Reviews for Tara Road

The average rating for Tara Road based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-05-02 00:00:00 InJe Ki This book came to me in such an unusual way that it is impossible to judge its contents without noting the story. I was riding the subway to work in NYC when I was in my early twenties, when a little, old, Chinese man tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up from my book and he asked me, in broken English, if I liked to read. I was taken aback by not only being touched by a stranger on the train, a no-no for regular NYC commuters, but by his seemingly random question. I gave him a quick nod and turned back to my book. He proceeded to tap me again and this time inquired as to the kind of books that I liked to read. I stumbled through an uncomfortable, wary answer feeling more than a little creeped out about his potential motive in engaging me in this way. Again, I looked back to my book and again he tapped my shoulder. This time he told me that he had a book for me. When I refused he insisted. We did about three rounds of this before I indicated that the next stop was mine and I was going to leave the train. As I stood to leave he pushed a coverless, hardback book into my hands. I couldn't see the title and had no idea what kind of book he was giving me. I have to admit that my imagination ran immediately to the deprave and I worried that he was giving me something pornographic or just plain yucky. As it turns out the book he gave me was this lovely novel. Nothing creepy; nothing pornographic or sadistic. In my attempt to recover my karma and compensate for my untrusting and uncomfortable manner the day I received this book, when I finished reading it I gave it to someone else; a stranger on a NYC train. I will say that when I passed it on, the experience was less cryptic. I simply explained how the book had come to me and that I was passing it along in turn. I have no idea where this physical book went and what became of it, but I will always associate Tara Road with positive feelings and a warm memory.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-10-30 00:00:00 Doug Smith Ria lives in Dublin, Ireland, in a beautiful, Victorian house surrounded by loving family and friends. She has great kids and is happily married -or at least she thinks so- to hotshot estate agent, Danny Lynch. But the day comes when Danny suddenly drops a bomb onto Ria's happily-ever-after. He is leaving her for a young girl, whom he also got pregnant. Ria's world is completely shattered and she does not really know how to cope with it all, when a chance phone call from America starts her on an unexpected journey. The caller is Marilyn Vine, from New England, who wants to visit Ireland and is in need of accommodation. She is eager to escape her home where memories seems to suffocate her. Her only, teenage, son died in a motor crash and she is unable to forgive herself or even to communicate about it with anyone. On an impulse the two women agree to swap houses for the summer setting a series of events into motion that none of them can foresee and that will change their lives forever. Tara Road has all the elements that make stories by Maeve Binchy an ultimate, heart-warming reading experience She wrote about people to people with so much sympathy, understanding and acceptance of the human heart and mind that never ceases to amaze and delight me. She also perfectly knew -while acknowledging and writing about all that sadness and unhappiness that people cause by letting each other down all the time- that there is a need for stories that turn out well or where there is at least hope for the future. And she did write them all right. Tara Road, Circle of Friends, Scarlet Feather, The Glass Lake Evening Class or Quentins are all there to prove it. All of them are highly recommended.