A Week in Winter
Stoneybridge is a small town on the west coast of Ireland where all the families know each other. When Chicky Starr decides to take an old, decaying mansion set high on the cliffs overlooking the windswept Atlantic Ocean and turn it into a restful place for a holiday by the sea, everyone thinks she is crazy. Helped by Rigger (a bad boy turned good who is handy around the house) and Orla, her niece (a whiz at business), Stone House is finally ready to welcome its first guests to the big warm kitc
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Maeve Binchy’s books are like wrapping yourself in a duvet,
a snowy evening, enveloped in a gloriously cozy down duvet, the lamp on, a
warm drink to hand, ready to be swept away to a place of caring and compassion.
Her theme is always the same – people, confronted by difficulties in life, bad
luck or hard times, and how the choices they make lead to a better life, or one
that is (by their own actions) shut down and made smaller.
Ireland is not only the setting, it is also one of these characters – beautiful and
troubled, or glorious and hopeful; more likely all of these.
Maeve has died, and now that I have read this book, there is that sad realization
that there aren’t going to be any new characters to meet – but I will be re-reading
all her books, including this one, which I think is one of the best.
If you are a fan of Maeve Binchy’s works, you already know these characters, and
the plots. You know the place – only a small part of the book is set in Dublin; most
of it is in the West, in a village on the coast.
As usual, there are a mis-matched group of near-strangers, brought together for an arbitrary
occassion – this time it is the opening of a small inn – each with a life problem
that must be confronted (or, notably for one character, avoided) and how that
plays out.
The pleasure is in spending time with these people as they face up to their problems,
or fail to, and the understanding (and compassion) for people that Maeve always
shows.
Reading Binchy, I always feel more alive, more aware of other people, more as if I have had a glimpse
into their hearts and minds – and that is a great gift, what only the most profoundly
gifted authors, artists and composers ever achieve.
Binchy’s works were, in her lifetime, so often dismissed as romances or women’s lit –
I prefer to think of her as a reporter and journalist (as she was, and so was Dickens)
reporting on the heart and mind and soul of people in troubling times.
If you have read other books by Maeve Binchy, you don’t need reviews to tell you why you
will love A Week in Winter. If you haven’t, but read to understand people (and yourself)
and how relationships really work (or fail to), you will love this book!
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|3.5* – Farewell to a beloved Irish storyteller,
In Ms. Binchy’s last novel (she died sometime last year), the setting is a coastal Irish village called Stoneybridge. Chicky is an Irish woman who followed her heart years ago and left for the States with a young American man named Walter who turned out to be too restless to be tied down and eventually leaves for greener pastures. Luckily Chicky’s independent spirit refuses to be cowed by this and she finds a steady job and trains as a pastry chef while building on other skills. Back in Ireland, Chicky’s family thinks she is doing well, unaware of what really happened and so when Chicky eventually returns to Stoneybridge, her family welcomes her as a prosperous ‘widow’.
Chicky decides to buy the old manor house owned by Ms. Queenie Sheedy and converts it into a hotel which caters to people looking for some respite from their busy lives, people who just want to get away from it all. Like many of Ms. Binchy’s books, the chapters in the book focus on one character at a time, both the guests as well as the people running the hotel, and explore each character’s story. Fans of Ms. Binchy’s works will recognize some familiar characters from her older works which make cameo appearances here.
Unfortunately, there are so many characters here that the chapters are relatively short making it difficult for in-depth character development. Just as I got engaged in the story of a particular character, it would come to an end and I did not quite enjoy this book as much as some of Ms. Binchy’s other works. As for the stories themselves, there is a certain incredulity due to the pat and quick way in which problems are resolved making it seem implausible especially considering real-life is hardly ever that way.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Ms. Binchy’s style of writing but I just felt this last work was not her best. I plan on revisiting some of her older works which happen to be some of my all-time favorites, i.e. The Glass Lake, Circle of Friends, Evening Class, Firefly Summer, Tara Road, Silver Wedding, etc.
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|A Lot Can Happen in a Week,
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