Circle Of Friends: Maeve Binchy

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there might not be three Irish girls, but you could lay odds there would be a generic Whitney Fotheringill (whose mother likes King Charles spaniels better than children), a Rebecca Goldfarb (whose intellect burns with a cold, hard flame) and one other girl (who has a deep -- to say nothing of dark -- secret).

The characters are well cared in depth, never presented and then abandoned after few chapters, for each of them we follow the beauty and even the stiff part of their destinies.The setting is so authentic, it catches an Ireland that is long gone but captured forever within the pages of Maeve Binchy’s books.

I read your Creating Circles of Friends book from cover to cover over the summer and found it truly inspiring. I gave it to my mother recently and she read through it in a few days and now it’s in the hands of my 15-year-old daughter. Gillianren is a forty-something bipolar woman living in the Pacific Northwest after growing up in Los Angeles County. The sixth book I am taking to my desert island to be read endlessly until my sad demise is Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. Beyond that, though, what’s sad about Benny is that she has been raised to have expectations from life that her parents don’t actually expect her to lead that life.Benny Hogan is one of my favourite ever characters in a novel, and one I always have, and still do, identify with strongly. Bound in green leather with hubbed spines, gilt page edges, gilt titles/decorations on spine and boards, marbled endpapers, and ribbon page marker. It’s not about what happens from time to time but what choices the characters make and their consequences are, no matter big or small.

A key subplot involves the future of the Hogan family business, Hogan's Gentlemen's Outfitters, thrown into turmoil when Benny's father dies suddenly. Beginning in an Irish village and moving to Dublin, this is a rare novel that brings to life some unforgetable characters. But Maeve Binchy is the reason I feel in love with this genre in the beginning and she will always hold a special place in my heart. Not all is nice and smooth, some characters are terrifying, but even for them the good destiny will reserve something special. There was a discussion in my writing circle only yesterday about describing settings in books, how to do it vividly but discretely.In Dublin, Benny and Eve find new battles to be fought, new friends to be made as they struggle to make their way in a rapidly changing Ireland. Well, I've moved on from Rosamunde Pilcher, though The Shell Seekers will always hold a place in my heart. One of the few I've read is Maeve Binchy's Circle of Friends, which follows a group of university students in 1950's Dublin. Benny Hogan is the gawky, lovable girl, full-figured and bighearted, the doted-upon daughter of a provincial haberdasher and his not terribly bright wife.