The Lilac Bus

Rating:
Summary: I was left wondering what comes next.
Review: A story with so many perspectives always keeps you interested. Especillay when the characters are unique and have only one thing in common: where they come from. The story is well crafted and intertwined. Every person has their own view of their lives and the lives of the other passengers on the Lilac Bus. I had the feeling that although they all realized what in their life had gone wrong most of them hadn't really solved it. In other words I wanted closure for many of the characters.

Rating:
Summary: A Trip Across Ireland like the Lonely Planet!
Review: A vicarious adventure riding the Lilac Bus back and forth across Ireland, only the reader gets to crawl inside the lives of each of the passengers. Maeve Binchy's insights and exquisite writing are perfectly matched with Kate Binchy's melodious Irish tones. You will feel like you know these people and that the journey has been a special vacation. This story is the neatly crafted -- though it does not wrap every thing up in a nice tidy package at the end (that never really happens in real life)! Human, full of hope, humor, faith and caring, but if you want a thriller, look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: CAPTIVATING AS ONLY MAEVE BINCHY'S IRISH INSIGHT CAN BE!!!!
Review: As you traveled down the road, have you ever wondered where are all these people going and why? Well, this book answers the question and lets the reader peek into the window of their lives as well. The reader travels with the characters across the sweet Irish countryside and visits what makes Ireland special; the traditions and open caring of its people.

Rating:
Summary: Short Stories
Review: Each story is about a different person, looks in the characters' minds and how they view the others they travel with. I liked Binchy's heartwarming style, there is no end like typical novel. That makes the book unique, it does not try to give you a message.



Rating:
Summary: Eight strangers on a bus
Review: Every Friday Tom Fitzgerald loads up his lilac-colored bus with 7 passengers that he takes from Dublin to Rathdoon. They chat amiably and harbor unspoken feelings about one another, but none of them really knows the others. Each of the passengers, and Tom himself, have secret lives which they wish to keep hidden from the others. In this book, Maeve Binchy uncovers all of these secrets and leaves us to ponder how little we really do know about those we see and chat with on a regular basis. Some of the secrets are noble, but some are not and there is a poignancy about each one. Following the "Lilac Bus" are four unrelated stories where Binchy weaves her magic with quickly sketched characters and plot. Some end a bit abruptly and leave the reader wanting more, but Binchy fans will probably want to include this in their reading.

Rating:
Summary: Gotta love Binchy
Review: I absolutely love anything and everything that Maeve Binchy writes. While The Lilac Bus isn't my favorite one of Binchy's books, it is rather enjoyable light reading. I find myself sucked into the mini stories that always manage to inner connect. Binchy is quite the story teller:)

Rating:
Summary: Gotta love Binchy
Review: I absolutely love anything and everything that Maeve Binchy writes. While The Lilac Bus isn't my favorite one of Binchy's books, it is rather enjoyable light reading. I find myself sucked into the mini stories that always manage to inner connect. Binchy is quite the story teller:)

Rating:
Summary: Nice, but missing something
Review: I am a huge fan of Maeve Binchy and everything she writes. So, even though The Lilac Bus was not her best, it was still good. However, I think she needed to include a last chapter to sort of pull the ends together. I was left wondering and wanting more...but maybe that was her intention!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Storytelling.
Review: I have, to my surprise, found some of Binchy's books to be a little sketchy. After reading Tara Road, I wondered if perhaps that book had been authored by a distant cousin or mayhap a complete stranger to Binchy's talent. I would not have recognized the author of that book to be the same artist who created The Lilac Bus. This is great storytelling. Each vignette represents a short period in the life of one of the characters. Since each character has their own voice in their own story and then is also "remembered" by the other characters in _their_ stories, you walk away from this novel feeling as if you had been to visit for a weekend. Many scenes are shared by the characters so you are able to experience many moments through different pairs of eyes each time for a deep, rich and very compelling experience.

This is probably my favorite Binchy novel along with Evening Class. I will hope for more like it.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and unfinished
Review: I loved "Evening Class". I enjoyed "Light a Penny Candle". Then I read "The Lilac Bus". It was very disappointing because it seemed incomplete and unfinished. For a writer who tied up all loose ends as carefully as Maeve Binchy did with the characters of "Evening Class", why does she leave the chartered bus travelers' histories just twisting in the wind? And then she follows this with several short stories that also appear to have no conclusions--I don't get it. I felt cheated.