Evening Class [Mass Market Paperback]

Maeve Binchy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 1998

It was the quiet ones you had to watch. That's where the real passion was lurking.

They came together at Mountainview College, a down-at-the-heels secondary school on the seamy side of Dublin, to take a course in Italian. It was Latin teacher Aidan Dunne's last chance to revive a failing marriage and a dead-end career. But Aidan's dream was headed for disaster until the mysterious Signora appeared, transforming a shared passion for Italy into a life-altering adventure for them all...bank clerk Bill and his dizzy fiance Lizzie: a couple headed for trouble...Kathy, a hardworking innocent propelled into adulthood in a shocking moment of truth...Connie, the gorgeous rich lady with a scandal ready to explode...glowering Lou, who joined the class as a cover for crime. And Signora, whose passionate past remained a secret as she changed all their lives forever....

From the New York Times bestselling author of This Year It Will Be Different, The Glass Lake, and Circle of Friends, comes a novel filled with Maeve Binchy's signature warmth, wit, and sheer storytelling genius--a spellbinding tale of men and women whose quiet lives hide the most unexpected things....

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Maeve Binchy can always be counted on to spin an involving tale about ordinary people that brings out the extraordinary in everyone. In Evening Class, Binchy zooms in on the working-class of Dublin. Schoolteacher Aidan Dunne organizes an evening class in Italian with the help of Nora O'Donoghue, an Irishwoman returning home after 26 years in Sicily. When the somewhat squashed-by-life denizens of the surrounding neighborhood take the unexpected step of enrolling in the class, they find their lives transformed.

Binchy tells her story from the viewpoints of eight different characters and rewards both them and her readers with happy endings after the requisite rocky road. Reading a novel by Maeve Binchy is like catching up with old friends--you know everything will turn out fine in the end, but you're still interested in how things get that way. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

YA. Aidan Dunne, a middle-aged Latin teacher, has lost out on his bid to become headmaster of his Dublin school. Lonely and estranged from his family, he dreams of returning to Italy, where he had spent several holidays as a young man. Aidan is given the opportunity to start a program of evening classes at the school, and to his delight, Signora appears and offers herself as a teacher of Italian language and culture. Signora is a native Dubliner who followed her Italian lover to Sicily 20 years earlier, knowing he would not marry her, but living for the times he could slip away from his wife and family. His sudden death has brought her home. Her enthusiasm and energy attract students of all ages to her class, and the novel is their story, as well as hers and Aidan Dunne's. Relationships between the young students and their parents, and the relationships that develop among the students in the class are vividly portrayed. The climax of the book, a class trip to Italy, involves a threat of murder, a chance for Signora to return to Sicily, and the opportunity for several of the students to demonstrate their resourcefulness as well as their language skills. As with Circle of Friends, Binchy brings a diverse group of characters together and draws readers into their lives. YAs will identify with these people and their struggles to find independence, love, and self-respect.?Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Dell (March 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440223202
• ISBN-13: 978-0440223207
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #934,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating! Maeve Binchy's BEST book ever!!!, March 18, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Evening Class (Hardcover)

I was first introduced to Maeve Binchy by my army officer, and have been captivated and have read ALL her stories ever since reading The Copper Beech. All the characters in Evening Class are all well fleshed out, and you really develop feelings for each and every one of them. The individual stories will make you sad, angry and move you all at the same time. The best thing about reading a Maeve Binchy's book is the inter-human relationships; how vastly different lives can somehow be entwined through some twist of fate. It makes very interesting reading as you read through the lives of Signora (my fave character! Hers is one of the most touching and moving stories of all in the book), Aidan and his family etc.. This book is just so interesting that I simply cannot put it down! I finished the book in 1 and 1/2 days, at one go!!! For those of you who are still hesitating, GO AND BUY IT NOW!!! This book is even better than her other recent release "This Year It Will Be Different: And Other Stories".

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another great read from Maeve Binchy, July 25, 2001

By 

F. G. Hamer "MadManxMan" (Isle of Man) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Evening Class (Mass Market Paperback)

Evening Class by Maeve Binchy is a well-written character-driven novel that left me with a sort of 'happy' feeling. A feeling that humanity is not so bad after all (and that's saying something from one of life's old cynics!)

There's a positive cornucopia of characters. Maybe one or two too many since, at times, I had to look back to refresh my memory about who was who. Binchy melds their disparate lives into a complete story revolving around an evening class to teach Italian. Each of the characters has a different motive for attending the evening class, and as the story continues, Signora (the class teacher around whom the story revolves) helps them discover inner strengths of which they were not aware. For different reasons, each member of the class has a goal of taking a viaggo to Italy at the end of the year. Meanwhile, despite their different backgrounds, they are beginning to form strong bonds with each other.

Evening Class was captivating and well-written but I don't feel able to offer five stars since the ending was just a little too obvious. The story's finale is something of a damp squid compared to the interest that Binchy builds during the novel. It left me hanging, wanting something more substantial.

Still an excellent read, though, and well worth the time.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, August 12, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Evening Class (Hardcover)

As always, Maeve Binchy writes with tenderness about ordinary, appealing people leading ordinary lives. She weaves a number of characters all taking an evening class in Italian into a tapestry of juxtaposed stories and emotions. You want to keep turning pages to see what happens to everyone and to share Binchy's view of Dublin, Ireland and its denizens. More than a few tears here... touching people that you care about. I've read a lot of Maeve Binchy's books and my favorite, though, is LIGHT A PENNY CANDLE, about a child who is sent to live in Ireland during the bombing of London during World War II. I adored that book and read it several times. Binchy even managed to make the dog seem like a living, breathing, animal with personality. Try out her books if you haven't. They are great