Firefly Summer (by Maeve Binchy)

(Amazon UK link)

I’ve decided to re-read all the books I’ve collected by Maeve Binchy, roughly in chronological order. So I pulled ‘Firefly Summer’ from its bookcase… and looked at it in some dismay. It’s a very long novel, over 750 pages, and I didn’t remember particularly liking it when I first read it, or when I re-read it in 2005. But I thought I would at least start it, and aim to read at least fifty pages a day. 

In the event, I found it so absorbing that I finished it in just a week. Like all Binchy’s writing, the novel is warm, descriptive without being dull, filled with real, three-dimensional characters. It’s set in the 1960s in a small Irish town called Mountfern. The main characters are a family who own the pub: John Ryan and his wife Kate, and their four children. Dara and Michael are twins, aged 12 at the start of the novel. They have two younger brothers, Eddie who seems to be attracted to mischief and adventure, and his much more nervous, fearful brother Declan. 

Dara and Michael have a group of friends around their age, and spend a lot of their time playing in the ruins of the old, ruined Fernscourt mansion. Then a wealthy American arrives, having bought the Fernscourt land. He has Irish roots and wants to rebuild the house as a hotel. Patrick O’Neill is a likeable person who has dreamed of returning to his roots for many years, although most of his friends advise against it. He has a son, fifteen-year-old Kerry, who is cynical and devious, and a beautiful 12-year-old daughter, Grace, who is charming, friendly and kind. Possibly a tad too much as Grace appears to have no faults at all.

Patrick’s arrival is the catalyst for a lot of changes. There’s inevitable opposition, and a lot of worries about what the hotel might do to local businesses, particularly the Ryans’ pub. He has to learn that things don’t happen quickly - the novel covers about three years, not just one summer as the title implies. And there aren’t any fireflies in Mountfern. 

There’s a large cast of local characters, too many for me to remember them, but whereas in some books it’s confusing to have so many people, it wasn’t a problem for me in this book. When one of them is significant to the story, their context is subtly shown. A few stand out: Rachel Fine, Patrick’s colleague and mistress from the United States is a very likeable person. Sheila Whelan, the postmistress, observes everything that’s going on, and is both understanding and discreet. Fergus Slattery, the solicitor, is a bit disorganised, single-minded but naive. 

There are some shocks in the story, events that have many repercussions. It’s so long since I last read the book that I had entirely forgotten about them; even when they happened I was not expecting them. People’s lives change forever, and although Patrick is not necessarily held responsible, he knows that if he hadn’t arrived, following his dream, life might have continued without some of the tragedies that occur. 

In the end things come full circle in a way which, again, I had not remembered at all. Perhaps it’s inevitable, perhaps for the best. I found myself a little disappointed; yet I’m not sure how else it could have ended. 

I’m glad I decided to re-read ‘Firefly Summer’, and hope I won’t leave it nearly two decades before I read it again.

Review copyright 2024 Sue's Book Reviews