Light a penny candle

The chaos of World War II London sends preteen Elizabeth White to the safety of Ireland and into the lives of the much larger and emotional O'Connor family. The enduring friendship she finds with her counterpart, Aisling, forms the framework of this novel, offering clear contrasts between the two families and countries. The early chapters of Binchy's 1982 debut novel are engagingly humorous, filled with solid characterizations of these two very different but compatible adolescents. The girls sustain their friendship and distinct personalities through regular letters, but unfortunately they must grow up and the novel may strain under the conventionality of the genre and some inconsistency, perhaps due to Binchy's inexperience as an author at the time she wrote the original story. Her cousin Kate Binchy reads the book well, capturing the innocence, yearning, and growth of the girls. Recommended for larger fiction collections.--Joyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Perhaps marriage did destroy everyone. It could be nature's way of preventing people from enjoying themselves too much while on earth."" And certainly the matings in this luxuriantly gossipy tale (set in London and an Irish village, 1940-1960) are models of mis-matches--with partners loving too much, too little, or the wrong way entirely. Elizabeth White from London and Aisling O'Connor from Kilgarret, Ireland, become fast friends at ten--when Elizabeth's ""difficult, flighty"" mother Violet and moody, weak father George send her to stay in WW II safety with the O'Connors. (Aisling's hearty mum Eileen, married to hard-working shopkeeper Sean, is Violet's old school chum.) So Elizabeth happily joins the clan, away from her own jumpy home, where Violet is making plans to leave George for adoring Harry. But troubles between parents and children begin to flower at the O'Connors'. And when Elizabeth returns to London to cope with her new home situation, she'll have more than enough excitement of her own: art school is a success; taking on a job at an antique shop, she meets marvelous Johnny Stone--funny, charming, a gently satisfying lover for seven years. . . but not the marrying sort. (""Johnny doesn't get involved in people's lives, in fusses, in things he doesn't want to. . . that's not his style."") So pregnant Elizabeth, unknown to Johnny, has an abortion, later tires of Johnny's callous infidelities, and drifts into the safe harbor of marriage and motherhood with banker Henry--an eerily familiar presence who, alas, is soon revealed as a whining, unexciting mirror-image of Elizabeth's father George. Meanwhile, Aisling has married Tony Murray, the handsome heir to little Kilgarret's biggest business, who turns out to be not only impotent but an alcoholic; divorce is delayed for a while by Aisling's devout mum Eileen--but a night of violence ends the marriage for good. And the two women's unlucky love lives will come together at the close: Elizabeth's impulsive solution to marriage's dark pit is a shocker in which Aisling (who inherited Johnny), Henry's partner (also an Aisling lover), and unexpectedly understanding step-dad Harry (now a widower) are all involved. Destined for Redbook serialization: superior pop-pillow talk about the losers women wind up with and the glamorous ones that get away. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.