Minding Frankie

by Maeve Binchy, Sile Bermingham (Narrator)

Maeve Binchy is back with a tale of joy, heartbreak and hope, about a motherless girl collectively raised by a close-knit Dublin community.

When Noel learns that his terminally ill former flame is pregnant with his child, he agrees to take guardianship of the baby girl once she's born. But as a single father battling demons of his own, Noel can't do it alone.

Fortunately, he has a competent, caring network of friends, family and neighbors: Lisa, his unlucky-in-love classmate, who moves in with him to help him care for little Frankie around the clock; his American cousin, Emily, always there with a pep talk; the newly retired Dr. Hat, with more time on his hands than he knows what to do with; Dr. Declan and Fiona and their baby son, Frankie's first friend; and many eager babysitters, including old friends Signora and Aidan and Frankie's doting grandparents, Josie and Charles.

But not everyone is pleased with the unconventional arrangement, especially a nosy social worker, Moira, who is convinced that Frankie would be better off in a foster home. Now it's up to Noel to persuade her that everyone in town has something special to offer when it comes to minding Frankie.

Listening Length: 13 hours and 23 minutes

Genres: Fiction, Ireland, Chick Lit, Audiobook, Romance, Contemporary, Irish Literature

Audible Audio

First published September 30, 2010

About the author

Anne Maeve Binchy Snell was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, columnist, and speaker. Her novels were characterised by a sympathetic and often humorous portrayal of small-town life in Ireland, and surprise endings. Her novels, which were translated into 37 languages, sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. Her death at age 73, announced by Vincent Browne on Irish television late on 30 July 2012, was mourned as the death of one of Ireland's best-loved and most recognisable writers.
She appeared in the US market, featuring on The New York Times Best Seller list and in Oprah's Book Club. Recognised for her "total absence of malice" and generosity to other writers, she finished third in a 2000 poll for World Book Day, ahead of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Stephen King.

Reviews

[Carolyn Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maeve Binchy has always been a favorite author of mine, as I tend to prefer novels set in Ireland and the UK (the Old Country is so much more romantic somehow). However, my fondness for Binchy is wearing thin, and I much prefer her earlier works. I have read all her books, so I was familiar with the characters from her previous novels who showed up here, and there are a lot to keep track of. I'm beginning to find it irritating how she flits from one character to the next, lightly touching down before flying off to the next one. She only grazes the surface, and I don't feel there's any real character depth. I also find it exceedingly unlikely that one of the major characters, Emily, a New Yorker visiting relatives she's never met, manages to transform their lives and every thing she touches, even giving life-long Dubliners directions on where and how to find anything. She's some kind of miracle worker, intervening and solving problems and becoming so essential that everybody becomes dependent on her, but we really know nothing about her character. I think as nice as she seems to be that I would find her to be an interloper who's just a tad annoying. Funny that none of the characters think this, because she's too perfect, and everyone adores her. (To be realistic, aren't fictional characters supposed to have some flaws?) And I also found it unbelievable when she becomes romantically linked with a character who's barely mentioned. That could have been a wonderful part of the story, but it comes totally out of left field, with no development at all. As in Binchy's other recent novels, characters' lives are magically transformed, the hard-working deserving lower class receive financial windfalls, the demons of addiction are easily dispensed with, better jobs always await those who show initiative, family issues are happily resolved, and nearly everyone finds the right romantic partner. It's a reassuring world Binchy creates, but her slice-of-life stories resemble more of a fairy tale than real life. I like happy endings but I don't like feeling manipulated. Still, I enjoy the pleasant diversion of spending time in Binchy's world, even if it does have a rosy tint.

[Tea Jovanović · Rating 4 out of 5]

As expected, another warm, human story from my favourite Irish writer... about small community gathered around an orphaned newlyborn babygirl... Standard warm novel from great lady!

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Struggling with his own demons of alcoholism, Noel must find a way of pulling himself together to look after his baby daughter, Frankie after her mother passed away not long after giving birth to her.

With the support from family, friends and neighbors, Noel's starts to get his life back on track. Having Frankie in his life has turned Noel's world upside down in a positive way and he couldn't imagine life without her. But could this all change when a prying social worker has doubts that Frankie is in the best care. Noel will have to do all he can to convince the social worker that Frankie is in the best place, but will it be enough?

A beautiful, heartwarming story that I thoroughly enjoyed. Highly recommended.

[Suz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story that I will re-read soon. Maeve's books just are special. She's the type of writer that you feel you have a kinship with as her stories are just so good! This was no exception ** I just found my brand new copy of this amongst the too many kids books I have jammed in my shelf. Definitely a re-read ASAP!!!! I guess this is when my silly jam packed book/homewares shelf has it's positive side!

[Pervertedintel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Minding Frankie is really a mixed bag. On one hand it follows a character that many books I read don’t bother with: an older female. This character, Emily, exerts her powers in distinctly feminine ways without tying herself to the kitchen and her pushes help to heal a household and make effects on the community at large in such a touching way with thanks to the skills of the writer. It handles religion intelligently in that the characters have some but the readers aren’t lectured on the author’s. On the other hand, Maeve Binchy’s refusal to describe characters beyond giving a few of them hair colour leaves me to conclude, in the same way that I concluded Ms. Binchy was a teacher because Emily was, that Emily is overweight with short brown/blonde hair, green eyes with arched eyebrows and the starting of a double chin, much the same as the author’s portrait on the back of the book. Emily is not a full blown Mary Sue, she can be genuinely likeable a lot of the time depending on your mind set, and her role tapers off as the plot continues. But the moments she does take over are unforgivable.

Though this book starts off extremely promising in Binchy’s decision to discuss death, alcoholism, child-rearing and isolation it often takes the easy road and skips the hardest scenes and tells us about them second hand. For instance, if you think that we the readers should get to see the characters struggle with the first night that Frankie, the baby who the book was named after, comes home from the hospital then you don’t subscribe to Binchy’s writing style. If you don’t want to have a point of view paragraph or two about the man diagnosed with lung cancer and six months to live you Binchy is the author for you. He moves from zero into acceptance and stays there. This is especially sad because though this man is one of the major supporting cast and pages and pages are dedicated to him, his family and his funeral it’s not once stated that he smokes. Smoking doesn’t equal instant lung cancer and neither does lung cancer only lead to smoking but I would have a host of non-acceptance feelings if I’d never touched cigarettes and still been diagnosed with lung cancer. Binchy really should invest in a better editor because omissions like this run right through the 400+ page book.

Noel’s relapses do get attention but can be oddly cartoonish as demonstrated by this exchange:

Noel: ‘From tomorrow on it will be back just the same as it [Noel’s sobriety] was up to now.’

‘What do you mean tomorrow? What’s wrong with today?’ Malachy asked.

‘Well tomorrow, fresh start and everything.’

‘Today fresh start and everything,’ Malachy said.

‘But just a couple of vodkas to straighten me up and then we can start with a clean slate?’ Noel was almost begging now.

‘Grow up, Noel, Malachy said. – chpt 7

Grow up indeed Noel. Maybe Binchy has heard someone actually say something like this in this situation but it rings childish and simplistic. Noel only relapses when extremely stressed and though we do get a short paragraph about his cravings at the start of the book we learn none of his coping mechanisms. We are constantly told Noel goes to AA but are barely given a peek at his first AA. Binchy brings up his potential for alcoholism related impotence yet we’re never told if Noel actually does suffer it.

Other difficult issues are fully ignored such as Stella’s maternal smoking. I’m not saying that everything that can go wrong must go wrong but Binchy does not seem to have even the most passing knowledge that maternal smoking can effect a foetus which is odd considering that Frankie’s mother is dying of lung cancer. Again and again the opportunity to raise the issue that Frankie could have suffered premature birth low birth weight, asthma, addiction and withdrawal, possible retardation from the restricted oxygen supply etc when everyone from the priest is smuggling Stella cigarettes and she is, you know, dying of lung cancer herself. I wasn’t sure if this was a lack of research into the author’s part. The fact that she understands that smoking=bad yet has not taken in any of the hundreds of antismoking campaigns directed at expectant mothers at first left me to conclude that Binchy is a fucking idiot. That said though, the plot is left intact and cancer is able to kill two characters, quite cleanly as plots go. Cancer is scary and fatal disease. You often don’t know you have it until it’s too late to do anything. That is all Binchy needs to tell this story and that’s all that you need to really know to enjoy it. It doesn’t distract from the real bitter sweetness that Binchy manages to evoke upon both characters’ deaths. There is scene, very close to the end that Binchy handles above averagely but I won’t spoil it for you.

The book is extremely repetitive and character development can move like treacle at times. Again and again Lisa goes out with Anton, hopes for more and is unsatisfied. Again and again she hates her rival in his affections and we learn that said rival has no idea what they’re doing. Again and again Moira embarrasses herself with her own abruptness and again and again all the other characters tell each other and us what a stuck up bitch she is. All the dysfunctional families, or which three are mentioned in detail, have emotionally absent, distracted mothers. They can’t be abusive or drug addicted or ill or having affairs. The fathers are similarly distant. They must only be absent. It gets boring when all the characters’ back stories start ending up the same.

We are often told in unneeded detail about the roster for who has Baby Frankie and about where Emily’s going though we rarely follow them. Baby Frankie becomes less of a baby and more as a prop as she gets wheeled from place to place and being well behaved. More time is spent on this her actually bonding with every other character. Her entire interactions with her grandparents is summed up in one or two scant paragraphs. In the same way Emily’s romance confuses the reader because we spend more time learning what Emily is cooking for her lover then giving lingering glances or affectionate hugs. When he proposed to her I was blown over by the fact that she had said yes. She’d never shown the readers any affection for him, romantic or otherwise, up until that point. I honestly thought she was just passing time with him as something to do and can’t imagine that they’d actually consummate their marriage considering that Binchy never bothered to build up any chemistry between them. But don’t worry, we know exactly what they have for dinner every time we’re with them. Yet again I bemoan the fact that Binchy doesn’t know a good editor when she sees one. It’s truly sad that someone wasn’t there to whisper in her ear that readers care more about the honeymoon than about Emily’s brilliant organisational skills in getting them there. Descriptions of clothes take up more time than character descriptions and one could excuse the fact that some of the girls working at the thrift shop. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that I have no mental image of Noel except that he’s in his late twenties or early thirties (maybe). At the very end of the book we find out that he doesn’t have dark eyes or high cheek bones which sucks because I actually decided to give him dark blue eyes in my head.

Emily comes to Dublin and within a few days of arrival helps Charles confess to the family that he has lost his job and Noel confess his alcoholism. Emily’s lively presence is needed in this world, especially for her ability to spot Noel’s alcoholism. As Stella goes to her death, it is not her the doctor thinks of. Neither is it his own wife who has just given birth, an hour ago, to a healthy baby boy. Nor is it any of his friends or family which he has known for years, not Noel who has turned his life around or his parents. No, in Stella’s last conscious moments it is Emily, who he’d only met some weeks ago, that fills his head with her liveliness. Jesus Binchy.

In Emily’s presence other characters become dimmer to justify their need of her in their lives. Charles bemoans the fact that she’s going back to America because Emily was always finding him new clients and remembering to segregate dogs of different sexes in case they might do something to annoy their owners greatly.

At the doctor’s practice they would miss her too. Nobody seemed to know exactly where to find this document or that. Emily was a reassuring presence. Everyone who worked there had her mobile number, but they had been told that she couldn’t be called for three weeks. As Declan Carroll said, it was unnerving, just like going off a high diving board, without Emily.

Who else would know all the things that Emily knew? The best bus route to the hospital, the address of the chiropodist that all the patients liked, the name of the pastoral carer in St Brigid’s? –chpt 10

Remember, this woman has been here for a year give or take or less. She tries to help but in that year a grown man with no mental retardation has lost the confidence to keep differently sexed dogs apart, staff don’t know how to file properly, including the referral records to the chiropodist and the contact details for hospital’s pastor, or even how to get to the hospital that they work at. That’s right, the people who go to work every day to the heart clinic on the hospital’s grounds don’t know how to get to the hospital.

But obviously Binchy is referring to the patients asking directions. She apparently then knows the best bus route from anywhere in Dublin to the hospital and can tailor her knowledge to the client. I have something like that and it’s called Trip Planner. If a client who’s booked an appointment at my hospital doesn’t know how to get there, I might consider opening it up for them. But only because I work at private and I have the time. It’s up to the patient to get to the hospital just like it’s up to them to get to everywhere else in their lives as functioning adults. In the same way if someone from work called me to ask me who the best chiropodist was I’d think they were retarded. I’d also think I was retarded because I’d given my number out. I do give my number to my work, you have to, but there’s a difference between giving your contact details to your boss and giving it to everyone on staff with the implication that they can use you and not their brains as the first point of reference.

And that’s where it gets dark, right there: no one seems to be missing Emily, just what she does for them. The book does sometimes dip its toe in insight:

Lisa wondered what it would be like to have a life like this-where everyone sort of depended on you but nobody actually loved you. - chpt 5

But this amounts to little. Emily is a Mary Sue but in a different way: instead of a teenage girl who is loved for no reason we have a middle aged woman who is needed by everyone. This woman, thiks Binchy, will never be passed over, will never be forgotten. Emily is a wonder woman with her boundless energy and an emotional genius in her insights into others. She pays lip service to them having to learn to live without her but then she does things like giving out her number and letting people know they can call her if anything goes wrong. But it gets creepy quickly because everybody needs Emily. The author tries to give Emily character development too. She does many things, even marriage, though that has little effect on her. Her best friend Betsy notes that there’s an amazing change in Emily from introvert to extravert but what Emily states about herself, which I take to be true, directly contradicts that. From the very start, as soon as Emily quit her job as an art teacher because they kept her in the back filing papers she started to acquire skills and decided to go out and find her roots. At no point does she ever show timidness or uncertainty. Her brief dabbling into outrage becomes a misunderstood cop out.

It’s a small world in Minding Frankie. Apparently there are only three restaurants in all of Dublin. Characters who have never met Anton and have no stakes in his restaurant are still only allowed, mind bogglingly, to choose between his and his rival for where to go for dinner yet apparently his restaurant is still struggling. Where other writers find pride in widening their world with as few strokes as possible Binchy takes a perverse delight in making hers as small as possible. It gets to eye-rolling levels of confining when of course the police sergeant’s wife is Muttie’s nurse as almost no character mentioned by name can somehow not be connected to someone else. It depends on your own personality whether or not you find Clara hooking up her daughter with her best friend’s son creepy or sweet. It didn’t sit well with me for reasons I can’t explain but I forgive them because that’s the only chance at a date in this tiny, tiny world.

There is a huge lack of growth for the majority of characters yet the book doesn’t direct the reader to see that as a bad thing. Noel’s entire character development is over by the first quarter of the book. I suggest you not bother with Clara whose character development goes from a tough old bird with a heart and a mum, who’s sleeping with a man she’ so so about to a tough old bird with a heart and a mum, who’s moving in with the man she’s so so about because Binchy refuses to build up any sexual chemistry or romantic love between any of the characters (except with Lisa and Anton but that’s the only basis of their relationship). Which is odd because she seems to be able to talk frankly about sex. Baby Frankie is not a real child but due to her young age, merely a prop to be wheeled from place to place. In fact no one at the heart clinic has any kind or development though one does finally have a baby after numerous miscarriages.

The book does take some unexpected turns. Two characters who by all romantic convention should hook up don’t. A character who is set up to deserve a happy ending doesn’t get one.

The designated villain of the book, Moira the social worker, was handled unfairly in my opinion. Moira is a shell of woman from a broken family. She has no friends to speak of. SPOILERS. Some may say that her happy ending was subtle but her stepmother’s change of heart simply seemed out of the blue and didn’t reflect Moira’s actions. By the end of the novel the colleagues she’s worked for months with have no warmth for her, and in fact state jokingly that they’d never invite her to a party, though do praise her skills at doing her job. The tentative, one-sided friendship that she was starting to build with another main character crumbled before it could get off the ground with limited growth for Moira, a character that Binchy tries to paint as sympathetic. Though perhaps realistic, this was made grating by the repetition of how horrible she was by characters that I liked nowhere near as much. Moira is frowned upon for telling another character that she knows a friend of his through her work as a social worker. Yet it’s okay for a doctor to pronounce dead a man who he considers family. I’m not even going into the fact that all the good characterstry to hide Noel’s relapses from the stuck up bitch.

After all that, if you’re wondering why I didn’t give this book a lower rating, it’s because Binchy is a rather good writer in that she has an amazing ability to insert warmth into the story. It’s an easy read if you don’t think about it too hard.

Short recommendation: Buy this book if you want a warm and fuzzy feeling. It’s an easy read and you don’t have to think too much. There’s one especially tear jerking scene early on where I did feel my eyes dampen and wasn’t ashamed to admit it.

[La Crosse County Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was originally published on May 20, 2011

After reading a brief description of Maeve Binchy’s new book, Minding Frankie, I was hoping that this latest novel of hers would be another wonderful, cozy, cheerful tale in her well known Irish tradition. It is all this and so much more!

In typical Binchy style, a large cast of unique and quirky characters are introduced. I love how they all eventually have some contact with each other (a Binchy trademark). They all live in a snug Dublin neighborhood called St. Jarlath’s Crescent. The book cover shows the neighborhood and as the story progresses I can picture Noel, a young alcoholic, leaving his home to work at his boring job, attend school and AA meetings, and juggle his life around his baby daughter, Frankie. How he became a father to Frankie is the center of the story.

Noel’s American cousin, Emily, is a super-woman in the areas of organization and insight. She sets a plan in motion for the neighborhood to support Noel in his new roles. Along the way she re-directs Noel’s parents to a more purposeful life, advises various young people (without being pushy), is a bridesmaid for her best friend back in America, and surprises herself with a life-changing decision.

Then there is suspicious, nosy, social worker Moira. She is convinced Frankie would be better off in a foster home. She is all business and appears to be un-feeling and cold. As her own story unfolds, the reader will discover she has her own sad family history. The more she performs her job as a social worker the more she discovers about human nature and the kindness of people. Moira learns a lot about herself as she observes the lively, caring neighbors in the old Dublin neighborhood.

Minding Frankie truly proves that “it takes a village to raise a child.” There are many wonderful characters united by friendship, faith, and family. Some are from previous Binchy novels and that’s one thing I really enjoy about her writing. It’s not necessary to have read any of her previous books to enjoy this one, but I would highly recommend any of Maeve Binchy’s colorful, charming stories. You won’t be disappointed.

This title and many others by Maeve Binchy are available at La Crosse County Library locations in Bangor, Campbell, Holmen, Onalaska, and West Salem. Check out our website at www.lacrossecountylibrary.org.

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[Cyndy Aleo · Rating 2 out of 5]

At some point, I will accept that there were Maeve Binchy books that I loved and stop trying to find more Maeve Binchy books to love, because this is a goal I am never going to achieve.

MINDING FRANKIE is one of Binchy's later books, and I truly believe after the success of books like Circle of Friends and the Oprah selection Tara Road (which I was also not a fan of), she got stuck in the rut of "how do I keep writing the same thing over again so people will keep buying my books?"

If you had told me MINDING FRANKIE was a Binchy parody, I'd have believed you.

For starters, there is a huge cast of characters. Huge. There had to be at least 11,000 characters and I don't even think I'm exaggerating. I lost track of them all. There's Noel, who's apparently an alcoholic. And he gets a call from this girl he shagged while drunk who claims he got her pregnant. And then she, in some bizarro fashion, is going to die when she has the baby.

I can't even make this up. Binchy surely had access to Wikipedia to look up things like "dramatic cancer-related death of woman during c-section" and then... didn't.

So Noel has to dry out and take care of this baby and he does so with this pathetic bunch of people who are all inexplicably saved by this American cousin of his who was fired from her teaching position in the States (because Binchy also doesn't understand things like "tenure") and comes to Ireland to learn more about her family.

And there are other factors like Noel's parents having this huge fund drive to build a statue for some rando saint and his roommate, who left her job to do things for this guy who does everything but hand her a copy of He's Just Not That Into You to convey his feelings, and his social worker has so much time on her hands she drops in on EVERYONE in this village in her Wicked Witch of the West routine to Separate Noel From His Child.

Not to mention that everyone both dresses and acts like it's still the 1950s (when many of Binchy's earlier books took place) and this book is confusing as all hell.

I watched soap operas for years, and there was less drama when Reba Shane was cloned on Guiding Light than there is in this 400-page book.

The thing is, Binchy always makes you care at least about ONE character, and I kept going because a) I paid for the book and b) I needed to make sure Noel ended up okay with his kid. But the rest? I need to remind myself to NOT BUY ANY MORE OF HER BOOKS and satisfy myself with the two I loved.

[Cher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok...so maybe it's not the most realistic story...or maybe it could be. Man (Noel) finds out an ex-fling he barely remembers (Stella) is dying and is pregnant...she pronounces Noel the father! Noel is an alcoholic, lives at home with his parents and his job is hanging on by mere threads. But of course he agrees to be guardian for baby Frankie when Stella dies during childbirth. And of course as chance would have it, many in the neighborhood (in Dublin, Ireland)are retired or are willing and able to give their time along with Noel's family, (including an all but unknown American cousin, Emily, who shows up on his doorstep more like Mary Poppins than even Mary Poppins) to rally together and "mind Frankie". So, while this sounds good in theory there are bound to be a few glitches...and if you throw into the story a social worker who is determined from the start that Frankie would be better off in foster care, you have the basic story.

So, yes, it seems a rediculously simple story line. YET...I loved this book. Loved the bit of Irish flavor that came through. Loved the characters. Loved that the story didn't get bogged down with details that didn't matter (or even those that might have mattered!) This is not a book that will teach you about history or educate you about another country; it's not a book that has some hidden mystery or unsolved crime. It's a simple "day in the life of" story of the first two years of day to day events of raising a child. And sure, things happen (Frankie goes missing for awhile, Noel questions his paternity, Noel goes missing for awhile, etc.) but what child has ever been raised in a perfect world without some mistakes made? :)

I highly recommend this book as a "cuddle up with a hot cup of cocoa and just relax" type reading!!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every single time I pick up a Maeve book, it is like coming home after a long exhausting trip and falling into that comfortable easy chair, with the endless cups of hot tea at your side and all the favorite characters in Dublin hovering around ... if only life can be that comforting!! I read Maeve for the reasons I have stated above and for the fact that she really is a talented writer, who manages to keep the reader's interest in ordinary characters. Ordinary characters with ordinary concerns and issues ... and yet somehow she makes them special and interesting. She writes compellingly of life in Ireland that some day I must go there and see with my own eyes the beautiful land she loves so deeply.

I was so excited to get this advanced copy that I managed to read this within two days ... it helps that I am snowed in as well. I hated to see the end of this book as I didn't want to let go of the characters. I hope Binchy will write another one soon ... especially about that annoying social worker, Moira. I'd like to know what happened to her!!

Maeve's fans will love this book as well ... so don't hesitate to pick up this book!!

[Dun's · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually don’t have much patience with books featuring too many characters, but Maeve Binchy has a way with writing about her characters distinctively from one another. You can’t help but follow and enjoy their respective journeys.

Minding Frankie is a light, comforting read about a close-knit community in Dublin that is fully invested in the “it takes a village to raise a child” approach. I read it slowly over long, hot summer days, taking my time to get entertained by the intermingled tales in the book. 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

[Petra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this while jogging and found it a perfect match for the activity.
The story is so warmly told, with wonderful characters. As I listened along, I remembered many of these people from Quentins and Scarlet Feather. It took me awhile to recognize them and I may have not recognized others. It's been ages since I read these. I really enjoyed hearing how these people are doing.
In essence, this tells the story of a man who becomes a father unexpectedly and how that one little girl changed his life and the lives of others, banding them together into a wonderful family group.

A very warm, heart touching story.

[Ena u zemlji knjiga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Predivno! Roman koji vraća vjeru u ljude.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
I have always loved Maeve (and I feel I can call her that, since we have traveled through Knockglen so many times, and lit penny candles at Mass together, and gone to the echo cave to hear our futures) mostly for being such a misunderstood and under appreciated author. No, I always had to tell people, she is NOT another Belva Plain, or Barbara What's her Face, or the others with the thick pages and flowers on the cover that you find lining a shelf of a nursing home. Maeve not only spins tales of small Irish villages that feel like warm sweaters, presenting characters you want to just sit and drink tea with all day, but also creates interesting characters - calculating women who can also be sympathetic, insecure women who eventually become strong.
That lasted a good five novels or so - then she took a turn. For one thing, we left the fifties - mistake, Maeve. It suited you much better. For another, we traded in cottages and footpaths for Dublin (ugh) and interesting people for caricatures.
Minding Frankie, aside from the stupid title, is a silly novel. It is all feel good, no depth. It is what people think Maeve to be, and I guess what she has become.
The story takes on far too many characters, more than I could keep track of, many of whom were apparently in her previous, more recent novels which I did not care for and therefore did not care that they were back, and the people neatly fall into good or bad. Emily, a cousin from America, is too good to be true - upon landing in Ireland she singlehandedly improves the lives of everyone around her in a no nonsense and efficient and wholly unrealistic way. She helps her cousin magically stop drinking and his parents find new roles for themselves. Noel, the drunkard, discovers he has impregnated a dying girl and now needs to step up his game, and through doing so we meet a whole other cast of people who step in to help.
We have Maeve's handy little coincidences that, in small doses, can be cute, here were one eye roll after another. People find love, learn lessons, get jobs, houses, friends, etc, as one need meets another vacancy. The people are, for the most part, dull, their problems stereotypical. We once again have Maeve's go to Bad Boyfriend as seen in all of her novels and The Stupid Women Who Love Them and I was just bored of it.
What did I like? Well. As the story takes on all of these little soap operas, Maeve does explore family ties - the social worker who is determined to get Noel's baby to a foster home because she is sure that is better, versus the people who insist the father is the best bet. The people who grew up with parents who couldn't care less about them casting doubt on that, alongisde wonderful adoptive families, versus people who were abused by foster parents. There is a lovely twist at the end that ties this all nicely, and the questions were interesting to contemplate.
I appreciated that the social worker, caricature though she was, was constantly at a loss as to how to best do her job, and often her good intentions blew up in her face. However, I couldn't take much of this book seriously due to its utter cartoonish style.
Maeve. I love you, still, and would totally dig an afternoon of toffies and scones while we contemplate the ever changing world. But I really miss the way you used to write.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minding Frankie is the 16th book by popular Irish author, Maeve Binchy. This audio version is narrated by Kate Binchy. When Noel Lynch, an alcoholic in a dead end job, is told he is the father of Stella Dixon’s baby daughter, Frankie (Frances Stella), it turns out to be a major turning point in his lacklustre life. He makes some big decisions and, with the help of his American cousin Emily, his parents and a multitude of friends, he is determined to raise Frankie to the best of his abilities.

His friend from night college, Lisa Kelly, needs to escape from her family home and helping out with Frankie seems a small price to pay for sharing the flat with Noel. Of course, Moira Tierney, the unfriendly social worker, is convinced that it will all end badly and maintains a dogged surveillance on Noel, Lisa and everyone involved in Minding Frankie.

In this novel, Binchy illustrates beautifully that saying “it takes a village to raise a child”. While this story can be enjoyed without reading Binchy’s prior novels, fans will be rewarded with appearances (some cameos, some major) of characters from previous novels including Scarlet Feather, Evening Class, Tara Road, Quentins, Nights of Rain and Stars, Heart and Soul and The Whitethorn Woods.

This novel has births and deaths, weddings and funerals, long lost sons, major bequests, happiness and heartache. Reading a Maeve Binchy book is like coming home: it feels comfortable and you’re coming back to people you know and love. Binchy must have been close to seventy when she wrote this novel, but her characters and plots have moved with the times: she has lost none of her magic.

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minding Frankie excels due to what it is not. Noel Lynch is, indeed, an invisible office drone at a company called Hall’s, a burgeoning alcoholic slowly sliding toward ruin — a man rescued from despair and set on the path to sobriety by the birth of a daughter, but the novel isn’t grueling Permanent Midnight, although there are relapses and dark times. His American cousin, Emily Lynch, sweeps into the life of Noel and his ultra-religious parents and sets everything to rights, but Minding Frankie isn’t Cold Comfort Farm, although it’s amusing, as well. The Lynches’ entire circle of friends does rally around the newborn Frankie — christened Frances Stella Dixon Lynch — but the novel never comes off as maudlin.

Instead, Minding Frankie paints a portrait of the residents of St. Jarlath’s Court, a working-class Dublin neighborhood, who help each other through births, abandonments, bad romances, new loves — and, of course, looking after the delightful infant girl Frankie. While comforting, Minding Frankie never descends to cliché or easy resolution. In other words, it’s yet another perfect Maeve Binchy novel.

[Melindam · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an OK read, but for me it just cannot compare to earlier Binchy books.

[Trish at Between My Lines · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the literary equivalent of wrapping yourself up in a warm blanket, settling yourself on an old but comfy couch and having a long gossip with a good friend. There is a very familiar cast in this book that you will already know and probably love from previous books. I always get a bit of a thrill when I see a character I already know and enjoy the little update on their life since we last saw them. Minding Frankie is a light, easy, comfortable read but not one that overly excites me. I much prefer the earlier novels like Echoes & Light a Penny Candle which I consider to be 5 star reads as those books dig much deeper into the character’s emotions. But still, I enjoyed this while I reading it, it entertained and held my attention and if you are a fan of Maeve Binchy I have no doubt but that you will enjoy it.

[Karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love her. The story unfolds from a small town in Ireland. You get to meet all the characters and then some. This is a story of how an active alcoholic gets to be a father to a baby. With all the odds against him can he stay sober to keep little Frankie? It takes a village is a reality in Noel's life.

Love me some Binchy. This was a feel good during this horrid Rona time.

[Tonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual Maeve Binchy doesn't disappoint with Minding Frankie. We are introduced to Noel, a single man living at home, drinking too much and in a dead end job. Then he gets a request to come see a woman he doesn't remember, Stella at the hospital. Stella is dying of cancer, and says that the baby she is pregnant with is his. She wants him to take care of Frankie when she passes. Noel thinks she is crazy, but his cousin from America, Emily, thinks otherwise.

Everyone should have an Emily in their lives! Emily is one of my favorite characters now! Emily helps everyone, without a lot of times really doing anything but being a shoulder to cry on and someone to listen to them. She helps Noel's parents, and many other characters we come to know and love.

There is a social worker making sure Frankie has a good family to go home to, and she has her eyes on Noel. She just knows he is going to fail! I mean how can a drunk living with his parents take care of a child? What Moira has no clue about is the people that are there to support Noel, as her own family is torn apart in many ways. Moira was a character I had mixed feelings about. I could see why she had the mask on, but sometimes she just went overboard.

I could go on and on about this wonderful read that will end way too soon, but the best thing would be for you to pick it up yourself! You won't be sorry. You will feel the same way Emily does, like coming home!

[Hilary Tesh · Rating 1 out of 5]

It feels like sacrilege to criticise the wonderful Maeve Binchy - but this book is such a disappointment compared with her earlier full length novels. It's interesting that, after "Scarlet Feather" was published, Maeve Binchy announced she was retiring, but then went on to publish several more books before she died. Sadly, I think her first instinct was correct and she should have left us wishing for more!

The setting of "Minding Frankie" is a stereotypical Binchy-esque version of a Dublin suburb, peopled with generic characters that will be familiar if you have read the author's other books or short stories - the woman who, with apparent ease, can sort out everyone's problems, the charming but shallow man who uses the woman who's besotted with him, the 'decent poor eejit' and the devout Catholic couple, etc etc. What's more, there are numerous characters and places in the background that were the subjects of previous novels - it all a complete muddle, which detracts from the main point of the story, the attempts by a reformed alcoholic to cope with raising a small baby with his friends' support.

[Abril Camino · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me ha gustado muy poquito, la verdad. Las novelas corales suelen gustarme, pero en este caso mi problema ha sido que no he comprendido casi ninguna actitud de los personajes; me ha dado la sensación de que puntos muy importantes de la trama se han pasado casi por alto y a otros menos relevantes (casi absurdos) se les han dedicado páginas y páginas. Además, aunque el libro no es demasiado antiguo, me ha parecido muy anticuado en formas de pensar, actitudes y mensaje. Bien narrado, entretenido, me lo he leído en la playa y no ha sido una tortura, pero... poco más positivo puedo decir.

[Britt · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Unfortunately, I'd probably be rating Minding Frankie 2 stars if it wasn't for the focus on Muttie, Lizzie, Simon, and Maud; the raw emotions here (almost) made up for everything else going on.

The hardest part to overcome is Moira's extreme prejudice against Noel despite all the evidence he is doing everything he can to provide for Frankie. No matter how many times he proves he's an excellent father, Moira can't see past her own history. Her personal attacks get more vicious and unfounded over time, to the point that her parts in the book made me uncomfortable. On top of this, I'm over Binchy's need to have strong, intelligent women try to throw their lives away for pathetic men who don't deserve them. With both Moira and Lisa being poor examples of strong female characters, I struggled to get through Minding Frankie .

Review originally posted here on Britt's Book Blurbs.

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[Mae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly Maeve Binchy knows how to tell a story. Her writing easy to read and pleasant enough. I read the whole book in a day, watched TV, ran errands, cooked and blogged. I wanted to find out what happened to the characters, and all in all I found out. However, two of the most interesting characters where left up in the air. Does she do this normally? Is this meant to leave us thinking? That is not what I felt. I felt, she finished the book because she was running out of ideas, or paper or ink. It was not one of those classical French endings... it was worst, because all other issues where resolved, finito... but two characters where left out without even a mention.
This is my second Binchy book, it provides you a nice story and intro into Irish mentality and way of life. But, although amusing, it feels like when I eat some chinese foods, I love it while I am eating it, but I am hungry again, an hour later. But I have to say, she managed to set me into a great Irish neighborhood, and not once did she mention the weather or weather issues! That was good.

[Ghost of the Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another sweet and poignant tale from the pen and imagination of the lovely Maeve Binchy.
It may not be as finely tuned as Evening Class, a personal favorite of mine, but it doesn't fail to deliver the warmth and genuine love that all her books are known for.
She was an expert at telling tales from real life, for her characters maybe be fictional but any given point we have all met someone who matches one of them - the married couple, the loner, the unlucky in love...anyone of us goodreaders might be a match :)
Where this one comes a little short is in the way it ends...the flow of the story is very good and easy to read up until when one of the main characters suddenly seems to disappear and then the "big twist" is somewhat flat and lacking in credibility - apologies if i make no sense but...spoilers! :)
Still, if you want to be easily entertained, shed a tear, smile a lot and maybe even make a resolution or two about your life...Maeve Binchy does not fail and delivers all that in a nice package called Minding Frankie.

Happy Readings!

[Kara Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. I have long been a Maeve Binchy fan, but have given this book only three stars. Like many reviews I have read, I find I prefer her earlier works. Light a Penny Candle, The Lilac Bus, and Evening Class among my favourites.
In this book, Minding Frankie, we are introduced to several characters~ among them Emily, Noel, Lisa, and last but not least Baby Frankie. And while their lives intertwine many a time throughout the course of the book, I found the story almost bordering on boring. It seemed the characters and storyline was going in circles, and not much getting resolved.
Overall, disappointed. I have a few of Binchy’s earlier works on my bookshelf- I’m going to give those a read. Hopefully they remind me why I enjoyed her writing so much in the first place. As for her later books, and ones published after her death, I’m going to leave for now.

[Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasant, enjoyable, and thought-provoking, as Maeve Binchy books often are. I do not have a great deal of respect for slice-of-life books, but there are authors who do it very well. Maeve Binchy is one of them. Her observations about people are hilarious and spot-on. The characters are endearing and relateable; even her antagonists have redeeming qualities. I did shed a few tears while reading this book; overall, a thoroughly enjoyable bit of light reading, although as with most books, I find the ending is not as I would have wished. But then again, real life always goes on, without neat conclusions, so I suppose that it is appropriate to leave it open-ended after all.

[Krissy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too long. Too many POVs. Plus Moira was horrible and I couldn't stand her.

[Susy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading a Maeve Binchy novel is best done curled up in an overstuffed chair while enjoying a cup of tea; it's just such a feeling of comfort. I substituted reading it on the couch where I could stretch out & give my aching ribs more room to heal which didn't actually help the ribs but was pretty darn comfortable. Binchy's more recent novels tend to follow a pattern of introducing a group of disparate characters and then ensuring that their lives intersect. This novel is no different but the reason this group band together is to help watch over an infant girl who is left in the care of her father from birth. Hence the title, Minding Frankie. True to form, Binchy also weaves in the narrative of personal challenge; life changing decisions and brings back a few characters of earlier novels to enrich the plot. What I loved about this story is that it reinforces how friendship expands the family ties; I really believe that friends often are the best family especially in transient society where families move far away from where they were raised. In Ireland, that's not as true as in the USA but still the need exists to supplement blood ties with ties of friendship.

If you like Maeve Binchy's previous reads, this will not disappoint. If you've not read her other books and you have any interest in Irish culture, this is a great introduction to her. I am so ready for a trip to the Emerald Isle.

[Carre Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is addressed to readers who have been following Binchy's characters since Scarlet Feather. (Through Quentins; Nights of Rain and Stars; Whitethorn Woods; Heart and Soul.) They all reappear here, like a family reunion you've been waiting years for, and there are new ones to meet and love as well: Noel, the alcoholic who makes the very unwelcome discovery that he's going to be a father soon, and the mother of his baby is someone he hardly knows, who is on her deathbed. There're Noel's Irish Catholic parents, who've just won a huge sum of money, and plan to use it all to build a grand statue to an obscure saint; There's Emily, the American cousin who moves in and manages them all quite capably; There's Moira the social worker whose unhappy childhood makes her relentless in her quest to find something wrong with Frankie's caregivers, and of course there's Frankie herself, the baby who draws them together and brings out the best in each of them.

Back to those of you who already know and love Binchy's characters: (Muttie and Lizzie Scarlett; the twins Maud and Simon and their dog Hooves; Brenda and Patrick from Quentins...need I go on?) Be sure you read this with a box of tissues at your side, and prepare to howl.

I have no other comment than to say that the day Maeve Binchy stops writing is the day the world will become a poorer place.

[Yvonne Mendez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Maeve Binchy is so restful, she's an amazing story teller and since I've read and re-read most of her previous books I recognize most of the secondary characters and it's like visiting friends and knowing how they were doing. You can also tell the passage of time in Ireland, when once the country was thriving, now it's on a recession. Now people can speak with their relatives via Skype and e-mails, text messages and mobiles are part of everyday life, while still keeping the traditions and Irish sense of family, friends and community.

The plots are not about saving the world, political conspiracies, murder mystery or crime. It's just everyday life with everyday struggles where everyone carries on with life and change. As you read the book there will be parts where you'll laugh, or cry, or completely understand what the character is going through, recognize some of the mistakes they're doing as mistakes you might have done at one time, but at the end you will be left with a sense of peace....and then you carry on with life.