reviews
Mar 21, 2011
Cynthia
rated it: 
One man caught between three women.
This book touched me deeply. The action pivots between Boston and Ireland. The pacing is exquisite. I literally couldn’t stop turning the pages because I wanted so badly to understand how Finton and Ellen found their marriage disintegrating. The roots were in Ireland and that’s were Ellen heads when her marriage ends. She goes to visit her dying mother-in-law outside Galway on an isolated dairy farm. Jo is a crusty, tough old woman on the exte More...
This book touched me deeply. The action pivots between Boston and Ireland. The pacing is exquisite. I literally couldn’t stop turning the pages because I wanted so badly to understand how Finton and Ellen found their marriage disintegrating. The roots were in Ireland and that’s were Ellen heads when her marriage ends. She goes to visit her dying mother-in-law outside Galway on an isolated dairy farm. Jo is a crusty, tough old woman on the exte More...
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Apr 17, 2011
Cassandra
rated it: 
I'm a sucker for novels set in Ireland. I always have been. All through high school, I read the Maeve Benchy books, even though they were nothing like anything else I read. It didn't matter. They were Irish. That is the reason that I decided to give this book a chance. I wanted to see how it fit in with the other works that I have read (see "A bit 'o Irish lit" post). Dance Lessons makes a worthy contribution to the tradition of telling stories of strong female characters who must di
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May 15, 2011
Bree
rated it: 
Ellen is a French teacher at a relatively exclusive school in America’s north east. Her husband Fintan, from whom she was mostly estranged, living during the week on her campus in free accommodation from staff, dies in a sailing accident. Ellen, who had been trying to muster up the courage to leave Fintan after a marriage that had disintegrated into mental beration and abuse, is feeling as though some effort should be made to inform Fintan’s family. An Irish immigrant who was illegal for many ye
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Feb 15, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
Dance Lessons: A Novel by Aine Greaney will be published in March 2011. It follows Ellen as she travels to Ireland to find her deceased husband's mother. Ellen has only just discovered she exists when she bumps into a woman who knew her husband growing up. He's always told her he was an orphan.
This book was very sentimental, and had a misty quality to it. It's light and airy, yet still has a great deal of emotion. I found it delightful, sweet, and very sad.
There are a few More...
This book was very sentimental, and had a misty quality to it. It's light and airy, yet still has a great deal of emotion. I found it delightful, sweet, and very sad.
There are a few More...
Sep 01, 2011
Serena
rated it:
Dance Lessons by Áine Greaney is about the dance we play with our husbands, wives, in-laws, and our own parents as we strive to keep things amicable and not reveal too many of our own secrets, especially secrets we’re not comfortable with ourselves. Sometimes, it is about the dance the characters play with themselves, balancing the truth and the lies. Set in Boston, the North Shore, and mostly Gowna, Ireland, Greaney’s prose sways like a graceful dancer telling Ellen Boisvert’s (a young lectur
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Apr 12, 2011
Lynne
rated it:
This book wasn't what I expected at all. I thought it would be chicklit, which isn't a bad thing, but this wasn't that genre at all. It's the story of Ellen, who's Irish husband is killed in a sailing accident, and how discovers by accident that he wasn't totally truthful about himself and his family. Ellen heads off to Ireland to confront her husband's past. The story touches on terminal illness, family relationships and life in rural Ireland. The book tells the story of the main character
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Mar 20, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
After the death of her husband, Fintan, Ellen Boisvert sets about planning the rest of her life. She is a successful, 39-year-old teacher living in Boston, set free from a difficult marriage by fate. However, a year after Fintan's death, Ellen discovers that her immigrant husband was not an orphan as he had claimed, but that his mother is still living on the family farm on the west coast of Ireland.
Confronted with this sudden revelation, Ellen makes the decision to travel to Ireland More...
Confronted with this sudden revelation, Ellen makes the decision to travel to Ireland More...
Oct 28, 2011
Victoria
rated it:
I actually rated this book by how much this story haunted me after I had finished reading it. It just wouldn't leave me alone. And even now, sitting down to review it after having read it weeks ago, I'm still feeling the same weary and appalling way I did right after I had finished it.
I say that because, even though this came out to be a very horrifyingly sad and emotional read, I hated all of the characters in it. If they were real people, I would never want to know any of them. Not even More...
I say that because, even though this came out to be a very horrifyingly sad and emotional read, I hated all of the characters in it. If they were real people, I would never want to know any of them. Not even More...
May 26, 2011
Marcella
rated it:
The development of the character Jo (a person it would be easy to hate & dismiss) was amazing; Greaney lets you get to know Jo through the events that shaped her so I didn't like her but could understand her. It's not an easy story as you experience the characters' restricted lives and hurtful actions but worth getting to the ending when Ellen is able to bravely change the legacy of bitterness. Vivid setting & characters.
Jun 21, 2011
Tonya
rated it:
Ellen is a widow, hasn't even been a year ago since her husband Finlan drowned. She runs into Sheila who knew Finlan back in his home town. Finds out her husband wasn't an orphan, his mother is still alive. So after a few events leading up to Ellen arriving at her husband's hometown overseas, she ends up taking care of his mother that is dying of cancer.
Do they ever really to a point in this book or does it just drift? That was my feeling the whole entire book. It left me feeling as More...
Do they ever really to a point in this book or does it just drift? That was my feeling the whole entire book. It left me feeling as More...
Apr 30, 2011
Pam
rated it:
Two and a half stars. This book was fair. I would like to have seen more development in the plot. The story was everywhere. In a nutshell, the main character, Ellen, marries an Irish immagrant who she does not love. He is rather cruel, which stems back to his childhood as his mother was cruel to him. Her meaness stems back to her parents feeling the need to give away the family farm in order to get her married to a man twice her age. This is a story of sadness and regrets and does not always
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Mar 05, 2011
Ken
rated it:
Wonderful read. Even though I thought this would be an exclusively women's story, I was drawn by the book's intriguing hook. It was a great read. I won't give the ending away, but for a sad book, it has a very uplifting ending.
Jul 03, 2011
Joan
rated it: 
horrible! don't read this unless you've had a deeply disturbing childhood...disappointing.
Apr 20, 2011
Deborah
rated it:
I heard the author do a reading and thought I would give the book a try. I loved it and could not put it down.
Jun 07, 2011
Lzarrow
rated it:
This was a nice book about families, things you don't know about the person you live with and a nice view of life in the Boston area as well as a small Irish Village. A quick read that I could not put down.
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