BOOK REVIEW
This Year it Will be Different, by Maeve Binchy, 342 pp, 2008 Orion paperback, Available at Asia Books and leading book stores, 350 baht
BERNARD TRINK
I owe Irish author Maeve Binchy an apology. To be sure every writer who doesn't get rave reviews feels that reviewers owe them at least one as well, yet the fact is that I never gave her a poor evaluation.
What I'm referring to is is that like cinema-goers, much of my decision re whether to see a coming movie depends on how the coming attractions titillate my interest, if at all. With new books, I flip through the pages.
Those that don't grab me go to the bottom of my reading-list, some a long way down. Yrs truly has a good idea of what's boring and strictly amateur and am not eager to peruse them, though in time I do.
Ms Binchy's dozen and a half novels to date are a case in point. Thumbing through those that came my way - not all did - brought on yawns. She doesn't pen thrillers, none are actioners. Things happen only in the sense that attitudes change.
A few of her works have had celluloid adaptations. One, Circle of Friends, which I enjoyed chiefly because of its star Minnie Driver, first made me realise what I'd been missing. I'd erroneously underestimated the author.
Not that Binchy is everyone's cup of tea. However she does have insight into people, mainly the Brits. This Year it Will be Different is one of her books of short stories, the title referring to one of them. 342 pages, 20 stories, Christmas the theme of all.
The season with its spirit of giving is meant to be merry, but she notes it is also a time of wondering why, after counting one's blessings, they fall short of the number felt entitled. The author makes clear that women feel more cheated at that time than men.
In one story, a devoted second wife goes ballistic when it becomes clear to her and the reader, but not the husband, that the selfish first wife is still taking advantage of him. The climax is that she finally makes him see the light.
In another story a housewife and mother, working at an outside job to supplement her husband's income, is being taken for granted by the family. One day (Xmas Eve) she just stops making a comfortable home for them. How they try to wind her up again is ludicrous.
A story has two mothers-in-law vying to exert their influence on their wedded son and daughter. Apart from their dominant personalities, they are like chalk and cheese. The young couple endeavours to get them to back off, but harridans aren't to be reasoned with.
A story has a wife's mother despising her son-in-law, not least because he's having an affair. Her poisonous barbs are ceaseless. Can the wife avoid making a choice between mummy and hubby, both claiming to love her?
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