Quentins

I've heard good things about Maeve Binchy, but this is the first time I've ever read one of her books. I was at Borders and this one happened to catch my eye, but then I thought I'd just get it at the library...I'm trying not to spend as much money on books as I usually do, and figure if it's an older one, I can likely just find it at the library for free. (I was going to check out Circle of Friends as well, but it looked gross. You know, like it had been in the library for 20 yrs and the cover was all nasty looking and falling apart. Gah).

Anywayyyy....I really loved this book. Quentins is a restaurant in Dublin, and the book talks about all the stories of people who frequent the restaurant and most of their lives all connect somehow. There are quite a lot of characters to follow, but it never got confusing. The book mainly follows Ella Brady, who falls in love with an older, married man (Don). Don ends up screwing up her whole life (and the lives of half the other people in Dublin). She decides to make a documentary about Quentins over the years, in part to help make money since she's totally broke.

Basically, the book goes between Ella's story, and the people who run the restaurant, and then there are some random chapters that are sort of short stories about different people and things that have happened in the restaurant.

Apparently Quentins features a few of the characters that were in early books, so when I returned this, I checked out "Evening Class," which features one of the more minor characters in Quentins. I'm excited to read it!