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12th out of 21 books
—
79 voters
Lilac Bus
by
Maeve Binchy
Each Friday, Tom Fitzgerald drives the same people home from Dublin to spend the weekend in Rathdoon. Nancy, Dee, Kev and Celia - each has their own secret story, unknown to their fellow passengers. And of course Tom himself has his own reasons for returning home so regularly...
Once again, Maeve Binchy has conjured up a cast of very human characters with real joys and real...more
Once again, Maeve Binchy has conjured up a cast of very human characters with real joys and real...more
Paperback, 196 pages
Published
January 12th 2007
by Dell
(first published 1984)
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Some of the stories were 3-star, and some of them were better, 5 star. Overall I felt this was a 3 star novel. I didn't like how many of the stories seemed unresolved at the end, and especially the one about the wife who had invited everyone, including her husband's mistress, to a dinner party, I felt was too suspenseful, with no pay-off at the end, a big leading up to nothing, just a cliff hanger left unresolved. That story really sticks out in my mind as being the worst, manipulating the reade...more
I loved this book. I was hesitant to read this at first because I am uncomfortable reading about people's thoughts and their worries, but Maeve Binchy seems to completely understand her characters and adds a touch of lightness to each story. The first half of the book is written with each chapter being narrated by a different person who rides the Lilac Bus. The bus is a minivan whose driver picks up people at 6 p.m. on Friday in Dublin (where they work during the week) and drops them at their do...more
I fell in love with Maeve Binchy’s person-to-person conversation in "Aches & Pains" and see the brilliance of her fiction in "The Lilac Bus", 1984. We think a novel needs extreme action, ghosts, treasure, or crime to attract a reader. No. The supremely gifted Maeve, rest her soul, pulls us in with 8 average people! The inner thoughts and dialogue of everyday folks are unbelievably interesting.
"The Lilac Bus" is a van that takes the driver and 7 other Rathdoon neighbours home from Dublin. We...more
"The Lilac Bus" is a van that takes the driver and 7 other Rathdoon neighbours home from Dublin. We...more
Each Friday, Tom Fitzgerald drives the same people home from Dublin to spend the weekend in Rathdoon. Nancy, Dee, Kev and Celia - each has their own secret story, unknown to their fellow passengers. And of course Tom himself has his own reasons for returning home so regularly...
Once again, Maeve Binchy has conjured up a cast of very human characters with real joys and real sadnesses, portrayed with her trademark wit, compassion and warmth.
I debated about giving this book a one star but I couldn'...more
Once again, Maeve Binchy has conjured up a cast of very human characters with real joys and real sadnesses, portrayed with her trademark wit, compassion and warmth.
I debated about giving this book a one star but I couldn'...more
A collection of short stories all taking place in and around Dublin, Ireland. "The Lilac Bus" is itself a collection of short stories about a group of 7 people who share a minibus ride every Friday night home to Rathdoon for the weekend. Each story can stand on its own as that individual's reason for going home for the weekend. They're woven together by mentioning other members of the group but the mention is from that particular person's perspective. The remainder of the book is four other sho...more
Ich habe das Buch von einer Freundin empfohlen bekommen und Maeve Binchy's Tod zum Anlass genommen, ein Werk der Autorin kennenzulernen. Leider ist die Story weit hinter meinen Erwartungen zurückgeblieben. Es geht um eine Gruppe von Leuten, die jeden Freitag zusammen in einem lila Bus von Dublin in ihren Heimatort Rathdoon im Westen Irlands fahren. Jedem Charakter ist ein eigenes Kapitel gewidmet, in dem die Geschichte aus dem jeweiligen Blickwinkel dieser Person erzählt wird. Außer der Erkenntn...more
Apr 07, 2013
Annie Kaye
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Annie by:
anniekayefiction@gmail.com
Immediately previous to The Lilac Bus, I read Binchy's first novel, Light a Penny Candle. Its abrupt and unsatisfying ending was so disappointing, and not at all what I've come to expect from her writing.
Fortunately, The Lilac Bus was a lovely palate cleanser. Instead of taking place over decades, its events cover a weekend - with flashback forays here and there - and each part covers one of the riders of the lilac bus. Each character is written well, thoroughly, and sympathetically. The overla...more
Fortunately, The Lilac Bus was a lovely palate cleanser. Instead of taking place over decades, its events cover a weekend - with flashback forays here and there - and each part covers one of the riders of the lilac bus. Each character is written well, thoroughly, and sympathetically. The overla...more
The author of this book has a similar problem to me - she writes the summaries, and tried to expand them into a story, or in this case, a group of stories.
The novella is reasonably well done. Interesting stories, yet I feel the back cover copy did not accurately portray what the story was about. An interesting look at three days through the eyes of eight different people.
The biggest problem with this book is the fault of the publisher: Once you reach the four short stories included at the end, y...more
The novella is reasonably well done. Interesting stories, yet I feel the back cover copy did not accurately portray what the story was about. An interesting look at three days through the eyes of eight different people.
The biggest problem with this book is the fault of the publisher: Once you reach the four short stories included at the end, y...more
Boarding a plane from Albuquerque to Orlando with a book that only had 30 pages left to read, I needed to find something to read fast. I saw this copy and picked it us remembering how much I enjoyed her other novels. Light and pleasant reading was what I was expecting, and it's what I got! It ended up being a book of short stories, where many of the characters appear in each others stories. I have to admit I liked the 1st half of the book much better than the 2nd, as the stories and the characte...more
Big problem with this "novel" is it's NOT a novel. It's a novella and several totally unrelated short stories, and nowhere does the book let you know that's what's going on. So you read The Lilac Bus and there are interesting characters. Then you start reading stories about other interesting characters and you keep wondering how the hell they all relate, until finally you go online and discover they don't relate. At all...And none of the stories have endings. They just stop. Geez. I could do tha...more
If you're a short story kind of person, this is a great book. Short stories always leave me wanting more, which I suppose is the point. Basically she manages, very well actually, to give you a really great personal profile of one character per chapter with brief little references to the other characters at the same time. So, they are all interwoven through their connections with the small town they are from, and the bus they take every week to get there. But they are all individually quite magne...more
This book was not a favorite. The first half of the book or so is actually about the lilac bus and its passengers. Each chapter is from each passengers point of view and you learn the different reasons they take the lilac bus back home every weekend. Most of the reason are interesting. The thing that killed me was at the end of the chapter, it kind of left you hanging. And you never get an answer because after you read each person's chapter, the book goes into a totally different direction and g...more
Feb 12, 2012
Rachel Brand
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Rachel by:
Mum
My mum read a lot of Maeve Binchy around the time that I was starting high school, when I was at that in between stage where I'd grown out of most teenage literature but a lot of adult fiction was too mature for me, since I was just turning twelve. My mum suggested I read this book as it was shorter than Binchy's usual novels. I don't remember particularly enjoying it that much (maybe because I hadn't realised it would be a collection of short stories?) and as a result I never read anything else...more
I have had this book on my shelf for a few years and find it funny that I pick it up now the roads are filled with lilac mini buses, or is callconnect just a Lincolnshire thing?
I quite like the format of this book, it just goes to show you can share a bus journey (or work with come to think of it) with the same people and never really know them. I did find it quite amusing that the bus picked them up in Dublin where they work and stay in bedsits during the week to return home at the weekend, 17...more
I quite like the format of this book, it just goes to show you can share a bus journey (or work with come to think of it) with the same people and never really know them. I did find it quite amusing that the bus picked them up in Dublin where they work and stay in bedsits during the week to return home at the weekend, 17...more
I guess it's more 3.5 but you can't seem to give 1/2 stars. I dunno: it was good, but I didn't find it great. The characters were well thought-out and the intricate connection they had between each other was commendable. Maybe if I saw it as a movie, I'd appreciate the book more...? I can't believe I'm even saying this. I didn't really feel the characters all came together tightly: you sort of had to put the pieces together yourself and make a guess at it, and even then, I wasn't completely sati...more
I had really enjoyed Binchy's "Tara Road," and was eager to read this one. But I was very disappointed in this novella and four short storoies (two of which I confess I didn't even read).
Granted, this was an early work, but I found myself getting bored with the characters' problems and angsts; in "Tara Road" they were captured much more skillfully and held my interest.
Still, I liked the way the bus riders' lives entertwined. And Binchy nicely captured the conflicts between rural and urban Irelan...more
Granted, this was an early work, but I found myself getting bored with the characters' problems and angsts; in "Tara Road" they were captured much more skillfully and held my interest.
Still, I liked the way the bus riders' lives entertwined. And Binchy nicely captured the conflicts between rural and urban Irelan...more
This is a charming collection of short stories, all of which are very believable and skilfully woven into the fabric of the whole tale. The author's style is comfortable, allowing the reader to move quickly through the narrative and gain a sense of what the whole book is about. I came away from it reminded that even the most ordinary people in the most everyday settings are interesting, and that when individuals are thrown together by circumstance, they can have a strong and lasting effect on ea...more
I think I may have missed something. I've heard a lot about Binchy and that her books are fabulous, etc. But this was my first time reading something of hers, and I have to say, I'm not really impressed.
The Lilac Bus is a series of short stories that are all somewhat related in a way, but individual stories all the same. They involve a bus load of people that are driven from Dublin to their hometown on the weekend. In the hometown they all have their little secrets and things they're trying to c...more
The Lilac Bus is a series of short stories that are all somewhat related in a way, but individual stories all the same. They involve a bus load of people that are driven from Dublin to their hometown on the weekend. In the hometown they all have their little secrets and things they're trying to c...more
I really liked Maeve Binchy's ability to weave together the stories of so many different characters without leaving you confused, only wanting more. That is how I felt reading this book.
I always felt sad to leave each of her characters behind. I enjoyed vicariously traveling on the Lilac Bus back and forth across Ireland and getting to look inside the lives of each of the eight passengers. Maeve Binchy's insights into human nature and beautiful writing made me feel like I know these people and...more
I always felt sad to leave each of her characters behind. I enjoyed vicariously traveling on the Lilac Bus back and forth across Ireland and getting to look inside the lives of each of the eight passengers. Maeve Binchy's insights into human nature and beautiful writing made me feel like I know these people and...more
This book is about a cast of characters who travel to their small hometown from the hustle and bustle of Dublin. They all know each other and know each other's stories from spending so much time with each other.I really enjoyed this book. While this book didn't really give a full story, it gave interesting vignettes about each character in the book. I would have liked to see a fuller picture of the characters and their interactions. This book was like being able to peer in the window of a few in...more
Sep 07, 2007
Karschtl
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
woman-ish,
read-in-2004
Von Maeve Binchy habe ich mittlerweile schon so einige Bücher, aber lange keines gelesen. Ich bin ja so eine Sammlerin, die gern mehrere Bücher von einem Autor kauft, wenn man von dem gutes gehört hat. Aber irgendwann sollte man sich dann doch mal eine eigene Meinung bilden, damit man später nicht so viel Geld für "Schrott" ausgegeben hat. Also hab ich mir dieses hier zuerst vorgenommen.
Es Buch handelt von 7 Personen, die jeden Freitagabend zusammen von Dublin in ihr Heimatdorf fahren. Episodenh...more
Es Buch handelt von 7 Personen, die jeden Freitagabend zusammen von Dublin in ihr Heimatdorf fahren. Episodenh...more
It's an unusual collection of short stories and novellas. the namesake story is actually divided into chapeters, and each one is about one of the people who rides the bus every Friday back to their home town from Dublin. Secrets come out, personalities are described, and that is Binchey's strong suit. She does characterization so well! then there are a few other stories following this one, but each of the others is 40 pages or less.
After taking a break from Maeve for a bit, it was nice to return to her in this book. This story is really 8 short stories, with the characters of each story having interactions and reflections on the other characters. I think Binchy is a stronger writer in her short stories, her novels sometimes just get a bit carried away and too complicated to resolve satisfactorily. But these stories were all gold!
I got this as part of a "3-in-1" Book. I have finished the Lilac Bus section but wonder if something is missing. It almost seems as if there is more that was not included. I will finish the complete 3 and see if Maeve circles back around to 'tidy up' the endings for the Lilac Bus characters and post it here.
If there is no post, then this will be the first Maeve book I have found lacking......
If there is no post, then this will be the first Maeve book I have found lacking......
I think Maeve Binchy wrote this on one crazy acid trip! She's writing this story and I'm getting really into the characters and story, then zip they're gone. SO she starts another story and I keep thinking that at some point they will tie in together. Nope! Another story starts then another. She should have titled this "a collection of short stories without real endings!"
I loved the Lilac Bus! This is my favorite Maeve Binchy Novel. I wanted to go to Ireland and meet those that rode this bus and share their stories. The characters were vivid and the scenery felt as if I could reach through the book and touch the goodness of Ireland. A must read for everyone. (Obviously I know this if fiction, but I still wish I could meet the characters!)
Have you read any Maeve Binchy? She’s like the modern woman’s dark chocolate. This has a bit of love story, a bit of travel, and a bit of art. It’s the sort of tale where you meet a group of people and instantly want to know them and take them on an adventure. Nothing too tough here, but nothing too cheese-y, either. You’ll just feel better, after.
One of Maeve Binchy's particular strengths is the way that she draws seemingly unconnected sub-plots together; but at the time that I read 'The Lilac Bus' I hadn't realised this (it was one of the first of her books that I read), & so at first I thought that it was a series of short stories rather than one long novel - how clever the ending was!
Lilac Bus is a collection of stories about the people who take the Lilac Bus back to Rathdoon every Friday night. Like all of Binchey's books, this is a marvellous illustration of character. There's no great action plot, no suspense or great romance or mystery. Binchey shines a light on her characters that makes them compelling and real.
This is a collection, yes....but all of the reviewers who said there was no "ending" to the stories may need to read the stories again! These are stories about ordinary people, with ordinary lives, who have problems like people do. Each of them finds the answer to their problem in an ordinary way.....just as in real life!
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| Lilac Bus | 4 | 18 | Oct 26, 2012 02:29pm |
Maeve Binchy was born in Dalkey, County Dublin and came to fame first as London Correspondent for the Irish Times. Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, made her famous in the UK and USA. She passed away on July 30, 2012, at the age of 72.
More about Maeve Binchy...
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Jan 24, 2012 05:23am