I read and loved Alice McDermott’s book Charming Billy (I babbled about it a bit here) – and there are a couple of her other books on my shelves that I have yet to get to. Charming Billy is about a big Irish family in Queens, who gather for the wake of their relative “Billy” – and they tell stories, and truths are revealed, and some truths are not revealed – but what I loved so much about the book is how much it really GETS big families, especially Irish families, with all the chatter, and all of the elaborations – stories get larger, the fish they caught get bigger … the point isn’t the truth. The point is: Is it a good story?? Sacrifice the truth if it will make the story better. Her writing has such a great feel for that very specific Irish trait.
Here’s an excerpt from Charming Billy – This is a remembrance of Billy Lynch as a young man – running into his cousin Dennis on the subway. You can see how past and present are woven together here. We get the sense that we are in the here and now, looking back, trying to “picture” Billy as he was then … and then, the memory takes over, in all its 3-D specificity.
It would take an act of will to picture him now as he was then: to put aside every image that had come in between, including that dark, stiffly bloated remnant of his face that was Billy in death, and remember him clearly: thin and handsome in those days, the dipped brim of his fedora over the blue eyes and the rimless glasses, a nick of dried blood on his smooth cheek, a red blush from the cold. A lingering scent of the church he had just come from on his overcoat, and a taste of the Eucharist still on his breath as they stood together in the crowded subway car, hand over hand on the same white pole, exchanging shouted bits of news or falling into silence as the train rattled and screeched and tried to knock them off their feet. As glad for each other’s company as if they’d long been deprived of it.
I adore her writing. It’s so so good.
Here’s a very interesting interview with McDermott – about her latest book After This, which I will definitely have to read. And I love the interview. She sounds like my kind of person. Practical, passionate, a tiny bit impatient with silly questions, and totally into her art. I love how she talks about writing.
