Evening Class
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Evening Class by Maeve Binchy
I discovered Maeve Binchy last September. I was on my library’s electronic loan site (Overdrive) searching for available audiobooks, when I came across A Week in Winter. I listened to it and immediately fell in love with the cacophony of characters and how their lives intersected. Binchy’s writing is vivid and her characters are completely relatable. She throws in the perfect amount of drama to give the story depth, but it never seems contrived. Binchy also manages to weave the various characters’ lives together in a sometimes surprising, but always interesting, way. At least this is how the 4 books of hers I’ve read have been! She has written so many books and I can’t wait to read them all!
In Evening Class the story revolves around a small school in Ireland, the beginner’s Italian class offered there, and the varied people who attend. The book begins with Aidan’s perspective. He is a Latin teacher at the local school who wants (and expects) to be nominated as the new principal very soon, and happens to be in a struggling marriage, but has not fully come to terms with this. The point of view then shifts to Signora’s. Signora is the name given to a young irish woman who follows the love of her life to Italy. The snag is that the love of her life is marrying another woman in Italy because of family expectations. She becomes ‘Signora’ as she settles into a house across the street, learns Italian, and immerses herself into a new life living on the sidelines of her lover. Fast forward 20-odd years and Signora’s lover dies, leaving her to return to Ireland where she meets Aidan and they strike up the idea to offer an Italian class. We meet a handful of other people as the story progresses, who one way or another have a reason to attend said Italian class. Each chapter is from one of these characters’ perspectives. So, each chapter you have a new point of view to learn about a new person, and you also see the other characters stories progress (just through someone else’s lens). The connections are incredible . . .family, friends, friend of a co-worker, etc. They all somehow weave together and part of the magic of the book is discovering how. I won’t spoil all the ins and outs, but I will say that the book culminates with all of the characters being together and then going to Italy on final trip!
I absolutely loved the characters in this book. They each had their own interesting backstory and vibrant personality. The fact that the plot revolved around an Italian class was different and Binchy threw in a ton of Italian, which I loved! I can’t say enough how much I love Binchy’s storytelling. It’s gripping, interesting, heartfelt, and beautiful. I did not want to put this book down. I had to find out how the characters’ lives overlapped and find out what was going to happen!!
Summing it up: I highly recommend Evening Class, and Maeve Binchy in general. I truly cannot wait to read all of her books. I love her way of bringing completely unrelated characters together and how they all have amazing, varied personalities! Have you read any of her books? Tell me which ones if you have!
All the best, Abbey
