1) Tara Road is the tale of two women, one from Ireland, one from America, who switch houses for the summer. In doing so, they learn much about each other, as well as much about themselves. .
Ria lived on Tara Road in Dublin with her husband, Danny and their two children. She fully believed she was happily married, right up until the day Danny told her he was leaving her to be with his young, pregnant girlfriend. By a chance phone call, Ria meets Marilyn, a woman from New England unable to come to terms with her only son's death and now separated from her husband. The two women exchange houses for the summer with extraordinary consequences, each learning that the other has a deep secret that can never be revealed. .
Drawn into lifestyles vastly differing from their own, at first each resents the news of how well the other is getting on. Ria seems to have become quite a hostess, entertaining half the neighborhood, which at first irritates the reserved and withdrawn Marilyn. Marilyn seems to have become bosom friends with Ria's children, as well as Colm, a handsome restaurateur, whom Ria has begun to miss terribly. At the end of the summer, the women at last meet face-to-face. Having learned a great deal, about themselves and each other, they find they have become, firmly and forever, good friends.
2) Tara Road is a book that goes in chronological order. It begins when Ria is a teenager in the mid 70's and basically goes to when she is an adult with two children of her own. The book moves quickly from the life of Ria and Marilyn from the middle and throughout the rest of the book.
3) The setting of Tara Road takes place in Dublin, Ireland. An excerpt that shows this:.
Prosperity had come to Ireland in the early eighties and the property was the first to reflect this (7).
As a wedding feast they would have a small lunch in a Dublin hotel, just family (9).
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4) Three of the main characters are Ria Lynch, Danny Lynch, and Marilyn Vine.
The designer of the landscape around Tara for "Gone with the Wind" and many other early film sets was also a young women that went by the name of Florence Yoch. ... This section will test knowledge of data gathering and analysis techniques and conceptual decision-making process that occurs before site planning. ... They may plan the locations of roads and walkways as well as arranging flowers, shrubs and trees. ...