Rating: 
Summary: Circle of Friends
Review: As I was reading this book, the relationships between all of the characters, and how their lives all intertwine, was what kept me reading. The ways the characters interact and communicate is the central part of the book. The author devotes pages and pages to develop these characters with essential details about their background, their character and how they act with the other characters within this book. At times it concentrates on Benny and Eve's friendship and how they get distracted away, momentarily, but always come back to help the other in times of need. Other times the focus shifts, it goes to the relationships between the parents of all of these friends. On situation is how Benny's parents love her too much to let her go. Another is how Mother Francis is Eve's only real family and how her home is the Convent among the nuns. Nan, a girl who takes proper care of herself and Eve and Benny meet in college, feels that her parents inhibit her from having the kind of lifestyle she wants. Nan doesn't want to have a low social status, in fact she plans to find and marry a rich man that can take care of her. Through these diverse characters, we can see the different relationships between friends and between children and their guardians.
This novel also focuses on the internal thoughts and feelings of Benny, and her search to find independence, and eventually herself. I can relate to her growth and maturation; her struggle to find a balance between her friends and her parents. All throughout her life she has had parents that care too much, and she couldn't tell anyone because the only person she could tell and that would tell her what to do was orphaned since she was a baby. Benny also struggles with love and life in the real world. She experiences love, a sense of need, incomprehension, confusion as well as hope. Benny learns, at the end, that she can be free; without anyone to worry about staying with her, or cheating on her.
This was a very good and thought-provoking novel. It is a good choice for the Rosewater Book award. This is because it captured my attention right from the beginning with Benny's birthday and her disappointment not getting the pretty gift she wanted, but instead a sensible outfit. It was amazing to think that a ten year old girl thought she could and never would be pretty or delicate as the other girls were. However, she grew up into a beautiful person, both in and out, and the most handsome boy loved her. But, through many human mistakes, she realizes he will never be entirely hers. It was an astounding ending that gave true proof of Benny's maturity. She proclaimed that it was not the end of the long journey of finding herself, it didn't have to be, and she was all right with that.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Pleaser
Review: Benny Hogan and Eve Malone were inseparable since Benny's tenth birthday party. They could not have been more different. Eve was the daughter of a handyman and a rich girl rebelling against her parents. Orphaned, nuns raised her. Benny felt smothered by her adoring parents.
Both Benny and Eve study at the university in Dublin where they met Nan Mahon who has her whole life planned out, starting with finding the perfect husband. Benny falls in love with the handsome Jack Foley who manages to love her despite her size. However, when tragedy strikes, Benny and Eve learn who they can really trust.
Written in Binchy's usual easy to read style, Circle of Friends is a wonderful novel of friendship and betrayal. I easily finished this novel as I watched Benny struggle with her weight and the expectations set by her family. Eve learns to trust again as the family who scorned her slowly allows her back in. Our emotions wonder as Nan makes some bad choices, hurting everyone in her way.
Rating:
Summary: A good escape
Review: Frolic in another world.... in fact, many other worlds. It's classic Binchy.
Rating:
Summary: A good escape
Review: Frolic in another world.... in fact, many other worlds. It's classic Binchy.
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.
Rating:
Summary: How can you NOT love this book?
Review: I don't think there is anything "typical" about this book. I do, however, think that it's characters reflect the time it takes place in. If the friendships seem "too perfect", that's probably pretty accurate. 1959 in Ireland was (I'm guessing, here) probably a much simpler time- before the A-bomb or AIDS, when drinking every night wasn't constituted alcoholism, when kids could play outside all night long without parents having to worry about kidnapping, and every girl had an ideal image of what her grown-up life would be. I enjoyed the book much more than the movie (as I usually do) because it thouroughly explained why Nan Mahon was the way she was, and why she could seemingly be so cold-hearted in her actions. It also helped us to understand why Benny was kind to a fault, and why most people never gave her much thought. I truly love Maeve Binchy's books. She's a smart woman- she writes about what she knows, and it shows in her novels. If you've ever thought the person you had a crush on was out of your reach, you have to read this book. Inspiring and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book....and NEVER see the movie
Review: I really enjoyed this book when I read it in college. It was a complex book with many characters...I had the priviledge of a discussion group, perhaps that is why I was able to understand it as well as I did. This book just shows how false "friends" can be. The Nan Mahones of the world are out there, people who know nothing at all about friendship. You take this character and contrast it with Eve. I was touched by Eve's loyalty towards Benny. I just loved how they grew up together and continued their adventures at college. You saw different sides to them as they mingled with others, making the characters very real to me.
The book ended with Benny moving on after betrayal by Nan and her lover....and I feel this made her a strong character I truly respected. It was a very realistic and sincere ending. I mean, who wouldnt after all that guy did? I was horrified at how the ending of the movie undid that. It (the movie) was just corny to me after that ending (especially the nauseating "Bless me father for I have sinned"....Blech!!)
In summary.....read the book, pass on the movie.
Rating:
Summary: For anyone who remembers being 19 and in love...
Review: If the mark of a great book is its ability to make you continue reading no matter how late it is, "Circle of Friends" deserves at least six stars. Binchy's style may be slightly vanilla (were the fifties really that innocent?), but no one is better at drawing the reader in and making you care about her characters and what will happen to them in the next chapter. Even the relatively uneventful passages are never boring as we watch Benny and her friends make their way out into the world, in some cases not very far into it. Their experiences as first-year university students are all too accurate. I'd nearly forgotten about the politics of school dances and the thrill of being seen with that special someone at the coffee shop after class and the odd sense of "friends forever!" with people you've only known for a few weeks. Here, they don't seem clichéd at all, perhaps because they're so universal and because Binchy retells them in her own unique style and with her vivid characters.
If there is a sense of sugarcoating to the story, it wears off just in time as the plot builds. It's never very suspenseful and the climax is even a bit obvious, but it's also very refreshing to those who have had enough of Hollywood endings (including the one in the movie adaptation of this book). More than anything, this is a very accurate portrayal of how short, intense friendships so often turn out in real life. Highly recommended for fans of coming-of-age fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Circle of Friends
Review: In Knockglen, Ireland during the 1950's, Benny Hogan and Eve Malone encounter several hardships as best friends and as young women. Benny is attending courses at the University of Dublin, while Eve works and studies. Benny is 'large,' shy, and kind, while Eve is dark, thin, and 'bird-like'.The two meet the beautiful and flawless Nan Mahon (who's father is a drunk) and the handsome rugby player Jack Foley (who comes from a family of prestige) during their university years, and many situations arise. Though the intentions are not made, both Nan and Jack place Eve and Benny's friendship into catastrophic areas. Through love, hate, betrayal, and jealousy, Eve and Benny work as pair, with Eve stoutly defending Benny, and Benny teaching Eve forgiveness.
Rating:
Summary: If you loved Tara Road...
Review: This book gets off to a slow start. However, that is remedied quickly when you get a jist for the two main charachters, Benny and Eve, after the first 5 or 6 pages. Incorporating several other characters into the mix, Binchy uses great care and detail to tell the story of a group of friends.
Enough time is spent with each character to really understand every one, which is difficult for most writers to do without losing the interest of the reader. Binchy does this perfectly so that instead of putting too much into the novel, she simply makes it that much better.
The story is dramatic, touching, hilarious and suspenseful. I laughed at some pages and was horrified at others (at the character's actions, not the writing) :)
Get into the novel, which I almost put down after the first 3 pages or so. You'll see.
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