I've read some of her novels and am familiar with the warmth and humour of her writing. As it turned out, she brought those talents to bear on these stories and, given her evident knack for choosing plots well suited to brevity, the result was witty and engaging.
Chestnut Street pulls together slices of life from the inhabitants of a fictional Dublin street and the palette of characters ranges from the tragic to the comic.
True to Binchy's style, foibles are in plentiful supply. She was an astute judge of character and no weakness, self-deception or foolish affectation escaped her eye. That kind of observation is custom-made for the short story and Binchy makes full use of it here.
Each household has something to offer the reader, be it family angst, the rise or fall of a romance, a misunderstanding, a mystery about a new neighbour or a revelation about an old one. Relationships come under the microscope as the day-to-day lives of the residents ebb and flow through the stories.
Sometimes the smallest of arrangements - neighbours swapping cooking lessons for help using a computer, a short holiday that goes off on a tangent, or an old friend coming to house-sit - can form the nucleus of an entertaining story.
It is not all grand passions and neighbourhood dramas; Binchy's skill was in characterisation, which can thrive on the smallest of plots.
I liked that some of the residents appeared in more than one story, which meant the neighbourhood got more familiar as I proceeded through the book, giving it a sense of continuity. I found it delightful, especially as some of the stories were laugh-out-loud material, The Wrong Caption being my favourite.
I'd suggest reading Chestnut Street for that story alone, but have no hesitation recommending all of them.
- Caroline Hunter is an ODT subeditor.
