Becoming Finola by Suzanne Strempek Shea

Title: Becoming Finola
Author: Suzanne Strempek Shea
Type: Novel
Genre: Fiction
Series: No
Copyright: 2004
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary: from Good Reads

In the latest novel from the award-winning author of Around Again, an American takes an unexpected trip to Ireland and finds the woman she was meant to become. Newly unemployed, Sophie White has nothing better to do when her recently widowed best friend, Gina, invites her along on a much-needed, postcrisis getaway. When, after only one day in Ireland, Gina decides she should do her grieving back at home, she urges Sophie to remain and make the most of the summer in Booley, the tiny seaside village that was their destination.

A job offer accepted on a whim lands her in the village's craft shop, and in the position once held by Finola O'Flynn, a woman who'd swiftly left town a few years before. Sophie takes on Finola's job of creating beaded bracelets, but also takes over Finola's abandoned home, then Finola's left-behind wardrobe, and finally, after her own episode of lost love, Finola's discarded man, charismatic shop owner Liam. But could Sophie -- or anyone -- ever take over the legendary place that her predecessor still holds in the hearts of Booley?

Friend, confidante, and guru to all -- literally a lifesaver to some -- even in her absence Finola continues to captivate. Her myth manages to reenergize Sophie, who passes along the gift through bracelets she infuses with invented "powers" that make the wearers believe they have what it takes to face life's challenges. But is Sophie powerful enough to face a whopper of her own when Finola returns to Booley and to the life she deserted? Does Sophie have the magic to make room in one tiny village for two women who want the very same life?

Feelings: 
This is a story about becoming who we are through trying to be someone else. Sophie thinks she is becoming more like Finola someone who everyone talks about but is she really?

The writing for this story is amazing. It is funny as well. We experience the country through the writing and dialogue. Suzanne Strempek Shea captures the magic the everyday life in Ireland for Sophie. Maybe the magic comes from the fact that it is new and an escape for Sophie, but I think the magic is in the writing itself that takes us to the place and grounds us there.

Finola has a big presence in the story even though she spends very little time actually actively in the story. She influences events by her past. It is almost as though she has become a legend within the novel that the people of Booley tell themselves.

To fib to customers that I was Finola O'Flynn would be impossible. The only imitation I could do right when verbal, a version of Liam's affirmative, which was a simple and easy-to-master "Yep." Three letters, a short word that takes no time at all to sound out, a fast thing, a small breath, a quick clearing of the throat, a tap on the shoulder, the snap of a twig, the start of a lie I didn't see as wrong. (p. 111)

This is the start of Sophie's new life in Booley. An escape from her life in the U.S. which was falling apart.

This is a fantastic read. I would recommend it to mostly women because it is romantically inclined. However, I think it is an excellent novel.