perednia's review against another edition
4.0
A novel to break your heart. Billy tries so hard and we see just how close he comes. Great characterization, strong sense of place, plot molded to characters instead of forcing them into strange circumstances.
reads_avec_chats's review against another edition
5.0
Beautifully written book about familial bonds, ways people care for and protect each other, lies we live with, loss, and coming together. Not a plot-driven novel, this story takes sinuous turns between present and past as it chronicles the life of the just-buried Billy, who died of alcoholism, and those who loved him, mainly his cousin Dennis and his wife Maeve.
Similar to That Night, the narrator is a low-profile character, in this case Dennis' daughter, who is mostly present in the scenes as observer and listener. With just a couple of strokes, we see that she is telling this story to her family, her husband and children, just as her father has told her much of the story of his (and thus her) family.
Alice McDermott is a master of (among other things) repetition. Sayings, phrases, anecdotes are repeated at intervals throughout, each time illuminating another character's point of view or aspect of the story. She also uses repetition as she moves from phrase to phrase and sentence to sentence which gives an incantatory effect. I wonder if the style of writing itself evokes the Irish-Catholic essence that's portrayed.
Similar to That Night, the narrator is a low-profile character, in this case Dennis' daughter, who is mostly present in the scenes as observer and listener. With just a couple of strokes, we see that she is telling this story to her family, her husband and children, just as her father has told her much of the story of his (and thus her) family.
Alice McDermott is a master of (among other things) repetition. Sayings, phrases, anecdotes are repeated at intervals throughout, each time illuminating another character's point of view or aspect of the story. She also uses repetition as she moves from phrase to phrase and sentence to sentence which gives an incantatory effect. I wonder if the style of writing itself evokes the Irish-Catholic essence that's portrayed.
stuff4bd's review against another edition
2.0
Maybe if I hadn’t listened to the audiobook I would have liked it more. It reminded me of a discussion with my grandparents where they start to talk about something then go off on a tangent before looping back around to repeat themselves only to get distracted again repeat, repeat. I also disliked the voice used as it wasn’t clear to me why the person telling the story was our narrator and that voice shifted. I wish I did have this as an ebook so I could get a count of how many times the name Dan Lynch was repeated. I think it went up to three times in a single sentence. I also felt I didn’t know Billy or understand the message the book was trying to covey (which is just how I used to feel after a story with my grandparents).
daysreads's review against another edition
3.0
The narration didn't really work for me, I found that it made it hard to really get into the story
sommerphill's review
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
bartendm's review against another edition
4.0
This prize winning book is very literary. There is beautiful writing, deep characterization, but the plot is mostly about ordinary lives and is mostly laid out in the very beginning. It turns around the funeral of Billy Lynch, a well-loved man in his community and family who drank himself to death. There is all the reminiscing and speculation about why he couldn't control his drinking, especially when they all knew of a lost love early in his youth. It was an interesting way to look at the effects of alcoholism on those around them, especially those closest, a cousin and his wife. One of the most interesting parts of the novel was the relationship between Billy and this cousin, Dennis, and how a little lie can get out of hand and bind them in unexpected ways. There were a lot of characters and even the first person narrator was not clear in identity for much of the novel, so each time I picked it up to read a little more, I often had to figure out who that character was again. Billy was most vivid though, with his tragic, romantic view of life and his inability to quite handle it all. It was a nice window into the Irish Catholic world post WWII into the 1980s in NY and Long Island.
lizziekam's review against another edition
5.0
This is my second Alice McDermott novel and I'm officially a super-fan. Her books explore the world of the Irish Catholics of the early-to-mid twentieth century in Brooklyn and Long Island, and while I am from Philadelphia, much of the characters feel real to me as a (former) Catholic of Irish descent.
The central action revolves around the title character, Billy Lynch, and his summer romance with Eva, a Irish girl who returns home and never comes back to him. He is told one reason; the truth is another. But he never recovers from this loss, and the novel opens with his funeral after a lifetime of hard drinking.
But this novel isn't really about the plot. This central event, the loss of Eva, subsumes what action there is, and the novel moves forward and backwards in time to explore circumstances before, during and every sad thing after her loss. It is rich with real, lived in characters, and while I found the use of an unnamed narrator distracting (it took me out of the story at the beginning to try to sort out who the narrator was and how he/she was related to the characters), the remove with which the narrator observes and relates the story serves to advance themes of storytelling and what happens when the mythology of our lives traps us into unhappiness.
My family had the great joy of having a beach house for the last 30 years. This summer will be our first without a place to stay near the sea. A motif throughout the novel is a little house in East Hampton, and what it means to various characters. McDermott so perfectly captured so much of what I loved about our seaside homestead, and what it means to have a second place, a retreat. Billy meets Eva on the beach, and what person hasn't had an idealized summer romance that never fully flowered.
This novel is suffused with regret and lies and lots of alcoholism and it was truly beautiful.
The central action revolves around the title character, Billy Lynch, and his summer romance with Eva, a Irish girl who returns home and never comes back to him. He is told one reason; the truth is another. But he never recovers from this loss, and the novel opens with his funeral after a lifetime of hard drinking.
But this novel isn't really about the plot. This central event, the loss of Eva, subsumes what action there is, and the novel moves forward and backwards in time to explore circumstances before, during and every sad thing after her loss. It is rich with real, lived in characters, and while I found the use of an unnamed narrator distracting (it took me out of the story at the beginning to try to sort out who the narrator was and how he/she was related to the characters), the remove with which the narrator observes and relates the story serves to advance themes of storytelling and what happens when the mythology of our lives traps us into unhappiness.
My family had the great joy of having a beach house for the last 30 years. This summer will be our first without a place to stay near the sea. A motif throughout the novel is a little house in East Hampton, and what it means to various characters. McDermott so perfectly captured so much of what I loved about our seaside homestead, and what it means to have a second place, a retreat. Billy meets Eva on the beach, and what person hasn't had an idealized summer romance that never fully flowered.
This novel is suffused with regret and lies and lots of alcoholism and it was truly beautiful.
melanietownsend's review against another edition
3.0
beautiful writing and character study. not a lot of plot. a little hard to track all the characters and their backstories.
clairewords's review against another edition
3.0
Close friends and family come together to mourn and remember Billy, a man of Irish descent who fell for an Irish lass one summer, who promised himself to her and sent her the money so she could return to him after she went back to Ireland. It was a short romance, but one that everyone present at his wake had an opinion on, no one really knowing the full truth of what really transpired.
The novel unfolds and weaves like threads in a tapestry, as characters share their understanding of Billy, their memories of his charm and inclinations and what they knew about the short-lived romance with the Irish girl Eva. Slowly it creates a picture of a life and all lives, how they are formed, changed, steered by certain events, fractured by grief, sustained by community, vulnerable to and comforted by addiction, driven by faith, seduced by deception.
A nostalgic tale, imbued with sadness, post war expectations and a new world Irish charm, it carries a sense of stepping back in time, of being on the threshold of a new modern era, Billy, one of the last links to a bygone era.
The novel unfolds and weaves like threads in a tapestry, as characters share their understanding of Billy, their memories of his charm and inclinations and what they knew about the short-lived romance with the Irish girl Eva. Slowly it creates a picture of a life and all lives, how they are formed, changed, steered by certain events, fractured by grief, sustained by community, vulnerable to and comforted by addiction, driven by faith, seduced by deception.
A nostalgic tale, imbued with sadness, post war expectations and a new world Irish charm, it carries a sense of stepping back in time, of being on the threshold of a new modern era, Billy, one of the last links to a bygone era.