What I’m Reading: Maeve Binchy

Mar 092013
 

Whitethorn Woods, by Maeve Binchy

Read in February 2013

Three Stars

When the prolific and bestselling Irish author Maeve Binchy died last year, I was surprised to realize that I’d never read any of her novels, so when I saw Whitethorn Woods on the lending shelf in the faculty lounge, I picked it up. The setting is a sizeable town in newly-prosperous Celtic Tiger Ireland which is divided by a proposal to build a bypass road that would destroy a beautiful woods that contains a sacred well of St. Ann, the grandmother of Jesus, where people flock in hopes the saint will answer their prayers. Binchy doesn’t take a conventional approach to the story of the conflict — there are no scenes of decision-makers, proponents, opponents, or debates. Rather she tells her tale in a series of vignettes, each narrated from the point of view of a single character in the town. Her cast of characters is large and comprehensive — dozens of people from all walks of life, each of whom has a specific problem they’re struggling with. Some characters are featured in multiple vignettes, notably the parish priest whose aid both sides hope to secure, but many appear just once. All of the virtues and vices of humankind find their way into this story, but Binchy is a generous writer who loves her characters — even the most villainous and the most virtuous are fully-rounded characters, not mere types. Binchy must have been a very wise woman because she certainly understood human nature, and she must have had a large and open heart because she doesn’t judge her characters but, instead, simply lets them have their say. Although eschewing the conventional approach to plot, Binchy still manages to resolve the central conflict and the fact that she does provides a useful reminder of what really counts in fiction: vivid characters who readers care about.

What I’m Reading: Margot Livesey

Mar 092013
 

The Flight of Gemma Hardy, by Margot Livesey

Read in February 2013

Two Stars

Margot Livesey’s reworking of Jane Eyre is set in 1960s Scotland. She creates a plausible scenario for landing young Gemma in the clutches of a hateful aunt who packs her off to boarding school, but this girl lacks the extraordinary animating fire of selfhood that made Jane a memorable character beloved by generations of readers. SPOILER ALERT. In the original, Lowood School changes dramatically after a devastating epidemic and Jane leaves only after deciding to strike out on her own to see the wider world, placing an advertisement that brings her the post as governess at Thornfield. In Flight, Gemma is forced into the world by the closure of her school and needs suggestions from others to figure out what she might do next and how to find a job. Gemma is a victim, reacting to events, while Jane was a risktaker ready to take action to make things happen. In the original, Jane’s flight from Thornfield is precipitated by Rochester’s attempt to trick her into a phony marriage and the necessity of removing herself from the temptation to give in to her passion for him. In Flight, Gemma flees after learning that in World War II her groom-to-be, a young man with a crippling case of claustrophobia, switched places with his cousin, serving as a flier on a Lancaster bomber during the Battle of Britain so he could avoid spending the war underground as a miner. In return, Gemma’s groom-to-be promised his cousin that he would not stand in the way of the cousin’s romantic pursuit of the groom-to-be’s sister. Gemma’s reaction to these revelations is juvenile and ludicrous — flying bombers was definitely riskier than mining and standing aside in the romance can hardly be called “selling” his sister. Jane’s dilemma is truly an existential crisis for her while Gemma’s is simply childish, and for me that mismatch robbed Flight of real tension and interest. However, in one aspect Flight improves upon the original somewhat. Jane flees heedlessly onto the first passing coach, even though she knows she is the heir of a rich uncle whose lawyer she has just met. She is too smart and confident a person to have overlooked the fact that she had a protector, and then to top it off, Bronte has her rescued by a trio of siblings who will turn out to be her cousins, an unbelievable coincidence. In contrast, Gemma’s flight, though ending similarly in rescue, includes a series of believable mishaps that land her in need of rescue. And when she gets the chance, she goes in search of the unknown relatives she suspects may have. Only in that search does Gemma show the kind of determination and confidence that Jane displays from the first page. Updating a classic is hard to do well, and Livesey’s effort, though well-intentioned, does not succeed.

 

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