For me evening class is a great book written by one of my favourite authors Maeve Binchy.
It tells the story of a very mixed group of people from Dublin who join an evening class to learn Italian all for very different reasons.
The class is run by a lady called Nora O’Donoghue who has just returned from Italy after the death of her beloved Mario whom she was the mistress of for many years, this wasn’t a sordid love affair but the usuall tale of a man not wanting to leave his wife and children.
She returns to dublin penniless and in look of work and lodges with Aidan Dunne a teacher at Mountainview High who suggests to Nora to run an Italian nightclass.
She is known throughout the book as Signora so we will call her that for the rest of the review.
Aidan Dunne teaches at Mountainview highschool with the hope that he will be the next headmaster but alas this dream is snatched away from him so coming to terms with this he pours his energy into the italian eveningclass.
We meet the members who have joined up over the next few chapters namely:
BILL:
Bill works for a bank and is in love with Lizzie and he works in a bank and persuades Lizzie to join up for the evening class too in the hope of living in Italy one day and running a bank over there.
KATHY:
Kathy is still at school and is very intelligant but her parents are a waste of space and relies mainly on her sister for most things and it is her sister who encourages her to sign up for the classes as she believes that speaking another language would be of the greatest benifit to her.
LOU:
Lou is a bit of a lad who has mixed with the wrong crowd and has gotten into trouble with the police, but trying to change his ways he joins the group to impress his new girlfriend Suzie as he wants to marry her and have the honeymoon in Italy.
CONNIE:
Connie has a rich husband but she is bored and in search of new thing to do so when she see’s the advert she too joins the gang for the classes.
LADDY:
Laddy lives with his nephew and isn’t very bright so he tries to make his nephew proud of him and to bring new buisness to his struggling hotel.
FIONA:
Fiona is friends with Aidan’s two girls and she joins the class along with her new boyfriend Barry for something to do and as a way to meeting new people.
The group all take a trip to Italy at the end of the class with some interesting outcomes but don’t just take my word for it read it yourself and I can guarentee you will fall in love with Italy and be searching for your own Italian evening class