Heart and Soul [Hardcover]

Maeve Binchy (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 452 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1407214918
• ISBN-13: 978-1407214917
• ASIN: 0752873369
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.5 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (127 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,164,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Maeve Binchy is the author of numerous best-selling books, including Nights of Rain and Stars, Quentins, Scarlet Feather, Circle of Friends, and Tara Road, which was an Oprah's Book Club selection. She has written for Gourmet; O, The Oprah Magazine; Modern Maturity; and Good Housekeeping, among other publications. She and her husband, Gordon Snell, live in Dalkey, Ireland, and London.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE ART OF STORYTELLING, July 14, 2009

By 

Red Rock Bookworm (St. George Utah) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Heart and Soul (Hardcover)

It's difficult to say anything negative about Maeve Binchy books. How can one fault books that are as warm and comfortable as a big fluffy blanket? True, there are some that are definitely better than others, some characters you care about more than others, but when all is said and done you always come away from reading a Binchy book appreciating the humor, compassion and Irish spirit that permeates each page.

In HEART AND SOUL, Binchy utilizes an underfunded heart clinic as the focal point for the intersecting lives of her characters. Although the publishers review would have you believe that this is the story of Dr. Clara Casey whose job it is to set up the clinic, the truth of the matter is that hers is just the tasty crust of this pie. The intersecting stories of the clinic staff and the patients they care for are the sweet and satisfying filling and together they present a tasty treat for your reading palate.

Die hard fans will recognize several characters from previous tomes like Night of Wind and Stars, Evening Class, Scarlett Feather and Quentins. While some make fleeting appearances, others like nurse Fiona Ryan (who was one of the co-stars in Night of Wind and Stars) have their stories come full circle with an outcome tied up in a big red bow. Most interesting among the newcomers are the Polish immigrant, Anya, and the story of her ill fated affair with the man who "used and abused" her. Others like Carl and his overbearing mother Rosemary, Declan the young doctor, and Hillary the physical therapist are ordinary people whose ordinary lives and problems are ones we can all relate to.

Binchy is the queen of multiple story lines and HEART AND SOUL takes the reader on a voyeuristic trip into the lives of its characters that is both enchanted and enchanting. The trip is sure to please and you don't even have to pack a bag.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Binchy's best... 3.5 stars, February 19, 2009

By 

S. McGee (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heart and Soul (Hardcover)

It's a sad day when an author you first discovered decades ago as a reliable purveyor of great escapist sagas can no longer deliver the goods the way he or she once did. But I must admit, reluctantly, the Maeve Binchy I once enjoyed - the author of everything from Light A Penny Candle to Scarlet Feather- is no more. In her place, someone is writing cute, but slight, feel-good tales set in a Binchy-like landscape.

The main problem with that perfunctory approach to writing and with this book is that the characters and the plot both get short shrift. Within a few pages, Clara Casey has taken on the challenge of running a new cardiac care center and met a winsome young Polish woman and hired her to help. The supporting cast is predictable and their various dilemmas resolved in as predictably heart-warming manner as you might expect from Binchy. Like her more disappointing recent offerings (Whitethorn Woods (Vintage), this book is less a novel than a series of interwoven short stories, each involving a character whose life is tied in some way to the heart clinic (a doctor falling in love with a nurse, a priest trying to save his reputation, Ania's romantic dilemma). But there's not much to sink your teeth into, plotwise, in either complexity or substance. Where is the author of Tara Road??? While Binchy's strength remains the exploration of ordinary, everyday family relationships and romantic or other entanglements that are resolved with a dose of commonsense, in this book those plot developments are telegraphed so far ahead that they become, ultimately, unsatisfying. It's not the first time Binchy's most recent novels have fallen short, exacerbating the level of disappointment.

Nor has Binchy created a whole new cast of characters for this novel. Some will find her decision to rope in past characters such as Signora, Aidan, Brenda, and the twins from Scarlet Feather, as a plus; it's certainly fun to see them in new settings and find out what has happened to them. Ultimately, to this reader at least, the approach backfired, emphasizing how much less meaty this book is than Binchy's previous offerings in which the characters first appeared.

I'd recommend this primarily for die-hard Binchy fans who won't mind the book's shortcomings, focusing instead on the trademark heart-warming (apologies for the pun!) narrative. But there are other Irish writers who have followed Binchy along this path, and I'd suggest checking out the writings of Cathy Kelly (Best of Friends) or even Sheila O'Flanagan (Too Good to be True).

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good Read .... Horribly adapted to Kindle, April 23, 2009

By 

Mary Eisele "tomcat-baby" (Bear, DE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Heart and Soul (Kindle Edition)

I enjoyed this book but absolutely hated the adaptation to the Kindle. Spaces between words were missed making it difficult to read. I had to read and reread in parts because in some areas whole groups of words were strung together. There were also hyphens all over the place. I hardly think the publisher made these errors. Amazon should take more care in proofreading these adaptations.