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A Novel
by Alice McDermott
Book Reviewed by:A vivid portrait of an American family in the middle decades of the twentieth century.
Alice McDermott’s powerful novel is a vivid portrait of an
American family in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Witty,
compassionate, and wry, it captures the social, political, and
spiritual upheavals of those decades through the experiences of a
middle-class couple, their four children, and the changing worlds in
which they live.
While Michael and Annie Keane taste the
alternately intoxicating and bitter first fruits of the sexual
revolution, their older, more tentative brother, Jacob, lags behind,
until he finds himself on the way to Vietnam. Meanwhile, Clare, the
youngest child of their aging parents, seeks to maintain an almost
saintly innocence. After This, alive with the passions and
tragedies of a determining era in our history, portrays the clash of
traditional, faith-bound life and modern freedom, while also capturing,
with McDermott’s inimitable understanding and grace, the joy, sorrow,
anger, and love that underpin, and undermine, what it is to be a
family.
It's a mistake to rush a McDermott novel because in doing so you might miss the little details that make the whole thing worthwhile - the fleeting thoughts and gestures that are her forte, and the the apparently trivial events - the sort that are rarely recorded in the photo album but are the bedrock of every family life...continued
Full Review
(427 words)
(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Alice McDermott was born in Brooklyn,
New York in 1953. Her first novel, A
Bigamists' Daughter, was published
to wide acclaim in 1982. That Night
(1987) was a finalist for the Pulitzer
Prize and the National Book Award. At
Weddings and Wakes (1992) was a
New York Times bestseller.
Charming Billy (1998), won the
National Book Award.
Child of My Heart followed in
2002.
She received her B.A. in 1975 from the
State University of New York at Oswego,
and her M.A. in 1978 from the University
of New Hampshire. She has taught ...
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