Chestnut Street

I discovered Maeve Binchy as an adult. I was terribly saddened by her death in 2012. I consoled myself by knowing that I while I'd read all of Binchy's more recent novels, I hadn't read a few of her earlier ones. (To this day, I still have not read Light A Penny Candle, her first published book.

Most of Binchy's stories are set in Ireland and revolve around relationship and family issues. My favorite novel is most probably Evening Class, followed by the rest of the novels that are connected to that one. The characters and locales overlap, but the connected novels are not in any way a series.

A little over a year ago, when I was between books, searching through the online e-book catalog, I discovered Chestnut Street. Chestnut Street is a collection of short stories, all set on the same street in Dublin. Binchy would write a short story as the mood struck her and then she'd shove them in a drawer "for the future." After her death, her husband, Gordon Snell, gathered together all the stories... and voila, another Maeve Binchy book was published.

Maeve Binchy short stories are lovely. They aren't terribly satisfying, though, as one of her strengths as a writer was to develop characters and relationships. How much can you do in 10 pages or less? But a taste of Binchy is better than no Binchy at all.

This was the book that I'd pick up between books, when I could get it out of the library. Knowing it was my last "new" Binchy, I wasn't in a rush to finish it which is why it took me about 14 months to get through this not quite 400-page book.

Now to go back and read old Binchy books...