January 22, 2022 review:
I really enjoyed this re-read. I would now honestly give this a 5 now. I was just in the mood for a simple short story. I do miss Maeve Binchy’s writing.
Original review:
I gave this short story 4.5 stars. Since Goodreads does not have half stars, I rounded this up to 5 stars on this site.
I can’t believe how much oompf Binchy managed to pack in just 38 pages. I honestly can’t believe this story was that short.
We find ourselves immersed in the story of Dusty and her family. The story centers on Dusty as a child and follows her until she is 27 years of age. Dusty’s family is not big on displays of affection or being up front about all things. The youngest child in a family where her two older brothers were already well on their way to adulthood sets her apart from her family. I’m not going to lie though, at times I didn’t like the character of Dusty. What I did enjoy reading though is that she in the end realizes her judgments about certain things was not correct.
The writing was top-notch though I thought it was a little bit funny this book was taking place during the 1980s for the most part in Ireland. It would have been great to have this story look back at Dusty when she was an older woman and thinking on how she was raised, and how she changed through the years.
The flow at times I thought was a little bit off. I think it was because I could feel at times Binchy wanting to elaborate more on a subject. There are odd places like that in the book here and there. Binchy chooses what to add more details in some odd places, but not in places I would have wished to see more detail about if that makes sense.