
Review: I absolutely adored this book! It had everything; rich discriptions, sadness, joy, love, betrayal, and especially the beautifully developed characters. The characters were so real; I was able to relate with some and feel strong emmotion for them. I honestly bawled my eyes out throughout the course of this book, and I am just as effected every time I read it. I highly recomend this book to anyone in the world who has ever fallen in love, lost a loved one, had a best friend, been a child...for anyone who is human! Read this book, it's pure bliss!
Rating: 
Summary: Save Your Money
Review: I read Circle of Friends a few years ago when I was trapped with a poor book selection and too much time on my hands... so I read it from cover to cover. And I have to say that this stands out in my memory as the worst book I've ever read all the way through. Binchy's writing is skillful enough... and she does indeed develop her characters and her portrait of Irish town and country life in decades past. I don't necessarily dispute what other readers have said about this book. But I would like to add that the novel is simply oozing with sentimentality and a sense of longing for the values of bygone days... when the social roles of women and men were clear-cut, when a woman could dare to improve her status by marrying a man of a higher social class... charming, yes, if Binchy's novel was a product of the 1950s rather than the 1980s. As a reader in the 1990s, I found that the women were far too dependent/obsessed with their respective male love objects... during the course of the ENTIRE novel... for my own level of comfort and tolerance. I simply do not long to go back to the time Binchy sentimentalizes here. And if I do revisit it, I prefer a viewpoint concurrent with the era in which the story is written rather than that which it blindly and uncritically depicts. As I neared the end of the novel, I found myself glued to the story in hopes of a profoundly tragic ending for each of the main characters. Binchy placated me somewhat with some high drama, but no end would've been too grotesque or tragic for my 'friends' Benny, Nan, Eve, and Jack. Don't say you weren't warned.
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