Limerick, Ireland-based Roisin Meaney is a prolific author, and last week I finished her Life Drawing for Beginners.
When I started reading it, I suddenly realized that its "night class" theme reminded me of a Maeve Binchy favorite, Evening Class, and I looked forward to it with anticipation.
In the opening pages, I found several things I liked:
Audrey, the art teacher at the heart of the story, sets off on a walk because there is no bus in the direction she's going, with a sense of the promise of adventure; along the way, she sees a puppy in the window of a pet shop: this puppy will change her fate. Audrey falls in love with the puppy and takes her home, naming her "Dolly," for Dolly Mixtures, because Dolly is a mixed-breed dog.
Audrey's single and she's secretly hoping that teaching the night class might help her meet a possible partner. We get to know a little bit about her five students, all of whom, we learn, have problems they're working through as well.
By the end of the novel, two of Audrey's students have begun a relationship, another contemplates a move to France, Audrey herself meets someone she's interested in, and one of the students, Irene, leaves her husband.
Irene's story is the most interesting aspect of this novel for me. Irene is a beautiful woman who did not want to have children. When she became pregnant, her husband begged her to have the child, and against her own wishes, she did. When the novel opens, her daughter is a toddler and has an au pair to care for her. Irene is frustrated and lonely because her husband, whom she loves, has withdrawn from her. Irene believes he is punishing her for her lack of interest in her child. Irene fires her au pair, and her daughter starts to regard her with suspicion. This is the backdrop for Irene's decision to leave.
There are book club questions in the back of the book. Question 3: "What do you make of Irene? Is Irene a good person? Why or why not?" I would love to be in a book group meeting and hear what the readers would say.
The interlocking stories of this book remind me very much of Maeve Binchy's work, and I think fans of Binchy would enjoy these books, too. The publisher got blurbs from Barbara Delinsky and Debbie Macomber, but I think Binchy's a better fit.
When I started reading it, I suddenly realized that its "night class" theme reminded me of a Maeve Binchy favorite, Evening Class, and I looked forward to it with anticipation.
In the opening pages, I found several things I liked:
Audrey, the art teacher at the heart of the story, sets off on a walk because there is no bus in the direction she's going, with a sense of the promise of adventure; along the way, she sees a puppy in the window of a pet shop: this puppy will change her fate. Audrey falls in love with the puppy and takes her home, naming her "Dolly," for Dolly Mixtures, because Dolly is a mixed-breed dog.
Audrey's single and she's secretly hoping that teaching the night class might help her meet a possible partner. We get to know a little bit about her five students, all of whom, we learn, have problems they're working through as well.
By the end of the novel, two of Audrey's students have begun a relationship, another contemplates a move to France, Audrey herself meets someone she's interested in, and one of the students, Irene, leaves her husband.
Irene's story is the most interesting aspect of this novel for me. Irene is a beautiful woman who did not want to have children. When she became pregnant, her husband begged her to have the child, and against her own wishes, she did. When the novel opens, her daughter is a toddler and has an au pair to care for her. Irene is frustrated and lonely because her husband, whom she loves, has withdrawn from her. Irene believes he is punishing her for her lack of interest in her child. Irene fires her au pair, and her daughter starts to regard her with suspicion. This is the backdrop for Irene's decision to leave.
There are book club questions in the back of the book. Question 3: "What do you make of Irene? Is Irene a good person? Why or why not?" I would love to be in a book group meeting and hear what the readers would say.
The interlocking stories of this book remind me very much of Maeve Binchy's work, and I think fans of Binchy would enjoy these books, too. The publisher got blurbs from Barbara Delinsky and Debbie Macomber, but I think Binchy's a better fit.
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