My sister is the one who gave me this Maeve Binchy book called Quentins. I had picked up another Binchy book one time and it just didn't "grab me". But Quentins did grab my attention.
The title Quentins is the name of a restaurant. It is the place where relationships and friendships are formed or fail, where deals are made, where celebrations and momentous occasions take place too. I liked the idea that the book centers on a local Dublin restaurant and focuses on the lives of the people who work there or who visit there.
I was immediately drawn into the world of Ella Brady. She is the main "hero" of this book. She is the perfect daughter and only child of aging parents, Barbara and Tim Brady, who dote on her. Ella grows up into a lovely blond-haired woman and becomes a school teacher. She rebels somewhat by falling into a long love affair with a handsome, married man named Don Richardson.
Don is suave and debonaire and swears that he is married in name only. He calls Ella his "Angel" and the two spend as much time as possible with one another, that is unless Don is called away by work or family obligations. As a financial investor, Don is charismatic and people are drawn to him like a magnet.
Ella too is infatuated with this charming man who, at times, seems to have a mysterious, secretive side to his personality. Ella's close friend and confidant, Deirdre, offers advice to help Ella with her romance.
We also meet 'Blouse' and Mary Brennan, and Patrick and Brenda Brennan. There are several characters in this book whose lives are intertwined and whose paths cross are various points either at Quentins or elsewhere. I sometimes found it slightly confusing since there are several major and minor characters and was flipping pages back and forth, to make sure I could keep the characters straight. The character development was also satisfying, maybe not completely three-dimensional, but enough to give the reader a good feeling of what each character was made of. There were either several pages or a chapter or two devoted to the lives of the secondary characters, such as Quentin Barry himself (for whom the restaurant was named).
I did feel as if the book was full of twists and surprises, but there were times when I almost felt as if I could predict where it was going. This is not necessarily a bad thing though. I found the book to be very satisfying in its conclusion. This book is light and enjoyable reading. Even the romance part of the book is not too heavy. More time is spent on plot development, which suits me just fine.
Author Maeve Binchy is a well-known Irish author. She has written a series of books set in Ireland, the most well known being "Circle of Friends" which was made into a movie starring Minnie Driver in 1995. I forgot that I actually read that book too, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Binchy's writing style is easy-going and flowing. The language and conversation is natural. There are some words which are more "British" English than American English, but these are fairly common, such as a 'biscuit' in place of a 'cookie', for example. I found the book to be very fast reading. Although it is about 400 pages, I finished it in record time (for me) in about two weeks.
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