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Summary
Summary
With the warmth, humor, and compassion we have come to expect from her, Maeve Binchy tells a story of family, friends, patients, and staff who are part of a heart clinic in a community caught between the old and the new Ireland.
Dr. Clara Casey has been offered the thankless job of establishing the underfunded clinic and agrees to take it on for a year. She has plenty on her plate already--two difficult adult daughters and the unwanted attentions of her exhusband--but she assembles a wonderfully diverse staff devoted to helping their demanding, often difficult patients: the infectiously cheerful nurse; the indispensable office manager who can't quite manage her own life; the Polish girl who's come to Ireland to put a bad love affair firmly in her past and the booming Irish economy in her future; the young doctor who has a special touch with his patients; the physical therapist who undertakes a very different kind of therapy involving a local priest and a stalker.
Before long they manage to establish the clinic as an essential part of the community and Clara must decide whether or not to leave a place where lives are saved, courage is rewarded, and humor and optimism triumph over greed and self-pity.
Heart and Soul is Maeve Binchy at her heartwarming storytelling best.
Author Notes
Maeve Binchy was born in Dublin, Ireland on May 28, 1940. She received a B.A. from University College in Dublin in 1960. After teaching at a school for girls, she became a journalist, columnist and editor at the Irish Times. By 1979, she was writing plays, a successful television script, and several short story collections.
Her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, was published in 1982. During her lifetime, she wrote more than 20 books including Silver Wedding, Scarlet Feather, Heart and Soul, Minding Frankie, and A Week in Winter. The Lilac Bus and Echoes were made into TV movies, while Circle of Friends, Tara Road and How About You were made into feature films. Her title Chestnut Street is a New York Times Best Seller. She died after a brief illness on July 30, 2012 at the age of 72.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Binchy delivers another delightful Binchyesque amalgamation of intersecting lives, this time centering on Clara Casey, a cardiologist whose marriage and career have fallen apart. After she accepts an undesirable post at St. Brigid's Hospital, Clara throws herself into work to forget the humiliation of her husband's many affairs, but it's difficult to escape her home life with two adult daughters who still depend on her as if they were children. Though she stands at the center of the book, Clara cedes the stage to others, such as Declan Carroll, a young doctor at the clinic trying to make a life for himself, and Ania, Clara's assistant, whose affair with a married man forced her to leave her Polish hometown. Beautiful, hardworking and humble, Ania attracts the attention of Carl Walsh, the son of one of the clinic's patients. And so it goes in this novel of intersecting lives that keeps daily drama interesting even when it occasionally sacrifices suspense for realism. In spite of a few dull moments, the collective, charming effect of these story lines suggests that individuals are more connected than they might think. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A Dublin heart clinic, full of romantic and family crises in need of healing, provides the apt setting for Binchy's latest (Whitethorn Woods, 2007, etc.). St. Brigid's Hospital opens a cardiac clinic over the fiscal objections of administrator Frank Ennis. Directing the clinic isn't the big job Dr. Clara Casey wanted, and her mood isn't improved when long-estranged husband Alan turns up to say his girlfriend is pregnant and he wants a divorce. But soon Clara is enthusiastically involved in redecorating and hiring a crack staff, whose lives intertwine with those of the clinic's patients in the familiar Binchy landscape of overlapping stories. Young Dr. Declan and Nurse Fiona fall in love. Impoverished but multitalented aide Ania falls for Carl, whose father is an elderly patient. Ania also helps physical therapist Johnny's friend Father Flynn avoid an unmerited scandal; Binchy fans will enjoy the cameo appearances by this benevolent priest and numerous other characters from earlier books. Clara finally begins divorce proceedings against Alan and becomes romantically involved with a goodhearted, penny-pinching pharmacist. Clara's assistant Hilary, who can't bear to put a beloved but failing parent into a home, blames herself when her mother wanders off and is hit by a car. At the clinic's big fundraiser, Clara and still-shaky Hilary plot to match Clara's aimless daughter with Hilary's musician son. Meanwhile, Carl's snobbish mother attempts to drive a wedge between him and Ania, but he stands up to her. Declan's engagement to Fiona is tested when Fiona gets cold feet, but Declan's patience is rewarded. By the time we get to their wedding at Father Flynn's social center for immigrants, most of the singles have happily coupled off. Even Clara and her archenemy Frank dance the night away. Part of the fun is guessing who will show up in the next book. Binchy has her formula down pat, and only a curmudgeon could resist this master of cheerful, read-by-the-fire comfort. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
A Dublin hospital cardiac care center forms the figurative heart, and forges the symbolic soul, of Binchy's latest tour de force celebration of the simple blessings of a community whose joyous bonds are often eclipsed by the eccentricities of family and the improbable volatility of love. When Dr. Clara Casey becomes manager of the controversial and woefully unsupported outpatient clinic, she swiftly assembles a motley supporting staff of charismatic doctors, compassionate nurses, capable therapists, and clever assistants whose personal affairs of the heart are frequently more compelling and occasionally more cataclysmic than the physical infirmities presented by the actual patients. Whether it is a valiant young Polish girl on the lam from a ruinous love affair or a bumbling parish priest being pursued by a devious con artist, no one least of all Clara herself is immune from getting caught up in one of the daily mini-dramas that assail this dedicated group. Interweaving the domestic narratives of a dissimilar collection of individuals is beloved Binchy's stock-in-trade, and once again, she does so with sublime ease, inventively engaging readers through a reassuring and persuasive combination of gracious warmth, gentle humor, and genuine affection.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2008 Booklist
Library Journal Review
The newly hired director of a cardiac-care center, Dr. Clara Casey is a strong character, who with great humor and panache manages life as a female medical professional and the single mother of two daughters. Crossing paths in the clinic or via clinic staff are Nora and Aidan Dunne, Father Bryan Flynn, Tom and Cathy Feather, and twins Simon and Maud, among others from various earlier Binchy novels (e.g., Evening Class). In keeping with tradition, several important dinners take place at Quentins restaurant. A nurse in Clara's clinic, Fiona Ryan has rebounded from the disastrous relationship portrayed in Nights of Rain and Stars, and a hard-working Polish immigrant named Ania overcomes her past and blossoms in her adopted country. The novel ranges far and wide, following some recurring characters to Greece, and it is always a comfort to catch up with familiar faces and meet new friends. Binchy fills the book with people finding true love, discovering their niche in life, and taking full advantage of second chances. Binchy's numerous fans will seek this out. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/08.]-Beth Lindsay, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.