Contemporary Romance, Women's Fiction, Irish Fiction, Family & Friendship - Fiction, Love & Relationships - Fiction, Occupations - Fiction

Evening Class

Name: Evening Class
Author: Maeve Binchy
ISBN: 9780440223207

by Maeve Binchy

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Overview

It was the quiet ones you had to watch. That's where the real passion was lurking.

They came together at Mountainview College, a down-at-the-heels secondary school on the seamy side of Dublin, to take a course in Italian. It was Latin teacher Aidan Dunne's last chance to revive a failing marriage and a dead-end career. But Aidan's dream was headed for disaster until the mysterious Signora appeared, transforming a shared passion for Italy into a life-altering adventure for them all...bank clerk Bill and his dizzy fiance Lizzie: a couple headed for trouble...Kathy, a hardworking innocent propelled into adulthood in a shocking moment of truth...Connie, the gorgeous rich lady with a scandal ready to explode...glowering Lou, who joined the class as a cover for crime. And Signora, whose passionate past remained a secret as she changed all their lives forever....

From the New York Times bestselling author of This Year It Will Be Different, The Glass Lake, and Circle of Friends, comes a novel filled with Maeve Binchy's signature warmth, wit, and sheer storytelling genius—a spellbinding tale of men and women whose quiet lives hide the most unexpected things....

The new novel from the bestselling author of The Glass Lake and Circle of Friends evokes the lives of eight Dubliners who come together in an "Introduction to Italian" class which culminates in a magical viaggio to Italy. 384 pp. Major national ads. National publicity from New York. BDD Online feature. 300,000 print.

Synopsis

It was the quiet ones you had to watch. That's where the real passion was lurking.

They came together at Mountainview College, a down-at-the-heels secondary school on the seamy side of Dublin, to take a course in Italian. It was Latin teacher Aidan Dunne's last chance to revive a failing marriage and a dead-end career.

Publishers Weekly

A banker with a spendthrift girlfriend; a studious teenager with an overprotective older sister; a thug looking to go straight while needing a place to stash illegal goods -- the lives of these and many other Dubliners are touched by Signora, a.k.a. Nora O'Donoghue, whose adult education class, "Introduction to Italian," becomes a lesson in what it means to be alive, in Binchy's richly satisfying novel. After being passed over for the principal's job he desperately wants, underappreciated teacher Aidan Dunne is offered, as a pacifier, the job of spearheading a program of adult education classes. He recruits Nora, whose repatriation to Ireland is precipitated by the death of her longtime married Sicilian lover, to teach Italian language and culture. The stage is thus set for La Signora to work her magic, drawing out the secrets and the romance in her students' lives. Readers uninitiated into the quotidian charms of Binchy's popular world (The Glass Lake) may find it offputting that Signora, who by many standards has masochistically mismanaged her own affairs, should prove a beacon to others. But those in the know will recognize the trademark Binchy willingness to let people be as they are, unjudged. Also familiar will be the leisurely unfolding of the story, as well as themes concerning the inevitable clash of traditional and contemporary mores, and the gap between familial duty and having a life. "You didn't love people to change them," one character observes here. Fans of Binchy's nimble storytelling skills, and of her characters, who are always decent without being dull, won't want to change a thing.

About the Author, Maeve Binchy

As an author, Binchy's goal is simple: to let the story shine through. She told Oprah Winfrey, "I do not have a particular literary style, I am not experimental ... I tell a story and I want to share it with my readers." As a result, with her Ireland-set stories featuring strong heroines, friendship and romance, Binchy has gained quite a following since she became a bestselling author at age 43.

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Editorials

From the Publisher

"Charming...engrossing...unforgettable."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Good storytelling . . . Binchy deftly focuses on each character in turn, probing the hidden dramas of their lives."
--Chicago Tribune

"Reading one of Maeve Binchy's novels is like coming home."
--The Washington Post

A Main Selection of the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Library Journal

Binchy brings together eight Dubliners for some lessons in Italian and in life.

Library Journal

Aidan Dunn is no longer the new principal of Mountainview School in Dublin in this latest effort from Binchy (The Glass Lake, Audio Reviews, LJ 6/1/95). Instead, he is in charge of starting an evening Italian class that emphasizes language, culture, and art. Signora, an Irish woman who recently returned to Dublin after 23 years in Italy, is teaching the subject, bringing an eclectic group together: wealthy Connie, streetwise Lou, young Cathy, dizzy Lizzie, and a host of others. Signora captivates them all with the wonders of Italy, and, miraculously, no one drops the class. As the students work toward making a trip to Italy, each takes center stage briefly to tell what led them to this evening class and to this point in their lives. As each story emerges, the invisible ties connecting the students outside of the class become apparent with sometimes shocking and dangerous results. The author's cousin Kate Binchy, who has appeared on stage and screen in numerous productions, flawlessly captures the subtle speech patterns differentiating each character and vividly brings the book to life. Highly recommended.--Melanie C. Duncan, Washington Memorial Lib., Macon, GA

School Library Journal

Aidan Dunne, a middle-aged Latin teacher, has lost out on his bid to become headmaster of his Dublin school. Lonely and estranged from his family, he dreams of returning to Italy, where he had spent several holidays as a young man. Aidan is given the opportunity to start a program of evening classes at the school, and to his delight, Signora appears and offers herself as a teacher of Italian language and culture. Signora is a native Dubliner who followed her Italian lover to Sicily 20 years earlier, knowing he would not marry her, but living for the times he could slip away from his wife and family. His sudden death has brought her home. Her enthusiasm and energy attract students of all ages to her class, and the novel is their story, as well as hers and Aidan Dunne's. Relationships between the young students and their parents, and the relationships that develop among the students in the class are vividly portrayed. The climax of the book, a class trip to Italy, involves a threat of murder, a chance for Signora to return to Sicily, and the opportunity for several of the students to demonstrate their resourcefulness as well as their language skills. As with Circle of Friends, Binchy brings a diverse group of characters together and draws readers into their lives. Young adults will identify with these people and their struggles to find independence, love, and self-respect. -- Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, Virginia

Kirkus Reviews

Binchy (The Copper Beech) once again nets a flock of middle- and lower-middle worriers, loners, and groaners, all brooding on their peculiar miseries, until an updraft of love or happy coincidences sets them free. Here, the transforming agent is an evening class in Italian taking place in a barracks-like school in a run-down Irish neighborhood. Heading the list of the forlorn is 48-year-old Aidan, a teacher of Latin who dreams of Italy. His marriage is loveless, his daughters distant, and he is being bumped as a candidate for a principal's position by a heavy-drinking roue. Then there's Nora O'Donoghue, now 50. In a remote Sicilian village, Nora had been for years a backstreet love of the man she followed to Italy—a man who'd been forced to marry another. When he was killed in an accident, she returned to Ireland and eventually, as "Signora," came to teach in the evening school that Aidan now hopes to make into a success. He does, and blighted lives begin to bloom. The Signora tutors a young failure who begins to percolate in school. The boy's sister is in love with a lad who does lucrative jobs for a crime syndicate; Signora sees that the crooked becomes straight. Among other classmates whose lives become bright and new: a bank clerk who, saddled with a dippy fiancee and a retarded sister, discovers the worth of being needed; an earnest young girl who learns the truth about her sacrificing sister and meets her father; and a childlike hotel porter whose innocence brings some pleasant surprises.....A Binchy shoo-in.