Just Another Soap Opera

In Maeve Binchy’s novel, Tara Road, the reader will discover more than enough salacious behavior to script a successful TV soap opera.

There’s:

Danny Lynch, the fair-haired real estate developer who cheats on his wife with, at least, two mistresses;

Ria, Danny’s unsuspecting wife of fourteen years and mother of Annie and Brian;

Rosemary Ryan, a chic businesswoman who just happens to be Ria’s best friend and one of Danny’s long-time paramours;

Bernadette Dunne, the placid 22-year-old music teacher carrying Danny’s third child;

Marilyn Vine, a well-to-do New Englander, grieving the loss of her teenage son in a motorcycle accident;

Greg Vine, a university professor puzzled by his wife’s sudden unexplainable trip to Ireland.

Add in:  a recovering alcoholic (Colm Barry) launching a restaurant in the neighborhood, the tension-filled Brennan household where Gertie funds her husband’s chronic drinking out of self defense and the seer, Mrs. Connor, with her obscure picture of the future.

While not one of Binchy’s best, Tara Road was Oprah’s Book Club Selection in September 1999 and a 2005 film with Andie MacDowell as Marilyn and Olivia Williams as Ria.

The following discussion questions will lead your bookclubbers through the massive, 502 page tome.

1. What insights into Danny Lynch’s character did the author furnish early on in the novel?  Did these characteristics remain true as the plot progresses?
2. How can you explain the non-supportive reactions of Hilary and Nora when Ria announced her upcoming marriage?
3. After following Bernadette and her mother to the grocery, Ria tells the traffic warden, “I was just thinking about men and women and how they want different things.”  What did Ria want out of life?  Danny?  What about yourself?  Your husband?
4. Compare and contrast life in American with life in Ireland taking into consideration the difference in attitudes, prejudices and education.
5. On page 107, Binchy wrote, “If you couldn’t have a streamlined figure, flawless makeup and exquisite clothes, then having a perfect room was a substitute.”  Agree?  Disagree?
6. As Ria and Marilyn prepare  for the two-month visit, each tries to view her own home objectively.  What did Ria see?  Marilyn?  What do you see when you look around your own home?  What would you change?
7. Discuss Binchy’s portrayal of relationships in Tara Road.  Does she find most relationships to be dysfunctional?  Agree?  Disagree?
8. Tara Road is primarily a novel about women.  Who did you like?  Dislike?  Admire? Detest? Feel sorry for?
9. Marilyn thinks that, “The only way to cope with tragedy and grief was to refuse to permit it to be articulated and acknowledged.  Deny its existence and you had some hope of survival”.  What methods have you used in the past to deal with grief or tragedy in your life? Other family members?  Friends?  Which were the most successful?
10. Some reviewers criticize the novel for being too long and filled with extraneous characters and plot steps.  Suppose you had to edit the novel to make it more readable, what would you cut from its pages?
11. Did the setting play a large role in the novel?  Could the action have taken place anywhere at anytime?  If so, how would the plot have changed?
12. In your opinion, why did Binchy spend more time developing Ria’s character and situation in life?  Is Ria more important to the novel that Marilyn?

More information regarding Tara Road can be found in the April 24 post, Choosing the Right Book.