Customer Reviews

Minding Frankie

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Nothing like waiting out wicked winter weather and a bad cold with the companionship of a good piece of chick lit, especially when it comes from one of the great and gifted Irish storytellers.

Once upon a time I was a regular Maeve Binchy reader, but I'd long ago drifted away--having grown tired of too many plots based around class issues and out-of-wedlock pregnancies and miserable marriages there was no way out of--and I'd moved on to other authors like Colm Toibin, William Trevor, Anabel Davis Goff and Deirdre Madden. But when I was offered an opportunity to get an advance look at the newest Binchy novel, I took it and I'm glad I did. I'd forgotten how gifted Binchy is at creating a cast of characters you quickly come to care about and bringing them and their stories so vividly to life.

While misery, unwed motherhood, unrequited love and alcoholism all figure prominently into this story, they're more than balanced out by the determined efforts and optimism of a can-do American cousin and the arrival of a motherless child. Watching cousin Emily and wee Frankie give a whole neighborhood a new lease on life makes for a very good read and I recommend it.

Every single time I pick up a Maeve book, it is like coming home after a long exhausting trip and falling into that comfortable easy chair, with the endless cups of hot tea at your side and all the favorite characters in Dublin hovering around ... if only life can be that comforting!! I read Maeve for the reasons I have stated above and for the fact that she really is a talented writer, who manages to keep the reader's interest in ordinary characters. Ordinary characters with ordinary concerns and issues ... and yet somehow she makes them special and interesting. She writes compellingly of life in Ireland that some day I must go there and see with my own eyes the beautiful land she loves so deeply.

I was so excited to get this advanced copy that I managed to read this within two days ... it helps that I am snowed in as well. I hated to see the end of this book as I didn't want to let go of the characters. I hope Binchy will write another one soon ... especially about that annoying social worker, Moira. I'd like to know what happened to her!! She is probably the most annoying and pathetic character I have yet to read from Binchy's collection. Unable to grasp that a recovering alcoholic can raise a baby and do it so well with the love and support of so many, Moira always expect the worst of people.

A lot of familiar characters have been re-introduced such as Muttie and Lizzie Scarlet, the twins, Noel, the young and dashing doctor who is happily married and his parents; they all play a minor role in this novel but their lives are entwined with Noel, the young father mentioned above. Noel was a drifting loner, bored out of his skull with his life and finding solace in the bottom of his cups. His parents were more concerned about their religious convictions and didn't know what to do with their lonely, morose son. Then one day, a former flame contacted Noel and told him that he's the father of her unborn child. Noel, who had just decided to stop drinking and do something with his life, was stunned and overwhelmed, but with the support of his parents and his American cousin, Emily (who really was the glue of everyone in the community), he agreed to raise the motherless baby. Even with the constant scrutiny of the social worker, Moira, Noel manages to turn his life around.

This is such a heart-warming novel and full of interesting characters. Some will say this is a predictable book but there are times in life when a novel like this one just is the cure for what ails you. It is full of interesting characters and stories, told only by a talented author like Maeve can.

Maeve's fans will love this book as well ... so don't hesitate to pick up this book!!

There is something comforting in a Maeve Binchy novel. There are no pyrotechnics or earth-shattering histrionics in MINDING FRANKIE yet it manages to hold and keep one's attention throughout. I think it is Binchy's unparalleled knack for creating characters one truly cares about. Even the most reviled character in this wonderful book (Moira Tierney...the social worker from Hell) is relatable as we come to know her life's circumstances.

You will find yourself rooting for the protagonist at the heart of MINDING FRANKIE. Noel is an ex-alcoholic who is teetering precariously on the precipice of sobriety when he is faced with raising a baby on his own. The cast of characters he surrounds himself with are all supportive and come to his aid when he needs help with Frankie, the baby girl he "inherits." The characters are the real heart of this novel. They are funny, sympathetic, flawed and real people whom we come to know well and identify with. I couldn't wait to crawl into bed each night and escape to the Emerald Isle with all my new "friends."

While we are introduced to new characters in MINDING FRANKIE there are a lot of familiar faces from Binchy's previous works. This is a stand-alone novel, but many of the characters were introduced in other books such as QUENTINS, SCARLET FEATHER and HEART AND SOUL. It is not necessary to read the other books before starting MINDING FRANKIE, but it certainly enhances the reading experience by having a past with them.

The reason I called this book timeless is because if it weren't for the occasional reference to cell phones, the internet and other modern conveniences one would find it diificult to determine if this book takes place in 1950 or 2011. The story is classic and transcends time.

The one criticism I could find is that there are a LOT of characters to keep track of, and the author often refers to them by first-name only. I had to stop reading several times and go back and try to figure out how they fit in. It is a minor criticism of a book I truly loved. I highly recommend this book if you like calming, character-driven well told tales.

Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy

If Amazon would allow us---I would actually be rating this as a 3.5

If you have been a follower of Maeve's work, you will immediately recognize the close-knit neighborhood in Dublin, St Jarlath's Parish. You will also recognize so many people from past books and feel so very comfortable reading more about them, reconnecting with them, crying with them, having babies with them, and even burying them. However, we will meet some new people too and that is the fun of this book...if a book like this could actually be thought of as fun. This book is deep, it is profound, but it is rarely fun.

We will meet Noel an alcoholic who learns that a woman he doesn't remember is having his child and wants him to raise the child after she dies, since she is dying of cancer.
We will meet Frankie---the child of Noel and Stella. If the phrase "It takes a village to raise a child" ever meant anything, it sure means something in Frankie's case since the entire neighborhood comes together to care for her and to make a perfect life for her.
We will meet an American cousin, the middle aged Emily, whose seemingly sole purpose is to fix everyone and everything with her good advice and inner strength.
We will meet Moira the exact opposite of Emily, a social worker who is so afraid of seeing yet another headline in the paper of how social workers fail to keep children safe, that she is going overboard with her newest case, Noel and his new daughter Frankie. Moira is socially inept and heavy-handed and sometimes...ok, often times! annoying, but somehow we can understand her actions as they pertain to Frankie.

This was of course another wonderful Maeve Binchy book that tries to follow Maeve's writing formula---but for once, this book didn't seem to WANT to follow Maeve's formula. I think the stories in this book were too large to want to stay contained in one book. Sometimes this book seemed to feel more like a series of short novella's that just happened to have a common thread, than one interlocking novel.
I found the abrupt ending to be unsatisfying and a bit disturbing and I even felt a bit cheated that I would never know how Moira ends up, how Frankie and Noel deal with the "surprise" that nearly sent him back to drinking. This novel just never feels likeit was finished properly.
I hope that eventually there will be another book similar to "Minding Frankie"; one that will follow Frankie's life, and the lives of her caretakers, as she gets older and how she deals with the bombshell that Maeve dumps on us in this book.

I love Maeve Binchy and have for years. She's my reading equivalent of comfort food and I'm not ashamed to admit it. When I need to have a book along on a trip or in a waiting room that I KNOW I'll like, I take one of hers to re-read. ("Firefly Summer" is my favorite.) She's like my favorite sweater and my warmest socks. She's reliable. This review isn't for readers like me who are going to read her latest no matter what the reviews say. This is for new readers who aren't sure if they will enjoy reading about Binchy's Dublin neighborhood.

"Minding Frankie" is full of varied and interesting character-types and each has his or her own private struggle. Binchy has been writing about the people of Ireland for a generation now, and she moves with the times. She is tuned in to the present whether it be modern technology, the economy, generational issues, the changing Catholic Church, etc. she allows her characters, both young and old, to cope with and adjust to the changing times without ever losing the core of what it means to be "Irish".

I'm not going to tell you who Frankie is, I liked finding out myself as the story unfolded. Nor will I say anything about the plot(s); others will.

One of the things her loyal readers love the most about a Binchy novel, is that her characters are so relatable. We can easily see our own human failing and foibles in them, and it somehow makes it easier to forgive ourselves through forgiving them.

Binchy is expert as deftly describing the small dramas of everyday life, and also the larger dramas of illness, alcoholism, death. And always, always she presents the dramas of love. Binchy's characters long for love, find love and lose love just like everyone we know. The emotions are universal.

"Minding Frankie" is about a neighborhood of people and businesses and those of us who have read her last several novels can expect to re-meet characters common to those novels. But not having read them will in no way diminish a new reader's enjoyment of the novel.

Maeve Binchy makes us all feel like neighbors and she manages to make us all feel a bit Irish...at least until the last page is closed.

Maeve Binchy has made a name for herself with extremely readable and thoroughly enjoyable yarns about small town Irish life. Her newest, "Minding Frankie", is no exception. Binchy's new novel exhibits the author's trademark charm in a story that is heartwarming if predictable.

Noel Lynch is an alcoholic who passes through life in a haze of drink. He is taken completely by surprise when a former flame, now terminally ill, tells him that he is the father of her unborn baby. This is enough to sober Noel into reality as he prepares for the challenges of being a father, something he never planned on. He has the support of a wide cast of characters - his parents who are suddenly confronted with retirement; his Aunt Emily, newly arrived from America although apparently the missing key to everyone's life; newfound friend Lisa, who moves in with Noel when she's down on her luck; and Dr. Declan and his wife Fiona, who readers will recognize from "Heart and Soul". In fact, several old characters make apperances in this new novel. Yet with all this help, Noel has the cards stacked against him. As if it weren't enough to try to remain sober for his infant daughter, he must face the constant challenges of Moira Tierney, a social worker who believes that baby Frankie would be better off in care and who does everything in her power to see that this happens.

"Minding Frankie" is an enjoyable, quick paced read, told through the perspectives of numerous characters. Fans of Binchy's works will certainly enjoy encountering old characters and learning how their lives have progressed. Her characters, even the new ones, seem like old friends or distant relatives who readers will find themselves rooting for - even the horrible and unlikable Moira. While not one of Binchy's bests, there are too many times where she tells rather than shows and doesn't let her characters speak for themselves, "Minding Frankie" is a relatable and heartwarming escape.

I was soo loving this book, even with all of the characters. I've loved almost all of Binchy's books, but this ending, not only was disappointing and actually unneccessary, but went way too fast. I mean, all of a sudden, it was like "hurry up and end this thing, will ya" I would have liked to learn more about Moira, and the others, and wished that Noel never opened the envelope at all. That would have been a better ending!

I have been reading this author since I was a teenager. Now that I'm in my mid 40's, I'm amazed that she can still transport me to Ireland at the turn of the page. She has created a village so completely envisioned that I feel that I have been there on vacation, eaten at Anton's, and downed a pint with Mutti Scarlet. As in most of Binchy's later stories, the emphasis is on family and community. Is the story a bit predictable? Sure, but that was okay since it's very well told.

We meet up with characters we've seen before and add a few more that are truly memorable. Perhaps my favorite was Moira, the prickly social worker who you love to hate. There's also Noel, who starts out as flat as a piece of wallpaper and soon discovers a desire for life. There's Emily from America who was wonderful as the older cousin who manages to sort everything out no matter what or who it is. All of these people plus Binchy's usual cast of characters are drawn together by one little baby. They all take a hand in minding little Frankie and all discover something about themselves in the process. Babies can bring both hardship and joy to anyone's life and this book is a great story about exactly that.

The author's style of writing is comforting as always, and while we're not talking gritty realism, who needs that all the time anyway? Read this book and give yourself the opportunity to be whisked away to a land where shopkeepers are just as vital as doctors and lawyers, and the answers to every problem might just be found down the street where Emily lives. Don't worry, she'll sort you out. Recommended.

I enjoyed reading Minding Frankie very much. Developed around the idea that a ne'er-do-well can be transformed into a solid citizen by someone having faith in him to become a responsible parent, the author creates a multi-dimensional story that holds interest to the finish. The characters developed by the network of friends and family to do this were interesting due to the care and consideration of literary imagery. Adding to the enjoyment of reading this book, the author tried to give each character a story line - this made for many loose ends that had to be tied up in a neat little bow at the end. The number and depth of characters made for interesting reading. I heartily recommend this book - good job!

This was my first time reading a novel by Maeve Binchy. I was not disappointed. The story was somewhat like peeling layers of an onion. It was compelling to reach each new layer! The characters continue to grow and intertwine in each other's lives, with the focal point being Baby Frankie. A nice story about love and caring from a very large extended group of family and friends. It held my interest, touching without being sentimental. Nicely done.