Hello issybird - lovely to see you!
I can see how listening to an audio book could in a way get between the listener and the author's voice because it has to be that actor's interpretation of the words, rather than yours or mine or any other reader's.
I didn't mind the way things worked out for Nora. I suspect that in a town where everyone knew what had happened, there would be a lot of people wanting to help her. I did find her awkwardness with dealing with her children sad but believable.
She was in a terrible situation when Maurice was dying and desperate to have her with him. Of course the boys needed her too - she was between a rock and a hard place. I do agree that she didn't exert herself to help Donal, even though she thought she was doing the right thing in letting him be in the hope that his distress, shown by his stammer, would lessen. I suspect that most parents live with regret for things they did or didn't do for their children.
I did love the way she responded to music and found it so healing:
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It was only after a month, when she had had four or five lessons, that she realised that the music was leading her away from Maurice ... she was alone with herself in a place where he would never have followed her, even in death.
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It seems that she had never had any music in her life, partly because of her antagonism towards her mother, who was a singer, and partly because it was of no interest to Maurice. When listening to the exquisite "Song to the Moon" by Dvorak:
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What she felt now more than anything was a sadness that she had lived her life until now without having heard this.
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That same aria was referred to in
Bel Canto for those who read that book. It's well worth listening to if any of you don't know it.