Light A Penny Candle: Maeve Binchy

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Elizabeth White, an only child, is sent to live with her mother's childhood friend and her large and bustling family, the O'Connors, in Ireland. Binchy wrote Light a Penny Candle, her first novel, at the urging of her agent, who recommended that she choose as a topic that was familiar to her. Elizabeth White is sent to live with her mother, Violet’s childhood friend, Eileen O’ Connors who has large family.

I’m an avid reader of crime fiction, and when the story opened with a ‘flash-forward’ in a coroner’s court, I found myself expecting a murder to occur. Violet believes even though Ireland is not as refined as London, it is a safe place for her daughter. Instead of the entire book being re-edited, they took the final couple of chapters and condensed it into 30 pages, making the ending very disjointed and choppy.It read like an overly long diary of two main characters from 1940 to 1960 and the trials and tribulations they and their families went through. CLP stands for European Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures came into force on 20 January 2009 in all European Union (EU) Member States, including the UK. I felt that I was supposed to like Eileen but I found her prematurely old demeanour and judgemental Catholicism quite unattractive.

Writing with warmth, wit and great compassion, Maeve Binchy tells a magnificent story of the lives and loves of two women, bound together in a friendship that nothing could tear asunder -- not even the man who threatened to come between them forever. I would like to read her book of columns for the Irish Times, as I can only surmise her non-fiction stories are better than her unreal romance ones. Elizabeth’s extraordinary vantage point reminds me of suppers and sleepovers with friends; intimately knowing another family, observing what they do differently. It is there, in the crowded, chaotic O’Connor household, that she meet Aisling—a girl who soon becomes her very best friend, sharing her pet kitten and secretly teaching her the intricacies of Catholicism.She is the author of five collections of short stories as well as twelve novels including Circle of Friends, The Copper Beech, Tara Road, Evening Class and The Glass Lake. But rather than being totally negative I'll note the two things I did like: Elizabeth White as a child was stronger. IN 1994 I saw Maeve speak here in Melbourne and her warmth and interest in her fellow human is as alive and real as her characters. I didn't think it was the end, to be honest - listening to the audiobook, I thought the audio file was corrupted. With warmth, wit and great compassion, Maeve Binchy tells a magnificent story of two women, bound together in a friendship that nothing could tear apart - not even the man who threatened to come between them forever.

Childhood – with its attendant growing pains and interactions at school and with members of the clergy – figures prominently in the novel.Each character is affected by the events around them and the actions of other characters making the whole feel much more cohesive and interesting. The female friendship here survives strain and separation without the aid of modern technology to bring them closer. Through it all, they discover that there is no right and wrong in this world, there is only what is right for those you love.