LIGHT A PENNY CANDLE

by Maeve Binchy ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1983

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.

Pub Date: April 1, 1983

ISBN: 0451222644

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION