Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy

 genre: historical fiction

Benny's childhood in the quiet town of Knockglen was a lonely one until she and Eve, an orphan living at the local convent, find a true friend in each other.  When they finish school,  Benny and Eve's grandest dream is to continue their education in Dublin, to see and experience the wilder world.  It isn't that simple, though, and one event after another requires both of the girls to stretch outside their comfort zones.  While they manage whatever comes their way, they also meet fellow students who slowly, over time, become friends.

This quaint and soap-opera like story, while both set in the 1950s and a bit dated in the writing style, still kept my attention and entertained me with its vast cast of characters and their goings-on.  It takes place both in the city and in a little country town and the story switches continuously between the points of view of a few main characters.  While Benny and Eve are multidimensional, some of the other characters appear rather flat and one-sided, but not so much so that I couldn't appreciate their role in the story.  And the story itself is really a coming of age for Benny and for Eve, as they have complications with friends and family, as they fall in love or feel the sting of betrayal.   I didn't like how the size of Benny's body is so often a topic of conversation - consistent with the time period of nor, as a modern day reader I just wanted to teach her some radical body acceptance - and teach the locals to keep their mouths shut :). But I didn't grow up in a small Irish village either, and if nothing else, this book really does a nice job of giving you a sense of the small town feel that existed even with Dublin bustling just a bus ride away. 

It didn't end how I'd anticipated and although it is crazy long, it didn't drag as much as I'd worried it would.  Three and a half stars for keeping my attention for so many pages.