2.5/3 starsWell, this should at least serve as an admonition to all women on how a MAN should never ever be the fulcrum around which a woman's life rotates, making him the centre of her universe. The story - my first Maeve Binchy book ever - is set in the 50s and revolves around the lives of various families in the small village of Lough Glass, Ireland, during a span of about 10 years. Among this rather extensive set of characters, stars Helen McMahon alias Lena Gray, a desperate woman whose actions, bad judgement and wrong choices in life reverberate throughout the existence of so many people, and with rather unsettling outcomes.It is basically a book which deals with the concept of MISTAKE and how your actions may or may not reflect on other people's lives and with which consequences.This, per se, is a rather interesting theme to be treated in a novel, if not for the fact the the gloomy approach and the disastrous ways in which the characters messed up their lives didn't make this book relaxing or enjoyable at any time. It would be actually pretty safe to say that this book is exhausting, emotionally and physically. First, it is well above 700 pages and the action is so slow at times that I felt like I was trying to slowly make my way through quicksand. You won't fall asleep, I swear, and you won't be bored by long descriptions about the nuances of color of the lake in November or on the types of plants growing around it, but you will feel the progress of narration so slow and uneventful, so much so that, if not for one cardinal point which I will explain below, it would have been enough to make me shut the book at page 50.Helen/Lena. She is, without a doubt, the most conflicted character of the book. Throughout the story I couldn't help but despise her for her weaknesses and for what she brought upon herself and her family because of her stupidity but, at the same time, I couldn't help but admire her. And this is where some things about her actually don't add up. I was baffled by how she seems to be two persons. First we meet a ghost of a woman who once was, then we meet the monster who did what no woman on her right mind would ever do and, then we meet the stakhanovist working woman and eventually the remorseful mother. So, what's it going to be? Who is Lena? How can a woman who seems to be able to organize everybody's lives so perfectly and be the catalyst to their happiness, simultaneously be a wreck and helpless about her own life? How can she live her life almost as vegetable for 12 years and then, because of/thanks to a man, run away and become an entrepreneur and go on as if her past never happened? How am I supposed to feel sympathy for a woman who abandoned her children (and let's not forget that even if she makes contact with Kit, she never does with Emmet)? I just can't. I can admire her qualities and her skills for building a career for herself out of nothing, but I cannot justify or forget her horrible actions and selfishness. As you sow, so you shall reap. I think Helen/Lena even collected too much for what she did. And last but not least, the reasons for Lena's love for Louis were extra feeble, if not inexistent. WHY does she love him? Because he's good-looking? Hardly. You can't base your love on appearances, take a look at the celebrities. That is left unanswered.Amazingly enough, very few of the rest of the characters were likable. Even Kit, Lena's daughter, makes an enormous mistake early in the book which changes everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. Clio, Emmet, Martin, Ivy, Kevin... they all love in the wrong way, forcing love on the one hand, or confusing it with lust on the other. This book is en emotional disaster, slowly developing in front of your eyes.The only ONE character whom I found remotely likable, Sister Madeleine, makes a mistake, gets taken out of the book in 2 pages, never to return again. We never discover her past, her background. A bit wasted, if you ask me.Finally, Kit and Stevie. That relationship smells like a week old dead fish. Kit the virtuous manages to reform the village rake? Mh. Sorry, but life taught me that a leopard cannot change its spots. There might be exceptions but I thought it was all very abrupt, there was not enough development of the matter to justify such undying love on both parts.Ah, did I mention that the story is incredibly predictable?On to the good parts:I am still marveling at the writer's ability to write a 700 page book with no descriptions. THIS is the reason why, earlier on, I said you won't fall asleep. This book is 80% dialogue, no tedious long paragraphs about the crickets or whatever. And it totally works. I was there, in Lough Glass, with the characters, taking walks around the lake or on the streets of Dublin, picturing everything. Picturing something the author actually barely describes. So either I have a fervent imagination or there must be some skill on the author's part.And to conclude, this book gets 2 1/2, barely 3 stars from me because of my involvement in the story. Even though I hated half the characters, thought the plot was predictable and the image of woman portrayed in these pages is so terribly wrong on so many levels, I could not close the book and set it aside. The plot is engaging and once I read the last page, I really felt emotionally drained. That alone must count for something. Thanks to Maja and Flannery for suggesting this as my first Maeve Binchy book. Now I know you hate me. :D
I liked this book at the very start. You follow two young girls, Kit (Mary Katherine) and Clio, while learning about their town of Lough Glass. The whole story is more about Kit and her family. Her father, Martin, is the town pharmacist. Her mother, Helen, was in love with another man when she met Martin and married. Her younger brother, Emmett, has a stutter that means he gets teased a lot by the other children.The pivotal point in the book comes when Kit, and others in town, realize Helen is more absent and takes longer and longer walks around the lake. One evening, she goes out, and never returns. Martin's row boat is found floating upside down on the lake and it's presumed Helen is dead. When a body of a woman is located, the family holds a funeral for her and carries on with their life.The book builds upon the life of Kit and how she deals with the loss of her mother. It seems to spend a large majority of time focusing on her life from the age of 10 to 14 or so. From that point on, though, it seems like the author realized how long the book was getting and sped things up. Focus shifts ever so slightly to Lena and her life in London, which eventually collides with Kit's life in Dublin. In a way, I found it a bit too abrupt and had a bit of difficulty figuring out exactly how old Kit was throughout. I don't know if years would have helped, but it was difficult for me to not continually think of her as being 11, even though I knew she had to be older to be going to college in Dublin. All in all, it was an enjoyable read. I don't regret having decided to read it and felt it was a good use of my time.
What do You think about The Glass Lake (2005)?
(Note: Slight spoiler ahead!) In Maeve Binchy's The Glass Lake, we are introduced to Cleo and Kit, two young girls growing up in the small Irish village of Lough Glass, a place where everybody knows everyone but not necessarily everyone's secrets. When Kit's mother, always a bit of an enigma and an outsider in the small town, disappears, the whole town is convinced that she has committed suicide, and when a body is found by the lake some weeks later, it is presumed to be hers. However, Kit, in an effort to make sure that her mother is buried in consecrated ground, has a secret - she has destroyed a letter left by her mother, a letter that if read would have changed everything. The consequences of that action are enormous and far-reaching.... I've been discovering Binchy's work over the past year, and generally find it a kind of comfort reading, very engaging and absorbing. For some reason, though, I had difficulty getting into this particular novel; eventually I succumbed, but it took a while this time. I think it might have been simply that I've read enough of her work now to be able to predict events to come (and I was right in all cases). But then, I don't read Binchy primarily for the storyline, I'm more interested in the way she draws complex characters, and in that regard both Kit and her mother are very well drawn indeed. So, a slightly lower recommendation than is usual for me with respect to this author, but still a good read.
—Alison C
Η Maeve Binchy ήταν μία πολύ ταλαντούχα και αγαπητή συγγραφέας και δημοσιογράφος και όταν έζησα για ένα διάστημα στην Ιρλανδία την δεκαετία του 2000, είχα διαβάσει αρκετά απο τα βιβλία της στα Αγγλικά. Δεν ήξερα καν οτι τα βιβλία της έχουν κυκλοφορήσει στην Ελλάδα και βλέποντας το συγκεκριμένο σε ένα ράφι προσφορών, δεν δίστασα στιγμή να το αγοράσω.Αν δεν έχετε ξαναδιαβάσει την συγκεκριμένη συγγραφέα, ίσως δεν πρέπει να ξεκινήσετε απο το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο. Συγκριτικά με άλλα δικά της είναι μάλλον μέτριο, αν και διαβάζεται ευχάριστα αν δεν έχετε υψηλές απαιτήσεις.Η Binchy έγραφε για θέματα που θα μπορούσαν να απασχολήσουν άνετα μια νουβέλα ή ένα μυθιστόρημα οποιαδήποτε εποχής, αλλα συνήθως προτιμούσε να τοποθετεί την ιστορία στην Ιρλανδία του '50 και του '60 δίνοντας μια γλυκιά νότα στους χαρακτήρες της και ίσως μια πατίνα νοσταλγίας για μια εποχή που μπορεί να ήταν πιο συντηριτική, δύσκολη και καταπιεστική απο πολλές απόψεις, αλλα ταυτόχρονα πιο αυθεντική και πιο ανθρώπινη. Οι ήρωες της δεν σκέφτονται πάντοτε με τους τρόπους που θα περίμενε κανείς και η Binchy δεν φαίνεται να τους κρίνει ή να τους καταδικάζει ακόμα κι όταν πέφτουν σε λάθη. Πολλά απο τα βιβλία της δεν έχουν ακριβώς happy end, αλλά τα πάντα τακτοποιούνται με περισσότερο ή λιγότερο ικανοποιητικό τρόπο και το τέλος συνήθως αφήνει μία γλυκόπικρη γεύση στο στόμα και ανάμεικτα συναισθήματα.Η "Γυάλινη Λίμνη" δεν αποτελεί εξαίρεση σε αυτό τον κανόνα.Θα έλεγα οτι είναι ένα ιδανικό βιβλίο να διαβάσει κανείς χαλαρά ένα φθινοπωρινό απόγευμα, καθισμένος άνετα στον κήπο του σπιτιού του με ένα δυνατό καφέ και μια κουβέρτα στα πόδια...
—R.L.
This is some book. The first 400 pgs are so riveting, then it got slow for a while, but the ending got very good, except one hoped it would be Louis who met a tragic end and not Lena, but I suppose Lena’s death was really the only possible ending to the book and having Stevie & Kit scatter her ashes on the lake was very poetic. In the end the fact that Louis would have to face his troubles alone was a just conclusion. If Binchy were more like Hassler and if she chose more unpredictable endings I think I would value her writing more. There are similarities between small town life in Minnesota & Ireland. But Binchy goes generally with neat, happy endings, like with this one, just when it seemed Stevie would be just as slimy as Louis, and Kit would waste her love on a charming liar and rogue as her mother had had done. But Binchy redeems him and justifies Kit’s love and faith in him. If only life were so even and easy.
—Em
