2013 Book Review #21: A Week in Winter

A small town on the western coast of Ireland:  Stoneybridge.

All the families know each other.

Chicky Starr wants to escape this small town.  She meets an American who dashes her off to New York City.  But her life there is a lie.

She returns to her hometown and home country and buys an old, decaying mansion that is set way up on the cliffs of the Atlantic Ocean.  The mansion belonged to three spinster sisters, one of whom is still living.  Miss Queenie, the last Sheedy sister, is thrilled that Chicky wants to restore the old mansion and make it a type of Bed and Breakfast retreat for a restful holiday by the sea.

She hires Rigger, who is a delinquent-turned-good, and is handy around the house.  She also hires Orla, her niece, who has excellent computer and business skills.  Chicky is finally ready to welcome her first guests for a week in early winter.  The mansion is called Stone House and it features a large, warm kitchen, log fires, delicious home-cooked food and an old-fashioned tea time.

Soon the guests arrive.  We meet John, the American movie star, who thinks he has arrived incognito.  We meet Winnie and Lillian who are forced to take this holiday together and seem to be close friends...but there is an underlying story behind their relationship.  Other guests include Nicola and Henry (husband and wife who are both doctors from London and have seen much too much death in their professions);  Anders, a young man who just hates his father's business but feels forced to continue in it when he would rather be doing music; the Walls, a couple who have won this holiday trip in a competition but would rather be in Paris which was the top prize; Freda, a librarian from Dublin,  who is afraid of her own visions and is running away from a bad relationship, and Miss Nell Howe, a recently retired school headmistress who criticizes everything and everyone and has many dark, deep secrets of her own.........will we learn about them?

All of these people come together for a week in winter.  What lessons do they learn from each other?  Will any of them really find peace and contentment?  How does the author tie in her other characters from previous novels to finish up this last novel?

My Thoughts

Well, I was extremely disappointed in this novel.  Maeve Binchy has always been one of my very favorite authors, ever since I discovered her back in the early 1990s.  I was so looking forward to this, her last novel.  She passed away last July (2012).

The story itself is a good one.  Like all of her stories!

Her character development is exceptional!  Each chapter features the back story of each character.  I didn't like this approach because it seemed to take forever to get to the "week in winter" part.  That could have been much more developed.  I guess the book is all about the characters and their various issues but at times it was just plodding along.  It took me over 2 weeks to get through this book, which is unusual for me and her novels.

The ending is most disappointing, because all of a sudden, it ended!!

It was way too abrupt for my taste, especially given the fact that she put in just about every character from past books, at some point in the main characters' lives.  (the characters mentioned above in the story summary are new....but she brought back beloved characters and places from her previous novels.).  I am wondering if she knew this would be her very last novel. 

At any rate, she is always worth reading because she is an excellent writer.

But as a story, I was overall disappointed.

This book is appropriate, in my opinion, for ages 14 and older.

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 7.

The world has lost an excellent author.  But I think her 2nd to last book was much better!! (Minding Frankie).  For a list of her complete list, go to her website at www.maevebinchy.com

She does make you laugh and cry. She makes you care about her characters.  She turns ordinary people into heroes.  And her stories are an art form.

I recommend all of her other novels!!