Reviews

• absolutely Amazing! great writing!!!!Great story! Wow! what a pleasure to read!!!! good story. Can’t wait to from this author!!!!

• Alice McDermott’s novels drop us into “the middle of things.” In Charming Billy, we find ourselves in the Bronx, invisible guests and observers in the late 1980’s of an Irish wake and funeral for Billy Lynch. The observance of life’s passage in Irish culture is true liturgy, lasting for several days, with each attendant playing his or her assigned roles, no scripts necessary. Billy’s wife of several decades, Maeve, powered herself through the necessary arrangements, notably the selection of an appropriate family pub for the reception after the Mass—with a cash bar for hard liquor, smart lady. Maeve was not particularly attractive, but she was wise. She knew her responsibilities to the guests to open herself to their outpourings of grief on the death of her charming husband. And she was wise enough to maneuver herself around a hard truth: that the true love of her husband’s life was an Irish girl, Eva, whom Billy met immediately after World War II. Billy worked laboriously to make money to bring Eva and her family to the United States, only to discover that Eva died of illness in Ireland…though there is mystery about reports of her demise. The soft discussions among the guests and relatives turned to the question of “what did Maeve know of Eva and when did she know it?” Billy’s male friends, those who had stood with him at his marriage to Mauve thirty years ago, agreed that he probably told her about Eva, but one of the gang noted that “men don’t like to talk about those things.” The deceased Billy bore two crosses in his life: the lost Eva and hardcore alcoholism. McDermott subtly picks up the contradictory emotions of those in attendance: that at his best Billy was charming, with children and adults alike. All the more reason, then, to feel regret and anger over Billy’s destructive addiction. At several points, a muted but lively discussion about Billy’s consumption held the floor. The old timers believed that excessive alcohol consumption was a matter of self-control. Others addressed the issue as a religious one, and in Ireland the Catholic Church was in fact actively engaged in societies, retreats, and religious pledges to uphold abstinence from alcohol. Some romantic souls traced his problem to the loss of Eve. The religious sister from the Bronx parish labored mightily to explain alcoholism as a disease, but this was not the moment for cutting-edge science. Her pastor, deeply engaged in socializing, did not partake of the alcohol [discussions, that is.] Death is finality, but the lives of the widow and friends would continue. Catharsis, Irish style, was achieved and, while there is no dramatic end to this tale, the reader comes away with a settled sense that “wherever two or three are gathered in my name,” the Lord is among them, lovingly and certainly soberly.

• livraison, emballage, condition du livre: parfait/ je n'ai pas lu le livre et ne le lirai vraisemblablement pas comme vous refusez de lire mes commentaires sur votre systeme, mais continuez de me demander mon avis: ça devient du harcellement avec plaisir, par respect pour vos soustraitants je dorai que j'ai reçus les livres mais ça s'arrete la a plus, bobb

• Alice McDermott's novels take a deep long look at a character sharing his/her love, hopes, desires, failures. We view "the typical course [of love] from early infatuation to serious love to affection, occasionally diminshed by impatience and disagreement, bolstered by interdependence, fanned now and then by fondness, by humor."[p 45] Here she takes on "Billy [who] had drunk himself to death. He had at some point, ripped apart, plowed through, as alcoholics tend to do, the great, deep, tightly woven fabric of affection that was some part of the emotional life, the life of love, of everyone in the room."[p 4] The "everyone in the room" here is a tavern where a lunch is served after Billy's funeral. Billy's life is told by the daughter of Dennis one of Billy's cousins - the one most responsible for helping him through his life and for helping Billy's wife, Maeve, through life. "Billy was for me then merely one of my father's legion of cousins, distinguished not so much by his alcoholism (it had seemed to me that there were more alcoholics among them than there were Republicans, or even redheads)" [p 42]. Billy was indeed charming - everyone loved him and made allowances for him. [SPOILER ALERT] The pivotal moment in Billy's life - at least as viewed by his extended family - took place shortly after World War II. Dennis and Billy are out on Long Island working on a cottage owned by Dennis' mother's second husband. While at the beach one day they meet a couple of Irish girls. Billy falls in love with one, but she returns to Ireland. Billy sends her money hoping to bring her back. But she stays in Ireland and marries a man there. Dennis finds out. Trying to spare Billy's feelings, and trying to save Billy from years of gossip and talk, Dennis tells Billy the girl died. Billy eventually marries another woman, the plain Maeve, but he may still carry a flame for the Irish girl. What course did this lie set Billy on? Would he have been an alcoholic anyway? How would his life have been different? As Dennis and another cousin, Dan Lynch, discuss the matter Dennis tries to close off that avenue of thought. "It might have been his natural disinclination to wholeheartedly agree with Dan Lynch about anything. It might have been his reluctance to consider the possibility that the lie he'd told Billy all those years ago was not merely the cause of thirty years of pointless grief but the very thing that had made Billy's life with Maeve possible, and fruitless."[p 193] [END SPOILER ALERT] I especially like McDermott's point of view telling this story. She starts with a few conversations between family members at the gatherings just after the death but in a blink switches back in time to the events being discussed. It's also interesting to hear the story told of a man who had just died - we can't see his point of view because he is gone. We see the life through the eyes of others. I thoroughly enjoy Alice McDermott's studies on life and love. While this book is excellent, if you want to start with her try Someone.

• I enjoyed Charming Billy because it is sweet and nostalgic. It is a sensitive book in which feelings play the major part. Its best scenes take place on Long Island, just after the war, when Billy and his cousin meet the Irish girls who will transform their lives. The descriptions are atmospheric, the action slow-paced, the situations understated. This book is like a rose whose petals are plucked one by one. It begins with Billy's funeral. Piece by piece, it tells the chain of events that has led to his death, from the fateful encounter with the Irish girl, in his early adulthood. Billy is sentimental. Billy wants to believe not just in love, but that love is what gives meaning to life. Ultimately this only leads to waste, as he is duped by a worthless woman and protected against his own best interests by his well-meaning cousin. Or does it? Was his belief, his sincerity what made Billy charming? Ms McDermott lets us decide. The book has interesting contrasts between the post-war and depression years, and more recent times. It is set among the Irish-American community. While it is different in style from the darkly sarcastic and humorous Angela's Ashes, there are intriguing comparisons to make between the two, and Charming Billy may be worth reading as a `sequel' to the Irish book.

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