Finding Maeve Binchy

Mallory recommends one of her favorite authors.

Growing up, one of the ways my brother and sister and I expressed our individualism was through the books we reread over and over. For my brother: the Redwall series. For my sister: any and everything by L.M. Montgomery or Laura Ingalls Wilder. For myself: a book called Love From Your Friend, Hannah or The House of 30 Cats.

If neither of my picks ring a bell for you, I wouldn’t be surprised. I was, to a certain extent, scraping the bottom of the barrel to have the book that was mine. A classic youngest child, I saw my older siblings burying their noses in their unique series, and I wanted to be just like them. I wanted to distinguish myself.

Over the years, however, as my brother and sister experienced life ahead of me, I watched as they veered away from Jacques and Wilder and instead picked up impressive novels like Anna Karenina or Pride and Prejudice. I’d sit by them at Christmas time around the fire as they read Tolstoy and Austen, and look down at my copy of Ella Enchanted I was reading for the millionth time, and wish I could match them.

I started to shift my focus, therefore, away from wanting a book that was unique. Instead, I just wanted to read a book that was long — one that wasn’t Harry Potter or Twilight. I couldn’t match their book or street smarts just by nature of my age. What I could do, however, was hold a thick chunk of a book in my clammy adolescent hands that made me at least look like I was Mature and Well Read.

That is how, at the age of 14, I picked up a copy of Tara Road by Maeve Binchy. There wasn’t a lot of thought behind my decision aside from the fact that it checked two main boxes: it was over 400 pages and there were no illustrations at the start of the chapters. Sure, it wasn’t taught in college classes, but it did have “An Oprah’s Book Club Pick” stamped on the cover, which was sophisticated enough for me.

I sent this photo to Mallory of the stacked Maeve Binchy collection at the library on St. Helena, a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, in January 2019

I will admit that the first 50 or so pages were…a bit of a slog. I was, after all, a freshman in high school reading about a 40 year old woman in Dublin who finds out her husband is cheating with her and spends the novel reinventing herself with the help of friends, neighbors, and family. It was no Hunger Games.

What I do remember, however, was how satisfied I felt to read a book that was not only much longer than what I was used to, but also so clearly written for an audience much older than myself — aka, a youngest child’s dream.

I also distinctly remember how much I enjoyed the style of the writing. I was barely even a teenager, but there was something about Maeve Binchey’s writing that, despite my initial struggle to get into the novel, hooked me. It was, I realize now, my first exposure to reading someone classified as a humorist.

It was also, as they say, the start of a very beautiful friendship.

Since that fateful day, I’ve gobbled up countless Binchy Books. Tara Road is still my absolute favorite, with Quentin’s and Scarlett Feather coming in as close seconds. My sister and I have spent countless summers during college and post-grad cozying up with worn copies of these books melting away into the rural Irish stories. There’s something endlessly warm about all of Binchy’s novels. The closest thing I can compare them to is a Richard Curtis film, in that they always center around a rag tag group of friends supporting each other as life throws its usual curveballs in the form of love, family, and work.

Over the years, however, I’ve not only turned to Binchy for comfort, but also for inspiration and education. Her writing style is both understated and sharp, the dialogue both witty and simple, and the characters both familiar and thought-provoking. She’s an expert when it comes to writing different characters — she can write one sentence about a person and you feel like you understand them completely. Often when I’m deep in my own writing, I’ll look to Binchy for inspiration on place and characterization.

My love for Maeve Binchy is, of course, heightened by the persona of Binchy herself. For those of you who don’t know who she was, I highly recommend treating yourself to reading about her. She and her husband, Gordon, a children’s book writer and TV broadcaster, were so very in love and supportive of each other’s careers. She wrote once that Gordon believed she could do anything, and that’s what gave her the confidence to really start pursuing writing as her full time career. I think that love is reflected in her main characters, as well. Binchy doesn’t shy away from bad things happening to her characters, nor does she paint all people through rose colored glasses. She does, however, show what true friendship and support can do for a person. She writes about people who fail but then try again, and people who give them the space to do so. Her books are hopeful without being too saccharine. It’s hope from the perspective of someone who has experienced all that life can and will do to a person, and who wants us to keep moving forward.

So, if it wasn’t obvious enough, I highly recommend tucking yourself away into one of Maeve Binchy’s many novels, or even her collection of short stories. She might not be the obvious answer for proving yourself as a Great Reader of Literature, but for over a decade now she’s been, and will stay, top of my list.