The plot of Heart and Soul is essentially this: a doctor is given a limited amount of money to open a heart clinic that will emphasize lifestyle changes for heart patients.
Along the way, she begins to collect a number of interesting and lovely people around her, while coping with her two adult daughters and an ex-husband who's still adjusting to life as a divorcee.
There's also quite a bit in the book about her skill as a manager in obtaining things for the clinic from a number of people, including the hard-hearted, skillful political infighter hospital administrator -- the Dick Cheney of Ireland. In the end, you know she wins him over, too. That's our girl!
One of her friends at work is a hard-working Polish girl who wins everyone over with her eagerness and pleasant manner. When we finally learn her back story, we sympathize with her plight and admire her pluckiness even more. It's not very original, but it's very up-to-the-minute given that the rise of the Celtic Tiger meant that for the first time, the Irish at home had to learn to accept strangers.
This is the first book I read after I finished grad school. I really love Maeve Binchy, and so that makes sense.
Heart and Soul was not as exciting to me as some other Binchy books. I feel apologetic about saying I was a little bored by the excellent information on heart treatment. Some of the characters had been introduced in other novels (Scarlet Feather, Night of Rain and Stars, and probably Quentin's) and I recognized that they were familiar to other readers, who were probably delighted to meet them again.
I love that characters in Maeve Binchy's novels work, they think and worry about money, and they work hard (they're always terribly talented, no slackers or losers here) and take pride in their work.
I love Binchy's unflagging optimism and knowing but unassuming view of the world. I think her fiction reflects the big heart of the author. That's a quality I greatly admire. When I finished this book, I felt deeply satisfied.
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