The Glass Lake

Rating:
Summary: Depressed when last page was turned!
Review: *Sniff!* Yes I've just finished reading "Glass Lake" - and I'm so dismayed that it's over. This was the first Maeve Binchy book I've ever read...and now it certainly won't be the last! I was hooked from beginning to end - couldn't put it down, to be honest. You become friends and enemies with her characters in the book. I felt such a kinship with Kit the main character, and could relate to her. Very human. Real. I was so engrossed with the book that I stayed up till 3 a.m. some nights just reading and reading! Binchy's characterization is tops - no one does it better. In "Glass Lake" Binchy's ability to make her characters come alive, shines very brightly. This is by far one of the best books I've ever read. Truly captivating. A good read, indeed!

Rating:
Summary: Great story - shame about the rushed end
Review: As with other older Maeve Binchy novels, this is mostly a rites-of-passage novel set in a small Irish country town, Lough Glass. One day the young Kit's unhappy mother disappears, leaving a note which Kit destroys, not wanting to upset her father. Everyone assumes that she drowned in the lake, and life for Kit and the others goes on, but not without heartache as she grows up.

I was really engrossed in this book as it developed, looking forward to finding out the solutions to the various mysteries Binchy had set up. But as I got closer and closer to the end, with seemingly no real resolution to some of the issues, I found myself wondering how Binchy was going to tie up the book.

Then, in the last thirty pages, she rushed through several very major plot developments, reintroduced some characters and dealt with some serious emotional issues... in a very rushed and unsatisfactory manner. The pace had been leisurely throughout the rest of the book, and as such this really looked to me as if Binchy had suddenly realised that she was over her word limit and needed to tie up all the loose ends as briefly as possible. It didn't work, and really spoilt for me what could have been a wonderful book.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I loved this book so extremely much! My first Maeve Binchy book was Circle Of Friends, which I read in a flash, and started reading her other books right away. I think she is such a talented author, and I love her work! Every book I have read of Maeve Binchy is extremely interesting and real from the very start of the book to the end. I never want to stop reading and put the book down. Any age group can read her books because they pertain to everyone. I am 16, and I enjoy her books more than any other author I've known. My mother and I take turns reading books of Maeve Binchy's because we both love them so much. The Glass Lake was one of her best books I believe because it made me feel that I was in the story. I could relate to all of the characters, and when Kit or Lena was feeling something, I felt the same anxiety, frustration or compassion that they did. I felt like I knew the characters in the book personally because they were so well described. It was most definetly the best book I've read, and I recommend it to everyone to read!

Rating:
Summary: Strong finish
Review: I read Tara Road and enjoyed the book enough to research more books by Binchy and bought The Glass Lake. At first I thought I was not going to like it....it takes a good 50 -75 psages before you start to get hooked. By the end of the book I couldn't stand to put it down just to see how it ended. I had my suspicions of the ending but I was surprised. The characters in this novel were more restless than Tara Road....and it proved to be an excellent recipe! I reccommend this book to anyone who is wanting to slip away into another world, another place and another time.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling characters but believable?
Review: The Glass Lake is about the eighth book I've read by the Irish author, Maeve Binchy. This novel, like many others, including _Circle of Friends_, is set in a small Irish village with parts set in London and Dublin. Also like _Circle of Friends_, _The Glass Lake_ has a very compelling central character in Kit McMahon. There are several problems with this book however, that I didn't find in _Circle of Friends. Another central characer is Helen McMahon, AKA Lena Gray, Kit's mother. Their relationship and the events strain reality. Helen runs away from her family to be with her one true love, Louis Gray. Kit finds a letter for her father but burns it, thinking it is a suicide note. Her reasonbeing her mother could never have a Catholic burial if the village thought she committed suicide. The village does find a water-logged corpse so the village and her family mourn her death. Meanwhile Helen/Lena is setting up house with Louis in London. When she finds out her family thinks she is dead, she allows them to continue thinking this. She begins a correspondence with Kit as a "supposed" friend of Kit's mother. I cannot buy the idea of a mother leaving her two children, especially the way Helen's loving nature is emphasized in the book. There are a few love subplots in the novel but for the most part there is an awful lot of padding. Of 757 pages, about 500 is repetition. I have to admit though, the book did hold my interest. I never once considered stopping reading it. Although not very believable, I did enjoy it.