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Minding Frankie

3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 · rating details · 9,169 ratings · 1,505 reviews

Maeve Binchy is back with a tale of joy, heartbreak and hope, about a motherless girl collectively raised by a close-knit Dublin community.

When Noel learns that his terminally ill former flame is pregnant with his child, he agrees to take guardianship of the baby girl once she’s born. But as a single father battling demons of his own, Noel can’t do it alone.

Fortunately, h...more

Hardcover, 464 pages

Published September 1st 2010 by Orion (first published January 1st 2010)

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Jan 05, 2012 Cher rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Cher by: mermaid.cher@gmail.com

Ok...so maybe it's not the most realistic story...or maybe it could be. Man (Noel) finds out an ex-fling he barely remembers (Stella) is dying and is pregnant...she pronounces Noel the father! Noel is an alcoholic, lives at home with his parents and his job is hanging on by mere threads. But of course he agrees to be guardian for baby Frankie when Stella dies during childbirth. And of course as chance would have it, many in the neighborhood (in Dublin, Ireland)are retired or are willing and able...more

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Jul 12, 2011 Mae rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ireland

Clearly Maeve Binchy knows how to tell a story. Her writing easy to read and pleasant enough. I read the whole book in a day, watched TV, ran errands, cooked and blogged. I wanted to find out what happened to the characters, and all in all I found out. However, two of the most interesting characters where left up in the air. Does she do this normally? Is this meant to leave us thinking? That is not what I felt. I felt, she finished the book because she was running out of ideas, or paper or ink....more

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Mar 29, 2011 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not bad at all. Looks at modern piecemeal families in Ireland as baby Frankie pulls a community together and pulls her father, Noel, out of alcoholism and a dead end job. Lots of loveable characters including Noel's parents, respectable Catholics who want to build a statue to an obscure saint, their cousin Emily whose help creates an extra layer of richness and warmth in the lives of so many, and the Carroll family, whose baby Johnny, together with Frankie enchant the small community of Jarlath...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Diane Randolph rated it 5 of 5 stars

loved this book. read on a whim, so good would read again.

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May 07, 2013 Jennifer Garcia rated it 4 of 5 stars

I delved into this Maeve Binchy book after reading her very last book. I like her writing style, it's easy to follow and she does it with such style. Again, she took a vast variety of characters and does it with such ease so we can follow along without trouble. Everyone seems to intermingle at some point but their connections are so vital.

This particular story, in Ireland, is mainly about a man who's a big drunk and still lives with his parents. Almost thirty and no future plans to change that,...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Maybe giving this book three stars is more than it deserves. Maeve is no Shakespeare. Maeve isn't even Pat Conroy or John Irving or Rebecca Wells for that matter. However, somehow she manages to write a convincing story with likable characters. It's not academic, it's somehow just a nice book.

I found out in the process of reading this that Maeve died last summer. I have read most of her books (and kids, this is not the best one) and considered her a teller of fluffy, uncomplicated books with ha...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Helen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ylto-theme, first-read-2013, 2013-reads

This book surprised me. Never read anything by this author - always looked a bit too twee. But, having read one, that is doing her a disservice. This book follows the first year of young Frankie's life. She doesn't have the best of starts, being an accidental child, conceived on a presumed drunken night out. Her mother has terminal cancer and, as expected fails to survive the cesarean section. Thus Frankie comes into the world motherless. but she does have a father. Noel is one of life's drifter...more This book surprised me. Never read anything by this author - always looked a bit too twee. But, having read one, that is doing her a disservice. This book follows the first year of young Frankie's life. She doesn't have the best of starts, being an accidental child, conceived on a presumed drunken night out. Her mother has terminal cancer and, as expected fails to survive the cesarean section. Thus Frankie comes into the world motherless. but she does have a father. Noel is one of life's drifters and is in a dead end job and a drunk. But, somehow, Frankie manages to pull him out of himself and he determines to turn life around. in this he is helped by a whole cast of characters in the street. there is a fly in the ointment, and that's the Social worker, Moira, who is portrayed very much as being the enemy - always looking for every slight slip that Noel might make as an excuse to remove the child from his care.

Initially I thought this was far too twee. I don't know that communities of this sort really exist any more (not to say that's a good thing), but as the book progressed, it became clear that appearances are sometimes deceptive. Real life things do happen in this community, jobs are lost, true love fizzles and turns sour, children of settled family are nothing of the sort, it all happens. There is something to be said about a child being brought up in a loving, if unconventional household, rather thane being brought up in a conventional family, albeit completely without love, care & affection. And this point was made from several angles. It's a cast of thousands, but they're all somewhat believable. And, I will admit to being reduced to tears by the death. That would be the way to go, if one had to go at all.

So, in summary, better than I had expected. Not afraid to dodge reality, even if there is still a sense of things falling into place. It's not a fairytale ending, but you do leave the book thinking that they'll muddle through and that things may well just turn out alright in the end. (less)

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Nov 10, 2012 Deborah rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed Minding Frankie, by Maeve Binchy, more than I thought I would. I have read all of her books, and found that the firs three she published were the most enjoyable to me. But Minding Frankie is a tale that is quite entertaining, and at times, a nail-biting experience! When Frankie is born and her mother dies, the reader wonders what will become of her. She's left with an unenthusiastic, underachieving, insecure father, who isn't even sure he IS the father.
But all of that doesn't matter, a...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Elle Lothlorien rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: drama, modern life, bittersweet

Recommended to Elle by: found at bookstore

I don't know how she does it. You're hooked from the first sentence. Every book Binchy writes makes dinnertime a 'Fend for Yourself' night at my house, since I refuse to put it down. No one ever died from eating cereal for dinner, right?

Binchy, one of Ireland's favorites mainstream writers, captures the struggles of the heart with so much dignity, compassion, and humor, its no wonder every new book is an instant hit. We don't really care about plot, because the premise--how we can use our strugg...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who likes contemporary fiction

Recommended to Mary by: Bookmooch

Shelves: my-library, 2010-2019, 96-100, bookmooch, contemporary-fiction, paperback

When Noel learns that a former flame is terminally ill and pregnant with a child that she claims is his, he agrees to take care of the baby girl once she is born. A recovering alcoholic who is barely keeping his inner demons at bay, Noel is perhaps not the most promising of fathers but despite everything, he could well turn out to be Baby Frankie's best hope.

Luckily, Noel has a very close network of friends and family who are ready to help him raise Frankie. There is love-starved Lisa, who becom...more

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May 02, 2012 JodiP rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction

Maeve's books are always such an easy read. I love the recurring characters and being able to catch up what they're up to. I usually listen to them, but this one I read on my Kindle. This one lacked the humor that is usually all about. Even Maud and Simon are very business-focused and have lost their quirkiness. My main gripe, though, is the terrrible social worker, Moira. Binchy didn't talk to any social worker for research, I think, because Moira is such a generalist practitioner and does the...more

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Mar 11, 2012 Bookreaderljh rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

Not a book I would have chosen for myself but as it was a book club choice, I kept on reading. So many characters but only specific ones fully delineated. The story line was a little too facile. There are big problems - charcaters overcome them - everything works out in the end. Even though one would think that the story of a man forced to be a father through dire circumstances and taking care of a newborn with the help of his community - that he would be the main character - actually it was Emi...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Carolyn Agosta rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've been a Maeve Binchy fan for a very long time - in fact, I believe I've read every single one of her full-length novels and a couple of her short story collections. So when I set off on a new Maeve Binchy novel, I expect a good time.

Minding Frankie is the story of a collection of characters who come together to help raise a baby whose mother dies at the child's birth. The synopsis given for the book is adequate and I won't write a synopsis here, I'll just give a review that lets other Maeve...more I've been a Maeve Binchy fan for a very long time - in fact, I believe I've read every single one of her full-length novels and a couple of her short story collections. So when I set off on a new Maeve Binchy novel, I expect a good time.

Minding Frankie is the story of a collection of characters who come together to help raise a baby whose mother dies at the child's birth. The synopsis given for the book is adequate and I won't write a synopsis here, I'll just give a review that lets other Maeve Binchy fans decide if they want to give it a read.

Ever since "Evening Class" (my favorite all-time Binchy novel), Ms. Binchy has gotten formulaic. Her books have a large cast of new and recurring characters, and she's developed a couple of arch-types that appear in nearly every book - the outsider who sees clearly what others need to do (but not always what she herself needs to do), the woman who loves a worthless man, the people involved in dead marriages, and characters who are plodding along, not quite getting their lives right but not sure how to fix things.

Sometimes the repetition of these arch-types bothers me - and yet, don't we all see arch-types within our own lives? Busybodies, hopeless cases, people in over their heads, silent martyrs? Honestly, I sometimes wish I DID have an outsider to put me straight. Sometimes Ms. Binchy wraps everything up too neatly, unrealistically, yet don't I wish I could sometimes wrap things up neatly myself?

I think that Ms. Binchy's novels have become more upbeat than her early works such as Firefly Summer and Light a Penny Candle; her character scope in the books has become shallower and wider, and yet all her characters are three-dimensional, we just don't get as deeply into them because we're following so many in each book.

I enjoyed Minding Frankie. The story was interesting, I enjoyed the characters, even the small-minded social worker was relatable and understandable, I find it heart-warming to think that someone like Nick can change his life. I felt this story was stronger than Night of Rain and Stars - maybe not quite up to the level of Evening Class but certainly worth reading - especially if you long for something that's positive and encouraging. I hope Ms. Binchy writes many more novels - just don't be afraid of letting some of the characters struggle more, of going a bit deeper as in Firefly Summer. We don't need quite so many cameos. But do, please, keep writing.(less)

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Feb 19, 2012 Jennifer Dunn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Maeve Binchy is where it's at in terms of light comfort reading. There is enough conflict so that the plot moves along but you always know that everything will "sort itself out in the end."

My only gripe with recent Binchy, and I guess this is as good a place as any to say it, is that her characters are becoming less memorable as they become intertwined. Her last 5-7 books all take place in the same universe and I find myself thinking "I should remember this character, because he/she was obvious...more

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Feb 01, 2012 Michelle Randall rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: irish

Maeve Binchy is a one-of-a-kind author. I have loved her books for years, but haven't read anything from her in a long time, yet I read this, which I received as a gift from one of my groups here on Goodreads, only to find that I still love and admire her style and ability.

She can tell you the story, switching from one group of characters to another to another with you losing nothing in the telling of the story and it all seeming to flow along without a hitch or clitch and you still understand e...more Maeve Binchy is a one-of-a-kind author. I have loved her books for years, but haven't read anything from her in a long time, yet I read this, which I received as a gift from one of my groups here on Goodreads, only to find that I still love and admire her style and ability.

She can tell you the story, switching from one group of characters to another to another with you losing nothing in the telling of the story and it all seeming to flow along without a hitch or clitch and you still understand everything! Even more amazing, she mentions characters from other books and you don't have to have read the other book to understand this character, it is like all her books together create the village, and picking up one you get a certain slice of life, and yet when you pick up the next you understand life and have missed nothing by not reading thir or that other book, each stands alone and yet at the same time intermingles with the others to create a huge body of work that feels like it all came from the same place.

I love the stories of Ireland, (probably the reason that I have three children with very Irish names) and so Maeve Binchy has always been a favorite author. One that I know, in a pinch I could pick up anything written by her and know that I would enjoy it.

Minding Frankie is so well written, you have Noel, and he is mixed with Lisa as they are in the same class, and as you get to know Lisa, find that her sister is Katie, who does hair and who Father Flynn went to see to have her do the hair of a woman in the hospital, Stella, who as it turns out is pregnant but about to die and she names Noel as the father of her child. All these people who have no connections to each other, but yet in the end they do have connections, that in fact are made stronger by one tiny little baby girl named Frankie.

We are revisited by a chef named Anton, who made his first appearance in the book Quinteins, but who you can understand perfectly without ever having read Quinteins. Anton turns out to be connected to Lisa, and around and around the connections go again until everyone has a touch to someone else and yet you can jump from something going on with Anton and Lisa, to something with noel's parents, to something with Katie and her husband Garry and back to Lisa and Noel at class, and it feels like it all just flowed along, like bits and pieces of the same life, different times, but it all fits. You actually fill in or imagine on your own what Noel is doing when he is not the lead and what Katie and Garry or Lisa and Anton are doing when we are listening to someone else. It just feels like a completel story without missing a beat.

I don't look at the stars on the reviews, I don't want them to influence me, and I have no idea what this book averages out to have, but I can tell you this, it is one of the few books I gave a full 5 stars. I normally just can not bring myself to give any book a full 5 starts, 4 is ok, but to get 5 it has to be incredible, and well, this book was incredible.(less)

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Jan 19, 2012 Dianne Socci-Tetro rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: galleys-arcs

If you have been a follower of Maeve's work, you will immediately recognize the close-knit neighborhood in Dublin, St Jarlath's Parish. You will also recognize so many people from past books and feel so very comfortable reading more about them, reconnecting with them, crying with them, having babies with them, and even burying them. However, we will meet some new people too and that is the fun of this book...if a book like this could actually be thought of as fun. This book is deep, it is profou...more If you have been a follower of Maeve's work, you will immediately recognize the close-knit neighborhood in Dublin, St Jarlath's Parish. You will also recognize so many people from past books and feel so very comfortable reading more about them, reconnecting with them, crying with them, having babies with them, and even burying them. However, we will meet some new people too and that is the fun of this book...if a book like this could actually be thought of as fun. This book is deep, it is profound, but it is rarely fun.

We will meet Noel an alcoholic who learns that a woman he doesn't remember is having his child and wants him to raise the child after she dies, since she is dying of cancer.
We will meet Frankie---the child of Noel and Stella. If the phrase "It takes a village to raise a child" ever meant anything, it sure means something in Frankie's case since the entire neighborhood comes together to care for her and to make a perfect life for her.
We will meet an American cousin, the middle aged Emily, whose seemingly sole purpose is to fix everyone and everything with her good advice and inner strength.
We will meet Moira the exact opposite of Emily, a social worker who is so afraid of seeing yet another headline in the paper of how social workers fail to keep children safe, that she is going overboard with her newest case, Noel and his new daughter Frankie. Moira is socially inept and heavy-handed and sometimes...ok, often times! annoying, but somehow we can understand her actions as they pertain to Frankie.

This was of course another wonderful Maeve Binchy book that tries to follow Maeve's writing formula---but for once, this book didn't seem to WANT to follow Maeve's formula. I think the stories in this book were too large to want to stay contained in one book. Sometimes this book seemed to feel more like a series of short novella's that just happened to have a common thread, than one interlocking novel.
I found the abrupt ending to be unsatisfying and a bit disturbing and I even felt a bit cheated that I would never know how Moira ends up, how Frankie and Noel deal with the "surprise" that nearly sent him back to drinking. This novel just never feels likeit was finished properly.
I hope that eventually there will be another book similar to "Minding Frankie"; one that will follow Frankie's life, and the lives of her caretakers, as she gets older and how she deals with the bombshell that Maeve dumps on us in this book.
(less)

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Nov 14, 2011 Ellie Mendez rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reading Maeve Binchy is so restful, she's an amazing story teller and since I've read and re-read most of her previous books I recognize most of the secondary characters and it's like visiting friends and knowing how they were doing. You can also tell the passage of time in Ireland, when once the country was thriving, now it's on a recession. Now people can speak with their relatives via Skype and e-mails, text messages and mobiles are part of everyday life, while still keeping the traditions an...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Carre rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review is addressed to readers who have been following Binchy's characters since Scarlet Feather. (Through Quentins; Nights of Rain and Stars; Whitethorn Woods; Heart and Soul.) They all reappear here, like a family reunion you've been waiting years for, and there are new ones to meet and love as well: Noel, the alcoholic who makes the very unwelcome discovery that he's going to be a father soon, and the mother of his baby is someone he hardly knows, who is on her deathbed. There're Noel's...more

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Jul 20, 2011 Hikachi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: love-story

When I first started reading it, I was like "Where's Frankie?" cause it took about three chapters on "preliminary background" for the characters involved there. But slowly, I was drawn to the good Samaritan neighborhood in Dublin. Namely St. Jarlath Crescent. The story weaved among a bunch of people in the community, with pretty much different personality, but mainly similar in the core. A home-loving or home-craving for some. And sadly, nobody in the story that really stand out, except for Lisa...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Drebbles rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

When Noel Lynch finds out he is going to be a father and that the baby’s mother is dying, he agrees to raise baby Frances Stella (known as Frankie). It won’t be easy for Noel who is an alcoholic, but he stops drinking, goes back to school, and applies himself to his job. It will be a struggle but fortunately Noel won’t have to raise Frankie alone – he has his family and friends to help.

“Minding Frankie” by Maeve Binchy is a sprawling novel filled with a large cast of characters and will at times...more When Noel Lynch finds out he is going to be a father and that the baby’s mother is dying, he agrees to raise baby Frances Stella (known as Frankie). It won’t be easy for Noel who is an alcoholic, but he stops drinking, goes back to school, and applies himself to his job. It will be a struggle but fortunately Noel won’t have to raise Frankie alone – he has his family and friends to help.

“Minding Frankie” by Maeve Binchy is a sprawling novel filled with a large cast of characters and will at times make you laugh and at other times make you cry. At the heart of the novel is Noel’s trying to raise Frankie – to her credit Binchy doesn’t make Noel’s attempts to stop drinking easy – he struggles mightily with the temptation. He evolves from a somewhat unlikable character at the beginning of the book to someone you are cheering on by the end of the book. Besides Noel’s story there are several other interesting storylines going on: his parents want to raise money to build a statue of St. Jarlath; his American cousin Emily comes to visit and ends up changing not only her life but the lives of those around her; classmate Lisa thinks her relationship with restaurant owner Anton is something other than what it really is; social worker Moira is so convinced that Frankie is not being taken care of properly that she ignores the love surrounding the baby; and many more (the book has so many characters that it can be hard to keep track of them all – a few characters could easily have been edited out of the book). Binchy fans will be pleased to see characters from other books of hers show up in the novel such as Muttie and Lizzie, Maud and Simon, Cathy, Signora and Aidan. All of the storylines in the book are interesting and make sure you have a box of tissues near you when reading the book, especially during the last half of the book.

“Minding Frankie” falters a bit at the end when Binchy throws in a completely unnecessary plot twist – it feels almost like she didn’t know how to end the book and threw in the twist out of desperation. However, despite the twist, “Minding Frankie” is for the most part a good if at times heartbreaking novel.
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Jun 01, 2011 Loralee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: chick-lit

Maeve Binchy writes lovely books with a cast of characters you would love to know in real life. This book revolves around Frankie-a tiny baby whose mother dies during childbirth. Stella knows that she is dying and as an unmarried mother, reaches out to Noel, an alcoholic with a dead end job and pronounces that he is the father.

Noel is shocked. He can hardly remember their relationship. But, he pulls his life together, gathers baby supplies, eventually joins A.A. and assembles a close-knit neighb...more

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Apr 10, 2011 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: amazon-vine-book

This wonderful novel is typical of Binchey's recent offerings. It is set in a neighborhood that becomes one of the characters in the book. In the neighborhood(which is a microcosm of Ireland) live a variety of interesting and extremely well developed characters.

The glue that seems to hold the story together is Emily coming from the states to visit her cousins who live on St. Jarlath's court. Immediately upon arrival Emily takes charge of the lives of her cousins and soon other people who live a...more

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Apr 10, 2011 Carolyn Hill rated it 3 of 5 stars

Maeve Binchy has always been a favorite author of mine, as I tend to prefer novels set in Ireland and the UK (the Old Country is so much more romantic somehow). However, my fondness for Binchy is wearing thin, and I much prefer her earlier works. I have read all her books, so I was familiar with the characters from her previous novels who showed up here, and there are a lot to keep track of. I'm beginning to find it irritating how she flits from one character to the next, lightly touching down b...more Maeve Binchy has always been a favorite author of mine, as I tend to prefer novels set in Ireland and the UK (the Old Country is so much more romantic somehow). However, my fondness for Binchy is wearing thin, and I much prefer her earlier works. I have read all her books, so I was familiar with the characters from her previous novels who showed up here, and there are a lot to keep track of. I'm beginning to find it irritating how she flits from one character to the next, lightly touching down before flying off to the next one. She only grazes the surface, and I don't feel there's any real character depth. I also find it exceedingly unlikely that one of the major characters, Emily, a New Yorker visiting relatives she's never met, manages to transform their lives and every thing she touches, even giving life-long Dubliners directions on where and how to find anything. She's some kind of miracle worker, intervening and solving problems and becoming so essential that everybody becomes dependent on her, but we really know nothing about her character. I think as nice as she seems to be that I would find her to be an interloper who's just a tad annoying. Funny that none of the characters think this, because she's too perfect, and everyone adores her. (To be realistic, aren't fictional characters supposed to have some flaws?) And I also found it unbelievable when she becomes romantically linked with a character who's barely mentioned. That could have been a wonderful part of the story, but it comes totally out of left field, with no development at all. As in Binchy's other recent novels, characters' lives are magically transformed, the hard-working deserving lower class receive financial windfalls, the demons of addiction are easily dispensed with, better jobs always await those who show initiative, family issues are happily resolved, and nearly everyone finds the right romantic partner. It's a reassuring world Binchy creates, but her slice-of-life stories resemble more of a fairy tale than real life. I like happy endings but I don't like feeling manipulated. Still, I enjoy the pleasant diversion of spending time in Binchy's world, even if it does have a rosy tint. (less)

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Mar 27, 2011 Susy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading a Maeve Binchy novel is best done curled up in an overstuffed chair while enjoying a cup of tea; it's just such a feeling of comfort. I substituted reading it on the couch where I could stretch out & give my aching ribs more room to heal which didn't actually help the ribs but was pretty darn comfortable. Binchy's more recent novels tend to follow a pattern of introducing a group of disparate characters and then ensuring that their lives intersect. This novel is no different but the...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Toni rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was so looking forward to this book and to catching up with my old friends from "Quentins" "Scarlet Feather" "Heart and Soul",etc. however I do not think that I would have liked this book as much if I hadn't read the previously mentioned books. I have to give it at least a 3.5 because she is a wonderful writer who 1/instills such warmth into her pages and 2/makes her characters come alive even though you have very little description of their appearance,Upon finishing one of her books,I often w...more

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Mar 03, 2011 Denise rated it 5 of 5 stars

Minding Frankie is the story of little Frankie Lynch whose mother died as she was giving birth. Her mother tells Noel Lynch that he is the father not long before she dies. A drunk who is unhappy in his work, he works hard to pull himself together for Frankie's sake. Helping, and occasionally, hindering him, are Binchy's usual cast of loveable, quirky characters - his parents who are obssessed with building a statue of Saint Jarleth, his long lost American cousin Emily who has just appeared, and...more

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Feb 02, 2011 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: vine-amazon

Every single time I pick up a Maeve book, it is like coming home after a long exhausting trip and falling into that comfortable easy chair, with the endless cups of hot tea at your side and all the favorite characters in Dublin hovering around ... if only life can be that comforting!! I read Maeve for the reasons I have stated above and for the fact that she really is a talented writer, who manages to keep the reader's interest in ordinary characters. Ordinary characters with ordinary concerns a...more

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Jan 01, 2011 Pervertedintel rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Minding Frankie is really a mixed bag. On one hand it follows a character that many books I read don’t bother with: an older female. This character, Emily, exerts her powers in distinctly feminine ways without tying herself to the kitchen and her pushes help to heal a household and make effects on the community at large in such a touching way with thanks to the skills of the writer. It handles religion intelligently in that the characters have some but the readers aren’t lectured on the author’s...more

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Jul 09, 2011 marg rated it 2 of 5 stars

2.5
I have always loved Maeve (and I feel I can call her that, since we have traveled through Knockglen so many times, and lit penny candles at Mass together, and gone to the echo cave to hear our futures) mostly for being such a misunderstood and under appreciated author. No, I always had to tell people, she is NOT another Belva Plain, or Barbara What's her Face, or the others with the thick pages and flowers on the cover that you find lining a shelf of a nursing home. Maeve not only spins tales...more 2.5
I have always loved Maeve (and I feel I can call her that, since we have traveled through Knockglen so many times, and lit penny candles at Mass together, and gone to the echo cave to hear our futures) mostly for being such a misunderstood and under appreciated author. No, I always had to tell people, she is NOT another Belva Plain, or Barbara What's her Face, or the others with the thick pages and flowers on the cover that you find lining a shelf of a nursing home. Maeve not only spins tales of small Irish villages that feel like warm sweaters, presenting characters you want to just sit and drink tea with all day, but also creates interesting characters - calculating women who can also be sympathetic, insecure women who eventually become strong.
That lasted a good five novels or so - then she took a turn. For one thing, we left the fifties - mistake, Maeve. It suited you much better. For another, we traded in cottages and footpaths for Dublin (ugh) and interesting people for caricatures.
Minding Frankie, aside from the stupid title, is a silly novel. It is all feel good, no depth. It is what people think Maeve to be, and I guess what she has become.
The story takes on far too many characters, more than I could keep track of, many of whom were apparently in her previous, more recent novels which I did not care for and therefore did not care that they were back, and the people neatly fall into good or bad. Emily, a cousin from America, is too good to be true - upon landing in Ireland she singlehandedly improves the lives of everyone around her in a no nonsense and efficient and wholly unrealistic way. She helps her cousin magically stop drinking and his parents find new roles for themselves. Noel, the drunkard, discovers he has impregnated a dying girl and now needs to step up his game, and through doing so we meet a whole other cast of people who step in to help.
We have Maeve's handy little coincidences that, in small doses, can be cute, here were one eye roll after another. People find love, learn lessons, get jobs, houses, friends, etc, as one need meets another vacancy. The people are, for the most part, dull, their problems stereotypical. We once again have Maeve's go to Bad Boyfriend as seen in all of her novels and The Stupid Women Who Love Them and I was just bored of it.
What did I like? Well. As the story takes on all of these little soap operas, Maeve does explore family ties - the social worker who is determined to get Noel's baby to a foster home because she is sure that is better, versus the people who insist the father is the best bet. The people who grew up with parents who couldn't care less about them casting doubt on that, alongisde wonderful adoptive families, versus people who were abused by foster parents. There is a lovely twist at the end that ties this all nicely, and the questions were interesting to contemplate.
I appreciated that the social worker, caricature though she was, was constantly at a loss as to how to best do her job, and often her good intentions blew up in her face. However, I couldn't take much of this book seriously due to its utter cartoonish style.
Maeve. I love you, still, and would totally dig an afternoon of toffies and scones while we contemplate the ever changing world. But I really miss the way you used to write.
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May 22, 2012 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Amanda by: Saw in on the shelf in RiteAid

Shelves: 2012

This story follows a tight-knit Dublin neighborhood community as they help Noel, a recovering alcoholic, adjust to the sudden demands of single parenthood, while defending him against Moira, an overly suspicious and intrusive social worker. Noel is asked by Stella, a young woman with a terminal illness, to take care of her unborn child after Stella's death. Stella tells Noel that Frankie, the baby, was the result of a one-night stand they had. Noel takes charge of the baby and is assigned to soc...more

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About Maeve Binchy

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.

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