A silver wedding means a family gathering - difficult occasions at the best of times. But for the Doyles - Deidre, Desmond and their children Anna, Helen and Brendan - it will be more difficult than most. For each of them is keeping up a front; each of them is nursing a secret wound, or smarting over a hidden betrayal. As the day draws nearer, so the tension mounts, until finally the guests gather at the silver wedding party itself... Read by Kate Binchy (p) 1988 Audible Ltd
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A silver wedding means a family gathering - difficult occasions at the best of times. But for the Doyles - Deidre, Desmond and their children Anna, Helen and Brendan - it will be more difficult than most. For each of them is keeping up a front; each of them is nursing a secret wound, or smarting over a hidden betrayal. As the day draws nearer, so the tension mounts, until finally the guests gather at the silver wedding party itself... Read by Kate Binchy (p) 1988 Audible Ltd
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I think perhaps I have been reading Binchy's work in the wrong order; I started with her critically admired works, "Scarlet Feather," and "Circle of Friends," then I decided to investigate her earlier work, only to feel mildy disappointed. "Silver Wedding," published in 1989, offers glimmers of her talent that would later be on more advantageous display, but never quite pulls together into a cohesive story. This, like much of Binchy's work, is a story of small events that are big to those who are living them. It is a well-drawn portrait of a family but I wanted the deeper characterization that I have seen in her later works. I never quite got to know one member of the Doyle family before the book moved on to another character. That said, I finished this book in one day, as it moves very quickly as is by no means boring. It's just that Binchy has grown a lot as a storyteller since writing "Silver Wedding."