Customer Reviews

The Glass Lake

5 star:		(86)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

After Tara Road, I decided to tackle all the Binchy I can get my hands on! Her ability to enter so many characters into a story, keep you interested in all of them and watch as they develop and work into each other's lives amazes me more with every book of her's I read. I loved Kit's character... her strength and ability to weigh all her options in relationships with her mother, father, brother, men and friends. I just love Ms. Binchy's writing style, her ability to take me to Ireland and see into her characters' lives. Don't be fooled by the thickness of any of Binchy's books... you'll finish them in three days and wish there were a dozen more chapters!

Other English majors might scoff at my giving a Maeve Binchy novel five stars. True, she is no Toni Morrison or Thomas Hardy, but she is a tremendous storyteller. That's what I always tell people. She's more of a storyteller than a writer. We can't all always be sitting down to Melville and Hawthorne (though we should be reading them as well) - the human mind and heart needs a little break every now and again. Some English majors read Stephen King or John Grisham or Michael Crichton for that break. I read Maeve Binchy. Because of how much myself and those I love are like her characters. And because of how much more we want to be like them. This is a marvelous story. Real people in here. A sort of mythic surrealism surrounds the lake, like something out of Yeats. I've read of people complaining that her novels never break too much new ground. That she should venture into something new. This is what she's good at. And there is no one better. I always look forward to the lulls in my studies, to the next time I'm able to pick up a novel of hers.

This is my favorite of Binchy's novels, and I've read most of them.

I had the pleasure of asking the author about this novel while I was at a book signing for "Scarlet Feather" a few winters ago. "The Glass Lake" was so sad, that I asked her if it made her sad to write it. She said that her intention when writing this book was to show the lengths to which people would go to have a loved one buried in hallowed ground. With that information, you can tell that this will not be an upbeat novel. If you are looking for a light read, I'd suggest "Evening Class" by the same author.

If you are looking for a book that makes you feel as if you know the people and the landscape of somewhere that you've never been, read this book. Binchy takes her time in weaving a story, and lets her characters develop and change in the course of a novel. These characters will draw you in. These are characters that you'll remember long after you've read the final chapter.

The Glass Lake, as all of Maeve Binchy's stories, is about a small Irish town and the interwoven lives of the people who live there. It is difficult to explain the plot without giving away too much information, but basically it deals with betrayal, good intentions and lack of discernment when choosing friends and spouses. It is a wonderful book, full of unforgettable characters and sad thoughts of "what might have been". It tells of love which remains steadfast and love that flees in the face of temptation. It is one of Maeve Binchy's best, which is high praise when the whole body of her work is considered. This is highly recommended reading!

This was the third Binchy novel I have read. I devoured it with the hunger of a wild animal, so excited to see what she could possibly have in store given the amazing stories I enjoyed in Tara Road and Echoes. This book will not disappoint you. Though a large amount of pages, you will be amazed at how fast you get through this novel about family, love, and lust. By far, this is one of the most engaging, irresistable, what will happen next, kind of books. Read it, devour it, enjoy it to the fullest, I did!

When beautiful, restless Helen McMahon goes missing, the small Irish village presumes that she has accidentally (or not) drowned in the nearby lake. She left a sealed letter for her husband which was discovered by her daughter Kit who feared that her body, when found, would not be buried in consecrated ground. Poor foolish Helen had never grown out of loving the man who deserted her years before and was still so in thrall to him that she left her husband and children with barely a qualm. The main body of the story is the rites of passage of her children through their childhood and teenaged years, and that of Helen and her life with the charming but feckless Louis who dominated her world for the rest of her life. I loved this book, despite loathing some of the characters (whom most women will recognise), and would recommend it for a weekend's reading marathon.

I truly enjoy Meave Binchy and her amazing style of writing that is more like an illustration into the thoughts and minds of peoples lives. The Glass Lake takes you into the small town of Lough Glass and spins you into the lives of these small town people. It will leave you feeling as if you were sitting in spying and eavesdropping into there lives as if you are merely a character your self witnessing the events unfold. And if you love getting lost into a Novel and then at the end somehow thinking that you must know these people and that they truly must exist you will love this book!