Tara Road: Oprah Selection #26 (Hardcover)

by Maeve Binchy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Oprah Book Club® Selection, September 1999: Against all odds, two newlyweds manage to buy the house of their dreams. In 1982, property speculation is beginning to be a big, big thing in Dublin--and their street is very much in an up-and-coming part of town. "They laughed and hugged each other. Danny Lynch from the broken-down cottage in the back of beyond and Ria Johnson from the corner house in the big, shabby estate were not only living like gentry in a big Tara Road mansion, they were actually debating what style of dining table to buy." But for its various inhabitants, the street is to become a boulevard of dreams--some broken, others created anew. Maeve Binchy has long proved herself a secure hand at multiple story lines, and over the course of 500 satisfying pages she focuses on Ria; her best friend, Rosemary Ryan, a beautiful, endlessly selfish career woman; Gertie, the battered wife of a drunkard; and several other intriguing women, each of whom has secrets not to be shared. There is even an all-knowing fortune teller who early on hints that Ria will travel and start a successful business--two things she knows are definitely not in the offing.

Yet after our supposedly happy housewife and mother of two is confronted by some inexorable home truths, a chance phone call from America will change her life, forcing her to discard her illusions about men, women, and marriage and start all over again. At the same time, the Connecticut caller, Marilyn Vine, has her own lessons to learn when she and Ria swap houses for the summer. Yet there's nothing remotely preachy about this novel--even the bad guys (and yes, they're usually guys) and beautiful mistresses get to maintain some appeal. Instead, Tara Road is a stirring look at the reality behind our consuming fantasies, and a page-turner to boot. --Siobhan Carson

From Publishers Weekly
In her latest engaging novel, prolific Irish author Binchy returns to the notion of sea change, addressed in her early work Light a Penny Candle (1983), which chronicled the story of an English girl during WWII who goes to live in Ireland. Here, two women who are strangers to each other?one American, one Irish?trade houses for a summer, each to assuage a terrible loss. Ria, happily married to handsome, prosperous (if slick) real estate developer Danny Lynch, lives in a beautiful old home on Dublin's Tara Road, an enviable address. For nearly 20 years, such world as matters to Ria Lynch congregates in her kitchen: her mother and sister, her two children, many friends, kids' chums and Danny's associates, a whole bright web of connection. When Danny, out of the blue, announces he's leaving home to live with his young pregnant mistress, Ria's life explodes, and the fallout touches everyone. In coping with this shattering blow, Ria agrees to an offered house trade with an American woman who once had real estate dealings with her husband. Ria will live two months in suburban Connecticut, while American Marilyn Vine will come to Ireland to absorb (or evade) her own sorrow?her son's recent death. Once installed on Tara Road, however, the uptight, remote Marilyn is drawn into Ria's neighborhood dramas; Ria brightens Marilyn's American life as well. While the novel asks questions about marriage (how can basically decent people shred their families, hopes and assumptions, and somehow reconstitute their lives?), the real roots of the story lie in female friendship as a source of strength. The pleasures Binchy offers readers are her lively depiction of social connections, feuds and friendships; secrets, lies, alliances, in short, the thicket of Irish everyday life. The American scenes and characters pale by contrast. As usual, all the characters are basically decent people struggling through the morass of daily existence. While the beginning is slow and the end overtidy, once into the heat of the story, readers will find it a charmer. Major ad/promo; BOMC selection; author tour; 20-city TV satellite tour; simultaneous BDD Audio release.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 502 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press; 1ST edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385335121
• ISBN-13: 978-0385335126
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (513 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #582,990 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #85 in

  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Binchy, Maeve

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars DON'T COMPARE MAEVE TO DANIELLE STEELE!, December 23, 1999

By A Customer

I am giving TARA ROAD three stars because it is not my favorite Maeve Binchy novel - I don't think the secondary characters were developed as well as in some of her other books. Yes, the story has elements of a soap opera, but please don't compare it to anything written by Danielle Steele. I have never been able to get through one chapter of any of her books that have come my way. Okay, I did read MESSAGE FROM NAM, she must have had a ghost-writer. Excuse me, I digress. TARA ROAD is an enjoyable read. The main character, Ria, changes throughout the book, and I really liked her. She seemed very real to me, like a good friend. My only complaint about this book is at times it was a bit slow, and not 100% believable, but so what, it's a novel. The story itself is actually very inspiring, about friendship as well as self-reliance. I definitley recommend TARA ROAD to all Maeve Binchy fans, and for those who've never experienced Maeve, if you like good stories with characters who become like friends, please give her books a try. However, for first time readers of Maeve, you might want to start with ECHOES or EVENING CLASS, which are two of her best!

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book, December 1, 1999

By A Customer

I just finished this book last night and loved it. I loved the relationships, they felt very real to me, not sugar-coated. I could not put this book down and am sad that it is over.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The review of Tara Road, January 18, 2000

By	J. Ketchum (Ocala, FL.) - See all my reviews

Tara Road is a book of true life. You can not trust most friends, your husband can cheat on you, your children aren't prefect and you can change your life course at 40. The book was easy to read and you really don't want it to end. You want to find out what happens to Ria and Colm and all the people on Tara Road. A good book with realistic life experience.