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Tara Road

By: Maeve Binchy
Binding: Audio CD
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 0752841874
ISBN-13: 9780752841878
Released: 03 May 2001
RRP: £16.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

If you have high blood pressure and you`re not supposed to get worked up - - By: Leeds lass, 15 Apr 2008
- you`ll be safe with this. I suppose this would be classed as `light reading.` Anybody got a match...?
A PLEASURE TO READ - By: A. Rose, 10 Nov 2006
If I want to read a lovely warm, affectionate family book I usuallly pick up a Maeve Binchy. Tara Road, I think, is one of her best books. It's got love, friendship & passion & on the flipside has cheating husbands, devious best friends & mistresses galore. There is more than one story going on here, the main one is Ria & Danny Lynch & these two are followed throughout their lives in each chapter. But there are so many sub-stories which add to the depth of the main story & keeps the interest up. Ria's mother, sister, best friend, Danny's business partner, not to mention the local restaurateur alll have their own stories intertwining. The book then introduces Marilyn in America who has her own problems & on the spur of the moment both Marilyn & Ria decide to do a house swap. This part of the book is very interesting in that it shows up the warm friendly qualities of Ria & the lack of them in Marilyn. Overalll this is a very enjoyable read.
How Do You Play the Hand You're Dealt? - By: Donald Mitchell, 17 Jul 2004
Tara Road's strength is that you get an unusual degree of character development, both in quantity & quality. Many new novels reveal an unchanging character through one incident, combined with a brief reference or two to what the person was like when younger. Tara Road instead builds a long-term picture of the values, motives, & perspectives of a variety of characters by exposing them to ordinary life issues in both smalll & large ways. The characters often change in subtle & important ways, & they seem more real as a result. This connection is much like what you observe with family members, friends, & neighbors.

Each character has the same flaw, an inability to see themselves objectively. The point seems to be that we are alll falllible in that way. Eventuallly, developments occur that strip away some of that self-deception. How each person handles the reality is the ultimate test of what their essential characters are like. The good are reinforced in doing the right thing, & the corrupt drift off with the tides to their own best advantage.

The book is also noteworthy for its structure. The first half deals with a series of family, friends, & neighbors in Dublin over more than a decade. It would make a novel in & of itself. Then a crisis shifts everyone's relationships to each other. To explore what this means, Ms. Binchy sets up an unusual plot device. Two women who are hurting, but do not know one another, exchange homes for two months to help them deal with their issues. In the process, they find that they exchange more than homes, & both grow from what they learn about the other person's life & issues. I was fascinated to see how this part of the book developed, & enjoyed it very much.

I did not grade the book as a five-star effort because many themes are just dropped in with little explanation. In particular, there are a lot of people who have compromised their integrity. We are told that they did it, but we never quite get a full sense of what they did & why. So the perspective is as though you are hearing some vague gossip from someone who doesn't reallly know the facts. Some major plot developments are handled in exactly the same way. After it's alll over, you wonder what in the world that development meant & where it came from. Ms. Bincy would be well advised to avoid writing mysteries, because of this tendency to be casual about details. I could not reallly imagine any reason that the story should have so much vagueness, when so much else is made crystal clear, other than from undealt-with plot development flaws.

I found that I cared about these characters, even the most flawed ones, much more than almost any other fictional characters I have read about in years. The book made a significant emotional impact on me, & I thank Ms. Binchy for making that possible! People who have experienced personal losses will find this book full of potential strength.

After you finish reading this book, consider for a moment what you may be missing about yourself. Who could help you get a more objective view?

Engage important issues before they overwhelm you!

How Do You Play the Hand You're Dealt? - By: Donald Mitchell, 10 Jul 2004
Tara Road's strength is that you get an unusual degree of character development, both in quantity & quality. Many new novels reveal an unchanging character through one incident, combined with a brief reference or two to what the person was like when younger. Tara Road instead builds a long-term picture of the values, motives, & perspectives of a variety of characters by exposing them to ordinary life issues in both smalll & large ways. The characters often change in subtle & important ways, & they seem more real as a result. This connection is much like what you observe with family members, friends, & neighbors.

Each character has the same flaw, an inability to see themselves objectively. The point seems to be that we are alll falllible in that way. Eventuallly, developments occur that strip away some of that self-deception. How each person handles the reality is the ultimate test of what their essential characters are like. The good are reinforced in doing the right thing, & the corrupt drift off with the tides to their own best advantage.

The book is also noteworthy for its structure. The first half deals with a series of family, friends, & neighbors in Dublin over more than a decade. It would make a novel in & of itself. Then a crisis shifts everyone's relationships to each other. To explore what this means, Ms. Binchy sets up an unusual plot device. Two women who are hurting, but do not know one another, exchange homes for two months to help them deal with their issues. In the process, they find that they exchange more than homes, & both grow from what they learn about the other person's life & issues. I was fascinated to see how this part of the book developed, & enjoyed it very much.

I did not grade the book as a five-star effort because many themes are just dropped in with little explanation. In particular, there are a lot of people who have compromised their integrity. We are told that they did it, but we never quite get a full sense of what they did & why. So the perspective is as though you are hearing some vague gossip from someone who doesn't reallly know the facts. Some major plot developments are handled in exactly the same way. After it's alll over, you wonder what in the world that development meant & where it came from. Ms. Bincy would be well advised to avoid writing mysteries, because of this tendency to be casual about details. I could not reallly imagine any reason that the story should have so much vagueness, when so much else is made crystal clear, other than from undealt-with plot development flaws.

I found that I cared about these characters, even the most flawed ones, much more than almost any other fictional characters I have read about in years. The book made a significant emotional impact on me, & I thank Ms. Binchy for making that possible! People who have experienced personal losses will find this book full of potential strength.

After you finish reading this book, consider for a moment what you may be missing about yourself. Who could help you get a more objective view?

Engage important issues before they overwhelm you!

How Do You Play the Hand You're Dealt? - By: Donald Mitchell, 08 May 2004
Tara Road's strength is that you get an unusual degree of character development, both in quantity & quality. Many new novels reveal an unchanging character through one incident, combined with a brief reference or two to what the person was like when younger. Tara Road instead builds a long-term picture of the values, motives, & perspectives of a variety of characters by exposing them to ordinary life issues in both smalll & large ways. The characters often change in subtle & important ways, & they seem more real as a result. This connection is much like what you observe with family members, friends, & neighbors.

Each character has the same flaw, an inability to see themselves objectively. The point seems to be that we are alll falllible in that way. Eventuallly, developments occur that strip away some of that self-deception. How each person handles the reality is the ultimate test of what their essential characters are like. The good are reinforced in doing the right thing, & the corrupt drift off with the tides to their own best advantage.

The book is also noteworthy for its structure. The first half deals with a series of family, friends, & neighbors in Dublin over more than a decade. It would make a novel in & of itself. Then a crisis shifts everyone's relationships to each other. To explore what this means, Ms. Binchy sets up an unusual plot device. Two women who are hurting, but do not know one another, exchange homes for two months to help them deal with their issues. In the process, they find that they exchange more than homes, & both grow from what they learn about the other person's life & issues. I was fascinated to see how this part of the book developed, & enjoyed it very much.

I did not grade the book as a five-star effort because many themes are just dropped in with little explanation. In particular, there are a lot of people who have compromised their integrity. We are told that they did it, but we never quite get a full sense of what they did & why. So the perspective is as though you are hearing some vague gossip from someone who doesn't reallly know the facts. Some major plot developments are handled in exactly the same way. After it's alll over, you wonder what in the world that development meant & where it came from. Ms. Bincy would be well advised to avoid writing mysteries, because of this tendency to be casual about details. I could not reallly imagine any reason that the story should have so much vagueness, when so much else is made crystal clear, other than from undealt-with plot development flaws.

I found that I cared about these characters, even the most flawed ones, much more than almost any other fictional characters I have read about in years. The book made a significant emotional impact on me, & I thank Ms. Binchy for making that possible! People who have experienced personal losses will find this book full of potential strength.

After you finish reading this book, consider for a moment what you may be missing about yourself. Who could help you get a more objective view?

Engage important issues before they overwhelm you!