Preview of Evening Class Summary:

Binchy assembles a cast of characters who have been dealt bad hands, made bad discards, foolishly upped antes, and bluffed or have otherwise lost in life's poker game. Each character has a dream of how life can be better. But, as Aidan states it, the goalposts are always moving.

It is images of the ordinary and repeated images of the familiar that often frustrate any new plays on the field. For example, as Connie drops off Fran and Kathy after class one night, Fran sees "her mother putting out the dustbin, a cigarette still in her mouth despite the rain that would fall on it and make it soggy, the same scuffed slippers and sloppy housecoat that she wore all the time." Seeing this familiar picture of her mother as she sits in Connie's fine car makes Fran feel ashamed, and then "ashamed of herself for feeling ashamed...