Tara Road

Visit the never ending chaos of ordinary lives

Ugh. Not one redeemable character in this book, except maybe the daughter. The men were cheaters, the women who acted like men (re: the non-married women with careers) were also cheaters and the women cheated on were sad sacks who would have done anything, and did, to try to keep their cheating husband. They, of course, were housewives who cooked, cleaned and took care of the children. O, the American couple didn't cheat and weren't pathetic, but nearly everyone else was.

I wanted to reach into the book and SMACK Ria. She just could not get it through her thick skull that her husband had not only cheated on her with a girl half his age, he also got her preggers and was leaving Ria for her. I also wanted to smack all of his mistresses, because he had a bunch, because they all KNEW he was married. It is insanely rude to pursue and sleep with the man of another woman. Not to mention, "once a cheater, always a cheater". O this book made me SO MAD! I can barely type straight I'm so disgusted that stereotypical tripe like this is not only published, but adored.

The cover calls this "heartwarming". I have no idea by who's definition. Wait, the cover also says its an "Oprah" book. That explains it all. Nm.

My first introduction to he writing of Maeve Binchy was her novel Circle of Friends, after which I read The Glass Lake. When I saw that Tara Road was chosen as an Oprah selection, I thought it would be even better.

::: Girl Meets Boy :::

Ria is a pretty if unspectacular girl. She lives with her widowed mother and older sister, takes a secretarial course, and takes a position at a real estate agency, where she meets the gorgeous and ambitious Rosemary and the dashing Danny Lynch. In real life, Danny would have gone for Rosemary, but in Binchy's world, the dashing fellow always goes for the wallflower, and Ria and Danny begin dating, get pregnant, and got married. Danny's ambition leads them to purchase a run-down manse on Tara Road, which Danny believes is a steal in a neighborhood that is up-and-coming. Ria leaves the real estate agency after Danny steals a client, and aligns himself with the prominent businessman Barney McCarthy, an adulterer, risk taker, and all-around slimy character.

With Barney as his role model, Danny ends up leaving Ria for his pregnant 22-year-old girlfriend, and Ria, after a spur-of-the-moment phone call, engages in a house swap with an American woman, Marilyn, who is also going through a crisis. Both women try new things and make changes in their lives over the two months they are in each other's homes, with a happy ending all tied up neatly in a bow.

::: Great Writing in a Bad Novel :::

The great thing about Maeve Binchy's novels is that she can make a bowl of instant pudding into a chocolate torte. Her writing style is rich, and she keeps the action moving with inter-related sub-plots, such as Ria's friend Gertie's marriage to an abusive alcoholic. Binchy also excels at keeping the reader guessing with plot swerves and twists that you never see coming. Even with a large cast of characters, the character development is so incredible that you feel you know each and every one of them, and actually find yourself interested in their stories.

Of course, that makes it sound like I loved this book, and purely from a mechanical standpoint, I did. But I was amazed that Oprah picked this as a selection. Judging from my experience reading Tara Road as well as The Glass Lake and certain parts of Circle of Friends, you'd think that Binchy has some obsession with women who just can't stand up for themselves. Each and every woman in Tara Road, with the possible exception of Marilyn, is wronged by a man (or men) again and again and again, and never seems to learn from it. Gertie stays with her husband even though he beats her and terrifies her children and makes her clean houses of her friends in addition to her regular job to pay for his alcohol. Ria's mother was widowed by a man who left them no insurance and no pension to live. Ria's sister Hilary marries a man more interested in pinching pennies than anything else, and ceases to have sex with her when they don't have children.

And then there is Ria. Tara Road seems as if it is supposed to be a story of triumph, of a woman who built her life around a man only to have her life demolished in front of her, then picks herself up by her bootstraps and moves on. If that was what Ria actually did, I would have been singing the praises of this novel to anyone I met. But the problem is that Ria, just like every other woman in this novel, would still take Danny back. He leaves her for a younger woman. He allows a lien on their wonderful home to finance his boss' shady business dealings. He is the most unbelievably self-centered man in the world, and even after everything he does, Ria would still take him back, and go back to the way things were, and I have a hard time accepting that as a triumph.

::: If She Won't Kick Him to the Curb, I Will :::

Perhaps I wanted more from Ria, and from Tara Road, than is realistic. I know that there are women out there in the same position as Gertie, getting beaten and selling their out-of-touch families on a fairy tale story of a marriage, and like Ria herself, trying hard to stand on her own and still failing because of her obsession with a man who never did love her back. The sheer excellence of Binchy's writing elevates Tara Road to a two-star rating, but that's as high as I'm willing to concede.

This review originally published at Epinions: http://www.epinions.com/review/Tara_R...

This was my first Maeve Binchy and it will not be my last. The story starts with Ria, living in Dublin and married to the charismatic Danny Linch. She believes nothing could be better about her life except to have a third child until the time comes to discuss this possibility with her happily married husband. Only to discover he is having a third child with another woman! Ria’s life is turned inside out and upside down and so are the lives of her young son Brian and 15 year old Annie. Just when things look the worse for Ria she receives a phone call from Marilyn Vine in the US asking if she knows of any houses available for a month or two in the summer. Ria and Marilyn exchange houses and a little bit of their lives for the two months in the summer and Marilyn finds solace and comfort and finally is able to come to terms with the death of her 15 year old son in Ria’s home and amongst Ria’s friends. Ria, on the other hand, finds herself and branches out and learns many things about herself and finds a strength and resolve to move on without Danny.

Good book. Sad that the sweet, nice wife doesn't know the betrayal going on behind her back. Great to see her prosper and grow into her self, while still staying sweet and helping others. I don't know if this book is part of a series, but would love to read the other books if it is.

This book had me screeaaammmiinnngggg crying throwing up. Couldn’t really put it down and was sad when I had to. I want to jump into the book and wished there was another so it could go on and on. 650 pages wasn’t even enough. I loved it.

Watched the film - chucked the book!

Another wonderful book by Maeve Binchy! Tara Road is another story set in the Dublin area, with many of the same characters from Evening Class, Scarlet Feather, Quentins, etc. I love these books, the way there are multiple stories going on that all intertwine (what can I say, I’m a HUGE fan of books with multiple storylines that are interconnected!!).
In a way, each of these Binchy books set in Dublin are also a microcosm of Ireland in the late 1980s to 1990s. I find it fascinating because, while it’s become much more progressive, it’s still quite a ways behind the USA (and in some ways makes me grateful for the freedoms we have here).
Tara Road is about Ria, and her husband and children, and her husband’s boss and his wife, and his mistress, and her friends and neighbors, and their husbands, wives, children, and the people they are having affairs with. Ria’s mother Nora, who prides herself on never popping in unannounced (but who thinks that simply yelling that she’s here when she arrives is sufficient notice), her penny-pinching sister, and her rich and successful friend Rosemary, take a big part of the center stage of the book.
But when everything falls apart for Ria, she’s in danger of losing everything she loves—she decides to do a summer house swap with an American woman whose life is also falling apart.
This book is a romance, and I’d also consider it “chick lit”, but it’s very well written, it’s charming and funny, with well developed characters. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys romance (but likes their stories to be a bit literary), or who enjoys books with multiple storylines and characters.