Circle of Friends
by Maeve Binchy
Delacorte Press, 1991
ISBN: 0385301499
When I first read Circle of Friends many years ago, I had planned to read a little bit while I was eating my lunch and then go back to the paper I was working on. I stopped to eat lunch about noon. I finally put the book down when I finished it at 3:30am. The second time I read the book, I did the same, even though I already knew everything that was going to happen. Binchy is perfect for airplane reading. I’ve easily endured even a ten hour flight with one of her books for they are engrossing but not mentally taxing.
Maeve Binchy writes what we in library land call a “domestic novel.” A domestic novel emphasizes the relationships among characters more than thrilling or unusual plot elements. Writers of domestic fiction include Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and George Eliot. Modern practitioners might be Rebecca Wells, Amy Tan, and Sue Monk Kidd. Domestic novels are not the same as “Chick Lit,” but they do tend to appeal more to women than to men. The stories often center on a small group of people such as members of a family or town. However, Binchy’s novel, like the novels of Charles Dickens, begins with several disparate groups of people who have no relationship and nothing in common and ultimately intertwines them all with each other. Even characters that may run into each other only once can have a profound impact on each other’s lives.
Circle of Friends is ostensibly about the pains of first love. Bernadette, or Benny, Hogan is the adored and overprotected daughter of older parents in a small Irish village. Her best friend is the orphaned cast-off of the village’s richest and most powerful family. At college they join forces with the ambitious, proud, icy daughter of a tawdry working class urban family. Benny is the plainest of the three, but she catches the eye of the college darling, wealthy, handsome, charming Jack Foley. In 1950’s Ireland first love includes facing moral questions of whether to “go all the way,” and what happens when somebody does. But that’s just a minor part of the story. The main subject is the growth of a young woman from timidity and self-doubt to strength, self-assurance and economic independence. This independence is reflected in Ireland’s growing economic independence through the years.
Catholicism permeates Binchy’s novels because Catholicism permeated the lives of the Irish – especially in the middle of the last century. As Ireland has become more secularized so have Binchy’s plots. However, the ultimate force that enables the Benny to achieve her independence gathers strength from her traditional background which includes association with the Church. Clergy and religious women are treated by Binchy as any other characters. Some are villainous or stupid as other non-religious characters also are. But for the most part characters in religious life are like any other – mainly good, sometimes somewhat flawed, trying to get by and get along with others as human beings do.
Circle of Friends has been made into a movie starring Minnie Driver and Chris O’Donnell. It was ok as movie adaptations go, but as always the book is so much better.
Circle of Friends is available at Doherty Library or any public library.
