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Charming Billy
Alice McDermott. Delta: 1999 (paperback). ISBN: 038533334X. 243 pages.
Guide not available
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While this winner of the 1998 National Book Award opens with a sad family
gathering in a dingy Bronx bar after the funeral of a long-time alcoholic, it is nonetheless a surprisingly charming book.
As his large circle of family and friends tell their stories of Billy, we get a tender, poignant look at three generations
of Irish-Americans in a struggling but supportive community-this novel might be interesting to read as an American sequel
or cousin to the work of Frank McCourt or Roddy Doyle. McDermott's light, graceful touch and her adroit use of language
make for beautiful, evocative writing. You'll be captured immediately by the wisdom and humor in this story, as well as by
the sense that the stories our friends and family tell about us may stand as the most enduring estimate of who we truly are.
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