Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Not her best August 23, 2008
I've loved lots of Maeve's books and looked forward to getting into this one but it just didn't happen. I felt Maeve was going to introduce several characters then describe how their lives overlapped or came together but there was just too many characters involved for that to happen or to keep track of. The threat to Whitethorn Woods was almost incidental to the 'story' and the rush to explain the outcome at the end seemed like a desperate attempt to round things off. I love to escape into Maeve's books but in this case I couldn't wait to escape from it. Disappointing!
 Lots of little stories rolled into one! July 9, 2008
I first started reading this about a year ago and got over half way through but gave up because I couldn't get into it. Having nothing to read recently, I thought I would pick it up and have another go as I really do like to finish a book if I can. The story revolves around a sacred well in the middle of the Whitethorn woods in a place called Rossmore. What may appear on the outside to be a quaint and sleepy little Irish town, is revealed to be anything but through the stories of the people that live in and are connected to Rossmore.
I agree with other reviewers that have said is a more a collection of short stories then one long story, but the stories are connected in subtle ways and not just through the involvement of the holy well. I was able to get stuck into each individual story which played out as each chapter, and within that chapter, you would see things from the perspective of two different charachters which I liked. In parts it was a bit disjointed, and maybe a bit confusing to remember who some of the charachters were when they were mentioned again later in the book but I still really enjoyed reading it. The narrative voice for each charachter wasn't always spot on as some tended to sound the same, and one part, told from the view of a 10year old boy, sounded as if a middle aged person was telling it, however, I'm glad I chose to persist until the end this time as I found the book got much more enjoyable as the story went on.
 Whitethorn Woods May 27, 2008
This is the first Maeve Binchy book I have read and perhaps it's not the best one to start with, as it is not a novel but a series of short stories based on various interconnecting characters.
The characters themselves were mainly interesting enough but I sometimes felt the whole thing was struggling to be complete. It wasn't the kind of writing that grabbed me in the first few pages, but I realize Maeve Binchy's style is more kinda 'feel good factor' rather than 'deep satisfying read'.
However, I did enjoy it for what it is, although I perhaps won't read any of her other writing.
 Not a novel, rather... April 15, 2008
a series of short stories. Each chapter is about a different character and not a continuation of the previous chapter. The characters are lightweight and without substance. Because of the fractured style of the book, there really is no storyline to speak of (short of the repeated mention of St Anne's well).
All in all the book was a huge disappointment and not one I would recommend getting.
Mediocre Maeve February 6, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I won't be the first to admit that Binchy's novels aren't exactly intellectually stimulating -- they're warm and fluffy and make you feel all gooey inside, perfect fodder for reading on the beach or curled up in bed when you're unwell. But this one, I'm sorry to say, was a disappointing read.
The thing that bugged me most was not the storytelling, which is typically enjoyable, heart-warming Binchy fare, but the complete failure of the publisher to specify anywhere on the cover or blurb that this is actually a collection of interconnected short stories and not a novel. I am not a fan of the short story for no other reason than they generally leave me feeling dissatisfied, because I want to know more about the characters, their motivations and lives. On that basis I'm a novel-reading kind of gal, and that's probably how it will always be.
Whitethorn Woods comprises 13 short stories, each one divided into two parts so that the same story is told from two different points of view, an interesting "twist" which demonstrates Binchy's exemplary story-telling skills. The characters in each story are all from the same place -- a once sleepy Irish town called Rossmore, which is now booming but is choked by traffic. These stories are connected by three "bridging" chapters -- at the start, middle and end -- which explain how the town's woods and a well dedicated to St Ann are threatened by a new bypass. It's a nifty idea, but I couldn't help but wonder if Binchy had simply chucked together all those unpublished short stories she's written over the years, perhaps the ones languishing in the bottom drawer, and inserted a few common themes -- the woods, the spiritual well, the town's traffic problem -- in order to get the next book out and into the shops. That might sound harsh, but as a reader I have to admit feeling slightly cheated by this book.
Still, if you like short stories, this is a good little collection, provided you don't mind Binchy's rather simplistic, sometimes cloying, view of life in which hard work is always rewarded, love can be found in the most unexpected of places and good things happen to kind people. But personally, as much as I enjoyed reading about the quiet lives told within each story, I struggled to enjoy Whitethorn Woods as a whole.
If you've not read anything by Maeve Binchy before, I suggest this is not the place to start, because if you do it could well be the last Binchy you ever read -- and that would be a sad thing given her extraordinary back catalogue of feel-good fiction.
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