The relationship between the mother and daughter in this story is heartbreaking. Misunderstandings, prejudice and bad communication plague them even though they love each other.
This seemed to me to be the most important and interesting theme in the story, and I didn't really understand the point of all of the other material, especially all of the details of the mother's first love. The daughter's diary is also completely incomprehensible to me.
I feel like the only part that really gripped me was how distant her daughter is and what an asshole her son is.
In a way, I don't have a ton of sympathy for these tragic, long-term miscommunication. If you don't talk, you bring it on yourself.

I read this review after reading the book and found it to be very much in line with my thoughts on the book. The writing was VERY readable, but the last part of the book was a loss.

Kirkus Reviews: A college girl's romance with an older artist turns into a serious relationship and then a mystery—after he disappears without a trace.
Impressionable young Jolene Iolas is 19 and attending Bard College. While her friend and roommate Molly is sleeping her way through most of the school's male population, Jolene has more serious things on her mind (though indeed she's no wallflower). She strikes up a correspondence with the artist Martin Sloane, whose work has enraptured her, and arranges for him to come to campus and exhibit his work. Martin's art consists of gnomic little boxes packed full of odd objects suggesting sadness, memory, and loss (descriptions of these Joseph Cornell–esque boxes precede each chapter). Jolene and Martin begin spending weekends together, and pretty soon it's years later, Jolene is teaching at Indiana University, and Martin is commuting from Toronto as often as he can. A visit from Molly scrapes a few raw nerves in the fragile relationship, and Jolene wakes up afterward to find Martin gone. Many years later, Jolene reconnects with Molly—whom she had a confusing fight with after Martin's disappearance—when the two meet up in Dublin, Martin's birthplace, sniffing out the scent of the elusive box-maker and making halfhearted stabs at fixing their broken friendship. Jolene narrates the bulk of the story, though intermittent chapters come from Martin. The whole, albeit impressively written, ultimately doesn't sustain itself, and when, a third of the way in, Martin disappears, the novel has a difficult time recovering. The events driving Martin to leave, murky as they are, seem wrenchingly contrived, and the mystery that follows isn't especially engrossing.
From a promising young Canadian writer, a failed effort that says everything quite well but may not interest many.

While this novel is a bit predictable and steeped in some cheap feeling mysticism, the portrayals of historical New York are fantastic. I think if I didn't have a personal connection with Manhattan, it wouldn't have been nearly as appealing to me.
The main character is mostly a blank in terms of character development, but I loved the descriptions of his participation in Manhattan history. The premise is extremely interesting and Hamill does a reasonable job of filling it out.

Quite the "epic novel". Felt like a fairy tale. Good story, but you definitly need to just believe in the story and not be too ciritical..

A man who lives in New York in 1740 and remains forever as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan. Watch New York grow from a tiny settlement to a city of today. A real adventure.

This is one of my favourite Binchy novels. Loved this book.

The sleepy town of Mountfern is suddenly transformed one day when Ferncourt, a large house which is burnt down during the Troubles, is bought by an American with dreams of turning it into a hotel for American tourists. To may he appears attractive - but to others dangerous.

A rich American arrives in an Irish village seeking to avenge the (imagines) wrongs his immigrant father suffered. His plan, to turn a ruined castle into a high-class hotel & restaurant , causes unexpected repercussions in the village, though the residents greet him with good-will. The story is told mostly from the point of view of the wife & daughter of the owner of the village's only (so far) tavern. Though the planned competition will wipe out their livelihood, they treat the Americans warmly & become close friends. What will happen to their way of life? Ireland has many surprises in store for its visitors from across the sea...

This novel by Mehran (who was born in Iran but now lives in Ireland) centers on the inhabitants of a small Irish town. When three Iranian sisters move into the former bake shop and open a Middle Eastern café, turmoil erupts. The quirky and wonderfully fleshed-out characters who make up the populace of Ballinacroagh align with either the sisters and their exotic delicacies or the town bully, Thomas McGuire, who attempts to put them out of business. From the young and lovely Layla to resident gossip Dervla Quigley, these characters come to life; they're as uniquely simple or as deeply complex as the dishes that eldest sister Marjan concocts--recipes included! Personal demons and questioned loyalties play out like a movie on the page making the reader feel like an eyewitness to all the events. A satisfying summer read or book club pick.

A year in the life of 2 friends (male & female) who start a catering business in modern Dublin. Romantic entaglements add to the problems of launching a new business.

Although I read this because it was a Binchy and I usually enjoy all her books this one left me a bit wanting.

The MacMahons are the central characters and even more so when Helen the wife and mother disappears.....everyone assumes that she has drowned in the lake. Thus begins a tangled, touching and sometimes tragic story of love, loss and misunderstanding.

The wife of a small-Irish-town pharmacist runs off with her old lover, but an unexpected series of events insure that she will never be able to return to her home again. The story, told from the POV of the woman & the daughter she leaves behind make this a hard-to-put-down book.

it took me years to get around to reading Angela's Ashes, McCourt's first book, but when i did it went straight into my top 10 favourite books of all time. it was such a beautifully constructed story that i had to get its sequel, 'Tis, and read that too.

whilst 'Tis doesnt quite tug on the heart-strings as much as Angela's Ashes does, i just love the way McCourt writes. he is always honest and writes the way we, as humans, feel, not so much how we construct a sentance and tell a story. he gets you hooked, and makes you feel connected to the story, which makes the funny parts funnier, the happy parts more gleeful, and the sad bits all the more devestating.

recommended, but only if you read Angela's Ashes first.