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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The bracing sea air brings little pleasure to the year-round residents of Castlebay, a village on the coast of Ireland, where class lines are strictly observed and morals publicly monitored. The youngest daughter of a shopkeeper whose meagre living depends on summer trade, Clare O'Brien is determined to move beyond her present circumstances. Hard work and the guidance of an irreverent, caring schoolteacher bring the resolute scholar to a college in Dublin. There, her steps falter when she enters into an ardent affair with David Power, the son of Castlebay's only doctor and another willing exile. Although David returns her love, their devotion is sorely tested when they are forced to marry and return home. As a wealthy, new-fledged doctor, David easily resumes his privileged position, but Clare is trapped between her mother-in-law's cold fury and the town's unease. Sharply drawn, memorable characters and a convincing picture of a small Irish community bring freshness and zest to a familiar tale. Binchy also wrote Light a Penny Candle. 50,000 first printing; Literary Guild alternate; first serial to Cosmopolitan; paperback rights to Dell; U.K. rights: Century Publishing; translation rights: Christine Green. January
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
This romantic melodrama, set in an Irish seaside town in the Fifties and early Sixties, is as wholesome and engaging as the author's first novel, Light a Penny Candle ( LJ 2/15/83). Memorable characters include a poor shopkeeper's daughter who wins a university scholarship, only to miss final exams by a cruel twist of fate; a medical student who shocks his family by marrying ``beneath him''; a lonely schoolteacher who guards two scandalous secrets about her local celebrity brother; and a kindly, ubiquitous priest who knows all, tells nothing, and holds everyone together. It's a little slow to get into, but by the halfway mark the reader is fully involved in all the subplots and is turning pages nonstop. Recommended for most public libraries and for YA collections. Literary Guild alternate. Joyce Smothers, Ocean Cty. Lib., Toms River, N.J.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'll continue to read Maeve Binchy...,
By
This review is from: Echoes (Mass Market Paperback)
The little town of Castlebay comes alive in this thoroughlyreadable novel. The characters seem compelling and believable. Small-town mores are depicted realistically, without apology. Although it was sad that Clair's education was interrupted, I Angela O'Hara was great; her pairing with Dick Dillon was This was a pleasant story about average Irish people, how
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite by Binchy,
By
This review is from: Echoes (Mass Market Paperback)
I just identify strongly with Clare O'Brien, the heroine of this novel, a shopkeeper's daughter in the little Irish beachtown of Castlebay in the 1950s. Clare stands out from her myriad siblings with her determination to make something of herself by winning scholarships and attending university in Dublin. Along the way, she reconnects romantically with David Power, the doctor's son who has always been friendly to her even though there is a class chasm between them of which both of their mothers are keenly aware. David and Clare start an affair and before you know it, she is pregnant ... has all she has worked for been for nothing? This is a romantic, touching and soulful work from Binchy, and it is worth reading and re-reading.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not up to my expectations,
By A Customer
This review is from: Echoes (Mass Market Paperback)
The beginning is good, but the last 200+ pages seem very forced an formulaic. I finished the book because I had started it, but I didn't really want to. The story seemed to be heading in a predictable direction and I was disappointed at the end that I had wasted several hours of my life on this book. I love some of her other books like the Glass Lake and Firefly Summer, but this one didn't do it for me. I don't want to spoil the book by giving out details, but as usual the main woman is trod upon in some way and just sits there and takes it.
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