I have had Charming Billy by Alice McDermott in my stack
forever, so I decided it would be a great addition to my 2015 TBR PILE Challenge. One note about my 2015 TBR
PILE Challenge: I am very behind. I have
only read four of the twelve books I promised to read, and it’s already July. I’m
thinking that I might have to write a future post on Bookish Procrastination –
though it’s likely that I’ll never get around to it.
Here's the TBR pile I promised to read |
Little did I know when I picked up Charming Billy that I
would be reading yet another book about grieving. Other books I have read
recently that consider this theme are A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman, The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood, and Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín.
Charming Billy is more than just a story about grief,
however. It’s also a story about faith. And I’d argue that it’s more
specifically about how faith works as part of Irish-American cultural identity.
The book’s plot– if you want to call it that – involves a gathering of friends
and family at Billy Lynch’s funeral. As they mourn together, they grapple with
whether Billy died of alcoholism or of the effects of a broken heart. The
reader learns about both conditions – his drinking and his loss – as the
narrative jumps around in time.
At the center of Billy’s life is a romantic loss. When he
finds out that the love of his life has died back in Ireland, he is devastated,
and that devastation goes on to influence all of the decisions he makes. But it turns out that perhaps Billy does not know the whole truth about
his love’s death – in fact, he has been told a story about her that is not
real. McDermott is asking whether comforting stories help or harm. And with
that, she is asking questions about the function of religion as an organizing
feature of this particular community’s world.
This book won the National Book Award in 1998, and it has
many of the features of a lot of
award-winning contemporary literature. The writing is
gorgeous and subtle, and the ideas it plays with are big and profound. I’m glad
I finally read it. But I will stress that this the kind of book to read
when you’re feeling cozy and contemplative. It is not a page-turner, and I was
surprised how long it took me to get through this slim volume.
This is definitely a good novel to check out if you’re interested
in Irish American ethnic culture or identity. The characters’ traditions, the
way they care for one another and offend one another, the way they celebrate
and self-destruct, and the way they communicate seem particular rather than
universal. It would be interesting to pair this with a novel about another
American cultural group and do some literary comparison (hint: book club
idea!).
You can find a good interview with Alice McDermott here.
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