decemberthirty | Entries tagged with alice mcdermott

Bleh. I'm sick.

But, I finished Charming Billy. I thought it was very good. It's not an extremely ambitious book, and it's certainly not a book that hits you over the head with sheer genius. It is, instead, simply an old-fashioned good book. It's story is simple, it's prose is lovely, it's characters are believable... It's just good. And the last chapter is especially lovely.

Since finishing Charming Billy, I've started Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. It's a little too early yet to be voicing any opinions, but it seems pretty intriguing so far.

Current Mood: sick

Well, I'm back at work now, so hopefully I can start posting more regularly again.

Anyhow, I'm still reading Charming Billy, and I'm really enjoying it. It has a little bit of an interesting narrative structure, in that you seem to find out all of the major plot points within the first two chapters, and the rest of the book is spent fleshing out the details. It doesn't make for very suspenseful reading, but I'm having a good time reading slowly and savoring the prose, which is excellent. Nonetheless, giving away the ending in the beginning seems like a strange strategy for an author to take. It makes me wonder if I don't actually know as much as I think I do, and if there are other secrets that are still waiting to be revealed...

All in all, I like the book. As I was saying earlier, I like the Irishness of it, and I think that McDermott has done a great job of capturing the varieties of Irish-American temperaments. She has also done a good job of evoking a past time. She really manages to imbue the book with an authentic late 40s feel. In fact, she does so to such an extent that when I'm reading one of the contemporary scenes, I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not still in the postwar era.

Current Mood: organized

Well, I took a little hiatus, what with the holidays and all... But now I'm back, and ready to resume posting with some degree of regularity.

Lat time I wrote, I had just finished Bastard Out of Carolina, which was very good. Since then, I have started reading Charming Billy by Alice McDermott. It seems pretty good so far. Nice and Irish, which of course is appealing to me. Also, McDermott does a great job of capturing the voices and personalities of her different characters.

i'm a very very complex person

i try to improve but you see how i worsen

Entries tagged with alice mcdermott

(no subject)

Happy New Year

I'm back

Profile