Silver Wedding Part II

We begin to learn the secrets of the lives of the people who are attending the Silver wedding. Maureen's mother dies, and in sorting out her papers, she finds that her father is not dead as she thought. He was working in South Africa when she was a child, and he had fallen in love with another woman. He asked his wife for a divorce, but she refused. She told him that if he wanted out of the marriage, he would have to disappear from their lives. She would tell her Dublin friends that he had died in Africa. Maureen starts hunting around and finds that her dad is still alive and is now living in a home in England. She is hurt and shocked that her mother deprived her of a father, because of her snobbery. She gets in contact with her father and likes him. She tries to feel sorry for her mother who had only her social standing in Dublin society to live for. She was herself in love with Frank, Desmond's friend and now his boss, and thought of marrying him but her mother was against the idea. Frank took a dislike to her mother and their relationship fizzled out. Meanwhile Brendan, Desmond's son, has settled in Ireland where he can lead a peaceful unpretentious life, working on a farm. He is glad he does not have to live up to his mother's social standards. He does not want to go back to London. Desmond is getting increasingly fed up with his wife's life which consists of putting on a show of perfection for her family and neighbours.. and he realises that he is never going to get any further in his job. He becomes friends with Mr Patel, the owner of a small local shop, and when Mr Patel is injured by burglars, he offers to look after the business till he is better. Deirdre is horrified.

Silver Wedding By Maeve Binchy

Silver Wedding is another of Binchy's novels which has a series of chapters covering each character's point of view. It is set mainly in London at the time it was written, in the 1980's. It is about a middle aged London Irish couple who are about to celebrate their Silver Wedding Anniversary. Deirdre Doyle, the wife, is a dissatisfied woman, who has little in her life to occupy her. She is disappointed that her husband Desmond has never been as successful as she hoped he would be. He has a managerial position in a food firm, but he has not done as well as his friend Frank. He and Frank came from Ireland, years ago. Frank managed to marry the boss's daughter and he became head of the firm. Deirdre and Desmond have 3 children. Anna works in a bookshop and has found her boyfriend is cheating on her. Helen who is an odd girl who can't settle at anything. Brendan who has left London and gone back to the small family farm in Ireland to work with his uncle. Helen is now living in a convent, trying to find a place there as a nun. Maureen, Deirdre's best friend, was bridesmaid at the wedding, and she is now a middle aged successful businesswoman who owns a dress shop in Dublin... Deirdre makes a terrible fuss over planning for the anniversary, because that is all she has. Desmond is very depressed because he is not sure he can hold onto his job as a manager and his marriage is an empty shell. Deirdre's mother suddenly arrives in London.. She calls her daughter, asking her to meet her in Town. When she gets there, she finds her mother Eileen, who is a widow, seems very lively and attractive, and is in London because she's going on a cruise. Deirdre is horrified to learn that her mother is going with an elderly boyfriend, Tony, who seems to be loud and vulgar. She can't understand how her mother, who always seemed obsessed with matters of class and status, would be seen in public with him. She also feels jealous that her elderly mother seems to be having much more fun than she is.

Evening Class Part V

Aidan realises that his marriage is over and he learns that Nell was having an affair, But he is in love with Nora and wants to be with her. Nora has by now recovered from Mario's death and has fallen in love with Aidan. They set off for Rome, and the adventure begins. Connie decides to go though it is not the kind of expensive holiday she is used to. She is depressed that her marriage is a failure, and that Harry has ended up in prison for fraud. But he got a light sentence and will soon be out. When she arrives in Rome, she gets a message threatening her, and she begins to worry. It might be Siobhan, Harry's mistress who is angry that his wife reported him to the Fraud squad.. Siobhan knows that when he gets out of prison, he will probably need to go to England to make a new life. But Connie cannot feel sympathy for Harry, since she found out that he demanded large payments from clients who had borrowed money from him, and one of the victims was Gus, Laddy's nephew who looks after him. Gus and his wife had a small hotel, and they had to pay a large sum to Harry's company. This left them very close to losing the business and they were only saved by Connie getting involved. Nora is happy to be back in Italy, but she gets a big surprise when she finds that Alfredo, one of Mario's sons is now living in Rome, running a restaurant. She gets a warmer welcome from him than she expected. He tells her that Gabriella, Mario's wife, is dead.. She died of cancer only a few months after her husband. Nora is shocked. Alfredo tells her that although they didn't have much to do with her in the village, the children were all aware of her affair with their father. They respected her for keeping the affair discreet and for giving her father good advice. He suggests that she could come back to Sicily and help in the business. She doesn't know what to do. She lived there so long, and although she has made a new home in Ireland, she is a little tempted by the idea of returning to Sicily. Connie goes out walking alone and finds that she is indeed being followed.. by Siobhan. She is terrified, but tries to keep cool. Siobhan has followed her into a cafe and she is forced to talk to her. Siobhan berates her for turning Harry in to the police. Connie remains calm though she is terrified, and tells Siobhan that she never hated her. She pretends she was glad that Harry had just one woman - though she knows he also had other affairs. She then tells her that she has left a letter for her solicitors, in case she were to die suddenly in Rome. Siobhan is flummoxed by how cool Connie is being and seems to give up fighting. Connie is just relieved to have escaped the mistress's vengeance. Siobhan leaves her and she goes back to her hotel. The party go to visit the Italian family whom Laddy thought had invited him to come and see them. They remember him and feel a bit guilty that they inadvertently led him to think that he was to be a guest of theirs. But they make up for it by welcoming him and his friends. He is delighted. As they plan to return to Ireland, Aidan tells Nell that he loves her. If she goes to Sicily it will break his heart. She tells him she will stay with him. Aidan plans to get a divorce and sell his house and buy a small flat. She has finally found love and respect from a man... and the group go back to Ireland.

Evening Class Part IV

Fran has to tell Kathy that her father Paul is from a well to do family and that he is now married to a very rich woman. They are well known socialites in Dublin. She feels upset and angry that her father's family paid her mother off and that she is poor, while Paul is living a luxurious life. She decides to go and see him and makes her way boldly into his office. He is surprised to see her, and touched.. and they get on well. She tells him about Fran. She explains that her mother had a boyfriend a while ago who went to America but she stayed in Dublin to be with her child. Paul hopes that Fran will be happy some time and he and Kathy agree to stay in touch. Nora manages to extricate Lou from his association with the criminal gang and he and Suzi plan their wedding. Another member of the group is Barry who has a problem with his mother. She is convinced her husband is having an affair, and has gotten very depressed. She attempts suicide and is taken to hospital. Barry visits her, and meets Fiona, a shy girl who works in the hospital cafe. He tells Fiona about his mother and how it's hard for him to cope with her. Fiona starts going to their house to learn cookery from his mother. His mother confides about how she believes her husband is seeing someone else. Fiona persuades her to smarten herself up and try to be more cheerful - and she finds out that the woman the father is seeing is Nell Dunne, the wife of Aidan. Fiona meets Dan, Barry's father, at a party to celebrate the first year of the Italian classes, and Nell is also at the party. She tells Nell that Dan is a womaniser who once had an affair with her own mother and made her miserable. She says he has no respect for the women he seduces. Nell is angry but it scares her, and it appears that Dan is reconciling with his wife. The two of them seem happier and Nell faces the fact that her marriage to Aidan is pretty much over and her lover has also dropped her. Aidan and Nora prepare for the "viaggio", the trip to Rome where they can show off their Italian. Lou and Suzi decide to make it their honeymoon trip and they get married just before the departure for Rome. Tony O'Brien is surprised that the Italian classes have done so well. People enjoy them and noone has dropped out. He admires Aidan for having had the bright idea of starting them. He and Grania are now together, though Aidan is not too happy with it.

Evening Class III

We learn that Harry Kane's business has failed and he comes close to bankruptcy, but Connie saves him by having invested money throughout her marriage which she now uses to bail him out. Harry is not grateful and continues his affair with his secretary and goes on with his dubious business practices. Connie gets on well with the people in her Italian class and is less lonely. Nora enjoys the work and she becomes friends with Aidan. He does not realise that his wife is having an affair... but it's clear she is bored stiff with him. Another pupil at the class is Lou, a Dublin boy who works as a packer in an electrical goods shop. His parents own a small shop. He has gotten involved with a gang of criminals who use him to facilitate jobs. He now regrets it although they have paid him generously. However, he meets a girl, Suzi, who is the daughter of Nora's landlords, and falls in love with her. But his gang still want him to work for them. They want him to find a place to stash things that they want kept for a few weeks. He's told to join the Italian evening class, so that he has an excuse for going into the school. He is not happy as he's not academic, but finds he enjoys the class. Laddy is another member of the class. He is a middle aged man who has learning difficulties, and he lives with his sister's son, Gus and Gus's wife. They run a small hotel and at the hotel, Laddy met a rich Italian family and did them a favour, and they said he should come and visit them. Gus does not think they really meant the invitation. So to distract him from the idea of going to Italy, he suggests that Laddy learns some Italian. Kathy Clark learns that Fran is not her sister but her mother. She became pregnant by a rich boy at the age of 16 and her family looked after her. She was brought up as her grandparents' child. Fran is upset that she's found out the truth, but tells her that she will always be part of their family. Kathy finds that her father's family did not want him to marry Fran and they made a payment to the Clarks to keep it secret. Fran spent the money on bringing Kathy up.

Evening Class Part II

Aidan is delighted to find a teacher who will work for a small fee and who shares his interest in Italy. They talk, and he feels a bit less depressed at not getting the headship and his wife's increasing coolness towards him. His elder daughter, Grainne, works in a bank and unknown to him, is seeing Tony O'Brien, who has now become headmaster. She is angry when she finds that Tony got the job her father was hoping for. Tony is several years older than her, but she is attracted to him and goes on seeing him. The classes start and a surprising number of people turn up. One is Bill, a bank officer who knows Grainne. He is a nice shy lad who has a ditzy extravagant girlfriend. Another is a wealthy woman, Constance, who is married to a rich businessman. She and her husband have 4 children but their marriage is not very happy. Their sex life never worked out, and her husband soon turned to a mistress and ignores her. Connie's father was a gambler and he died in debt and her mother pushed her to find a well to do husband. She genuinely loved Harry, but now after many years of an empty marriage she is depressed. Another pair who join the class are 2 sisters, Fran and Kathy Clark. Their father is a plumber and Kathy is still at school. Fran tries to encourage her sister to learn more and work towards getting a good job...

Evening Class by Maeve Binchy

Evening Class is a novel set in modern day Dublin, in Maeve's format of writing a chapter from each character's point of view. It starts with the return of Nora, a middle aged Irishwoman who has been living in Italy for many years. She went to Sicily about 20 years earlier, because her Italian lover, whom she had met in London, had told her that he could not marry her. He had had to get engaged to a girl in his home village and was expected to go back home to marry her. Nora followed him, in spite of his lack of interest. She managed to scrape a living teaching English and doing sewing. She went on waiting for Mario to change his mind. But he married Gabriella, and he kept Nora on the side as an occasional mistress. He rears a family with his wife. Then after 20 years, he is killed in a car crash and Gabriella tells Nora that she should leave the village. She has been shunned by her family in Ireland for having a long standing affair with a married man. She does not know what will happen to her at home. She has a little money and sells her things to get the fare home. Back in Dublin, she manages to find a room to live in a house in a working class estate, near the Dublin mountains. She meets with her old friend Brenda, who runs a restaurant. Brenda tells her that she fears that Nora's family may welcome her back, but it is because they want someone to look after her elderly mother. She advises her not to give way to their emotional blackmail. Aidan Quinn is a teacher at the local school, where Nora is living. He has 2 grown up daughters and a wife who seems indifferent to him. He had hopes of becoming headmaster of the school, but is told by another teacher that it's not going to happen. He is not considered tough enough to manage a school in these hard times. Tony O'Brien, the other teacher, tells him that he himself is going to be headmaster. He says that Aidan should find another avenue to explore in teaching. Aidan dislikes Tony and thinks he is not a good teacher and is selfish and a bon vivant. But he knows he has lost the battle for the headship. He decides to set up Italian evening classes. Tony thinks that it will be hard to get funding for them but he wants to keep Aidan who is a good teacher. He tells Aidan that he himself is a better head for the present time, that he can argue with the Educational authorities, handle rebellious pupils and keep drug dealers at bay. Nora finds out the rumours and goes to Aidan and offers herself as an evening class teacher who can teach Italian.