The Return Journey | 
|  | | | Title: | The Return Journey | | Author: | Maeve Binchy | | Publisher: | Dell | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 29 May, 2007 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0385341792 / 9780385341790 | | List Price: | $14.00 | | You Save: | $2.80 | | Amazon Price: | $11.20 | |
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
In this extraordinary collection of stories, the New York Times-bestselling author of Evening Class and This Year It Will Be Different once again reveals her incomparable understanding of matters of the heart. In The Return Journey, Maeve Binchy brings us sons and lovers, daughters and strangers, husbands and wives in their infinite variety--powerfully compelling stories of love, loss, revelation, and reconciliation.
A secretary's silent passion for her boss meets the acid test on a business trip....A man and a woman's mutual disdain at first sight shows how deceptive appearances can be....An insecure wife clings to the illusion of order, only to discover chaos at the hands of a house sitter who opens the wrong doors....A pair of star-crossed travelers take each other's bags, and then learn that when you unlock a stranger's suitcase, you enter a stranger's life. In their company are many more, whose poignant, ironic, often humorous stories--unforgettable slices of life--make up The Return Journey, a spellbinding trip into the human heart.
Maeve Binchy was born and educated in Dublin. She is the author of the bestselling books Evening Class, This Year It Will Be Different, The Glass Lake, The Copper Beech, The Lilac Bus, Circle of Friends, Silver Wedding, Firefly Summer, Echoes, Light a Penny Candle, and London Transports, three volumes of short stories, two plays, and a teleplay that won three awards at the Prague Film Festival. She has been writing for The Irish Times since 1969 and lives with her husband, Gordon Snell, in Dublin.
From the Hardcover edition.
Amazon.com Review
The Return Journey is a collection of 14 short stories of life, love, and learning that enables the most harried reader to enjoy a well-told tale in its entirety before checking on the kids or folding the clothes. In the tradition of Binchy's classic tales Circle of Friends and Tara Road, this consummate summer beach book introduces readers not to models of literary and romantic indefectibility, but to folks just like us, who have bad hair days, runs in their hose, and freckles both physical and metaphorical. The title story paints a portrait of the embattled relationship between a mother who left her home in Dunglass, Ireland, and her daughter, who has traveled to Ireland to find her history and finds love, as well. Through weekly correspondence, mother and daughter repair the damage to their relationship, laying to rest ghosts of an earlier mother-daughter relationship gone irrevocably wrong. And Binchy's "Victor and St. Valentine" renews faith that truly romantic men do exist and are often overlooked, their motives suspect in an increasingly self-reliant world. No one can accuse Binchy of overtelling a tale; she has perfected the art of leading her readers to the verge and then allowing them to loose their imaginations as they see fit. A wonderful and thoroughly engaging read. --Alison Trinkle
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Customer Reviews:
• Quick Read 03 August, 2008
After reading this book, I will be honest and say that Maeve needs to stick with her novels, not her short stories. This collection of short stories are better than the last two collection that I've read, but they're not as deeply satisfying as the novels are. Her novels are out of this world and she should stick with them ... they take you literally away into another world and you become involved with the characters' lives, thoughts and emotions.
Her short stories are too short to give the reader (namely me) any kind of thought and satisfication of a story well-told. Maybe that is because I have read her novels and know what she is capable of writing and when I come across her short stories, I want more of her writing, not less.
But this collection is sweet, a fast read and I do have a couple of favorites in here that I found really amusing or sweet. They are "The Women in Hats," where looks are deceiving and people are still judgemental for the wrong reasons; "Miss Vogel's Vacation" where people are never too old to find happiness in their lives. My other favorite is "Cross Lines" where again, looks are deceiving and an accidental encounter on an airplane ride might lead to a wonderful future together. The other stories dealt with divorce, loneliness and other issues, which she has written much better about in her novels.
If you are a Maeve Binchy fan, you might like this collection of short stories, but again, I recommend that one stick with her novels. The only reason why I picked this one up was because I didn't look closely enough to realize it as a short stories collection.
8/3/08
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1BI8PUEHA5CHW
• Fat People 10 July, 2006
I enjoyed Binchy's "Tara Road"; but "The Return Journey" is a mostly faceless collection of short stories that fade from memory as quickly as they are read. I finished this book less than a week ago and cannot recall "The Apprentice" at all. "Holiday Weather" about a botched affair is like watching a firecracker whose fuse fizzles before it pops. "Victor & St. Valentine" & "Crosslines" are forgettable. I did like "Miss Vogel's Vacation" about an unassuming woman who finds a little romance after being alive for 50 years. "The Home Sitter" was well told, but was frustrating since Allie who comes to their home and has a sparkling personality and gypsy-like appeal almost steals Mara's husband and leaves Mara feeling even more inadequate than when the story began. There is no lesson learned. My favorite story here is "The Women in Hats." It has a progression with the narrator, Helen, meeting a trio (Charlotte, Bonnie & Charlie) on a cruise liner and assuming that the man was with the thinner woman rather than the heavy-set Bonnie. Binchy makes a comparison about how people's judgments about gay people parallel their prejudice about fat people. "Excitement" was not. Unfortunately, Binchy has not mastered the short story form in this collection. She simply doesn't have many stories to tell. This is like reading writing exercises more than short stories. Taxi!
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1IWWRZJOXOSYP
• In This Extraordinary Collection Of Stories 01 November, 2007
New York Times-bestselling author of Evening Class and This Year It Will Be Different once again reveals her incomparable understanding of matters of the heart. In The Return Journey, Maeve Binchy brings us sons and lovers, daughters and strangers, husbands and wives in their infinite variety--powerfully compelling stories of love, loss, revelation, and reconciliation.A secretarys silent passion for her boss meets the acid test on a business trip....A man and a womans mutual disdain at first sight shows how deceptive appearances can be....An insecure wife clings to the illusion of order, only to discover chaos at the hands of a house sitter who opens the wrong doors....A pair of star-crossed travelers take each others bags, and then learn that when you unlock a strangers suitcase, you enter a stranger's life. In their company are many more, whose poignant, ironic, often humorous stories--unforgettable slices of life--make up The Return Journey, a spellbinding trip into the human heart.Maeve Binchy was born and educated in Dublin. She is the author of the bestselling books Evening Class, This Year It Will Be Different, The Glass Lake, The Copper Beech, The Lilac Bus, Circle of Friends, Silver Wedding, Firefly Summer, Echoes, Light a Penny Candle, and London Transports, three volumes of short stories, two plays, and a teleplay that won three awards at the Prague Film Festival. She has been writing for The Irish Times since 1969 and lives with her husband, Gordon Snell, in Dublin. Maeve Binchy captured the imagination of the world with her spellbinding tales of the Irish people. With her trademark charm, wit, and sheer storytelling genius, she tells stories that are at once universal yet uniquely Irish. Now in this delightful little book, she spins a collection of all-new yarns--stories of sadness and joy, warmth and humor. I'd also recommend, if you missed Tino Georgiou's novel--The Fates, getting a copy--absolutely fab..
- Reviewed by customer ID: A12UJUWRM1QX4H
• Return Journey 12 March, 2007
Maive Binchy is a great author - this is an excellent story. Received in great conditon.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3NQVEY1OAIZ5P
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