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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Good Story, May 16, 2006
The reason I thoroughly enjoyed this book was plain and simple: it was a very good story. Along with very good characters and background. May not sound eloquent, but it's the truth. With Binchy I have had a bit of a love/hate with her. The first book I read of hers, Tara Road, I had a hard time with. The reading was a bit tedius to me, and Binchy's voice was not what I was used to. However, since then I've read several other of her books- Light a Penny Candle, Silver Wedding- and while beginning them I need to give myself a push because honestly, they are quite long- keeping at it I am always pleased in the end. The Glass Lake is no different, at approx. 750 pages, you have to dedicate yourself to the reading. However, this story flowed well, was full of anticipation for the reader...the pages started to fly by. I think out of the several books I've read of hers this is my favorite so far. Mainly because the characters and story is one that will stay with me- how could it not? I won't give anything away, but it was certainly very unique and it was interesting to see how it was handled and ended.
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48 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great story - shame about the rushed end, May 27, 2000
As with other older Maeve Binchy novels, this is mostly a rites-of-passage novel set in a small Irish country town, Lough Glass. One day the young Kit's unhappy mother disappears, leaving a note which Kit destroys, not wanting to upset her father. Everyone assumes that she drowned in the lake, and life for Kit and the others goes on, but not without heartache as she grows up. I was really engrossed in this book as it developed, looking forward to finding out the solutions to the various mysteries Binchy had set up. But as I got closer and closer to the end, with seemingly no real resolution to some of the issues, I found myself wondering how Binchy was going to tie up the book. Then, in the last thirty pages, she rushed through several very major plot developments, reintroduced some characters and dealt with some serious emotional issues... in a very rushed and unsatisfactory manner. The pace had been leisurely throughout the rest of the book, and as such this really looked to me as if Binchy had suddenly realised that she was over her word limit and needed to tie up all the loose ends as briefly as possible. It didn't work, and really spoilt for me what could have been a wonderful book.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love Her Or Hate Her Type Author; Great Book IMNSHO!, March 20, 2001
I'll tell you right now that I have no problem believing that there are readers who love Binchy's books and those who hate them. Her novels are sentimental and nostalgic, set back often in the 1950s and 1960s, as this one is. She probably isn't far from maudlin but for me she doesn't quite tip over into being that heavy handed. Her novels are also romances combined with family sagas. I admit to having a very wide sentimental and nostalgic streak, however. Hence, I like her books just fine. With that warning in mind, and if you're still here, this novel involves two lead women, a mother and a daughter. The mother has run away with her boyfriend. Her daughter and rest of her family thinks she is dead. But she's not. She's working her butt off in England to support the bum boyfriend while her family remains in Ireland. It gets better because the story is even more the daughter's, who comes of age and meets the man of other women's dreams, Stevie Sullivan, who she needs to go out with so Stevie will stop going out with her brother's would-be girlfriend. On the surface, Stevie seems like a hard working version of her mother's boyfriend. One is tempted to think he's otherwise the same womanizing scoundrel. We follow the stories of both mother and daughter and at one point, the stories intersect. I couldn't put it down. Stevie Sullivan, for my money, is one of the best romance heroes ever written but the rest of the book is splendid as well. I read this huge book on one entire Saturday starting early in the morning. I even promptly started rereading parts of it when I was done, the true test of a book that's gotten under your skin. If you can resist it, you are a stronger person that I am!
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