READ THIS: Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy Our Coverage Sponsored by Maine Woolens
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Maeve Binchy is one of our most favorite authors of all time, and Peachy Deegan was honored to meet her at a book signing for Tara Road when Peachy lived in Boston. We definitely miss her already, and are absolutely thrilled to review Chestnut Street. A beautiful compilation of lives in Ireland, Chestnut Street is written with character insight and sincere Irish depth. You'll befriend character after character, and enjoy meeting each personality as the plots develop. Themes of friendship, family, love and loss that are completely universal make Chestnut Street widely appealing, however if you are Irish you will love it even more since it is set in Dublin. Chestnut Street is fictional, however, the vivid colors of the stories will make it true in your mind. Gordon Snell, Maeve's husband, pens quite a touching introduction and know that these stories were written over several decades with the idea that one day they'd be a collection. So, Carpe Diem: seize this book! Terrific for the beach, the park, your vacation, or curled up on your favorite couch with the air conditioner!
When you look at a sketch, or a drawing done by the artist on the road to creative perfection, you are opening a door into a collective. Think about this book like that. Knopf has selected Maeve Binchy's short works, and compiled them into a tightly edited compilation. The author's knack for drawing the reader into a storyline filled with identifiable characters is evident throughout. Chestnut Street is a visit, via short conceptual moments, into the lives, hearts and minds of a world we all feel comfortable in. Maeve Binchy was nothing short of a sorceress, captivating her public and commanding even Will O the Wisps to take form and substance. Each little story lets us fall in love over and over again, then onto the next, like a series of very intense love affairs. The upside is always the next story. The downside is the fact that this is her last work. The perfect solution is to begin to read all of her books over again, and celebrate the talented storytelling of a talented Irish woman through and through.
It's easy to feel lost in time in Ireland. Maeve Binchy's "Chestnut Street" collection captures this particular characteristic absolutely. What's further remarkable about "Chestnut Street" is how the characters instantly spring to life, all fresh and believable as well as timeless. Here is the beautiful mother, perfect to everyone on the outside including her unremarkable daughter. But this perfect woman has an ugly secret, and when her daughter discovers it her perspective changes forever. In a small cafe four strangers meet on New Years Eve, and after a decade come to influence each other more than anyone else in their lives. A happy couple lives in Dublin, happily unmarried. But she is from a traditional family and wonders ultimately: why not, really, just have the wedding. It's only one day. Will he agree? Will he go so far as to propose? These are all stories that seem to take place in different decades on Binchy's "Chestnut Street," and they could all take place today.
Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy is Highly Recommended by Whom You Know and is a timeless classic.
We suggest you read all of her books!
And, if you love Maeve Binchy as much as we do, we think you'll also love Cathy Kelly. Cathy we can't wait for your next book.
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Maeve Binchy is the author of numerous best-selling books, including her most recent novels, A Week in Winter, Minding Frankie, Heart and Soul, and Whitethorn Woods, as well asCircle of Friends and Tara Road, which was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Married to Gordon Snell, she lived in Dalkey, Ireland, until her death in July 2012.
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Maeve Binchy imagined a street in Dublin with many characters coming and going, and every once in a while she would write about one of these people. She would then put it in a drawer; “for the future,” she would say.The future is now.
Across town from St. Jarlath’s Crescent, featured in Minding Frankie, is Chestnut Street, where neighbors come and go. Behind their closed doors we encounter very different people with different life circumstances, occupations, and sensibilities. Some of the unforgettable characters lovingly brought to life by Binchy are Bucket Maguire, the window cleaner, who must do more than he bargained for to protect his son; Nessa Byrne, whose aunt visits from America every summer and turns the house—and Nessa’s world—upside down; Lilian, the generous girl with the big heart and a fiancé whom no one approves of; Melly, whose gossip about the neighbors helps Madame Magic, a self-styled fortune-teller, get everyone on the right track; Dolly, who discovers more about her perfect mother than she ever wanted to know; and Molly, who learns the cure for sleeplessness from her pen pal from Chicago . . .
Chestnut Street is written with the humor and understanding that are earmarks of Maeve Binchy’s extraordinary work and, once again, she warms our hearts with her storytelling.
