Book Review: Dublin Four

Who Lives in “Dublin 4” The novel Dublin 4 was written by Maeve Binchy in 1983. This consists of four short stories which all took place in a town called Dublin. The four short stories that Binchy wrote about are Dinner in Donnybrook, Flat in Ringsend, Decision in Belfield, and Murmurs in Montrose. Each story has different characters, plots, and imagery. Also they all have different themes and conflicts. At the end of each short story Maeve Binchy does not tell what the resolution to the conflict is. She also uses familiar experiences, common conflicts and characters in her writing. The novel Dublin 4 was written by Maeve Binchy in 1983. This consists of four short stories which all took place in a town called Dublin. The first short story is Dinner in Donnybrook. This story had quite a few different characters in it. The main ones were Carmel, Dermot, and Ruth O’Donnell. Carmel was a woman who was a little over forty and was very depressed and sad all the time. She felt like she was waiting around just to die. Her husband was Dermot. He tried to help her out with her sadness and depression but he also did some things to her that she was not aware of. The last main character was the young successful painter. Her name was Ruth O’Donnell. The other characters in the short stories are the two couples that Carmel invited to her dinner. Carmel started planning this dinner mainly for Ruth O’Donnell. The night of the dinner was Ruth’s exhibition for her paintings. Carmel sent out letters to all of her friends telling them about the dinner. Everyone was starting to wonder if she was ok or if she was going crazy. It turns out that all of her preparations for the dinner were just a plan to find out some thing that she had suspected. Which was her husband having another affair. He had had one a few years before then and now she had figured out that he was having one with Ruth O’Donnell. Carmel ended up getting her friend Joe who owed her a favor to go and act like a