Charming Billy by Alice McDermott (fiction)
McDermott is an amazing writer. I LOVED her book “Of
Weddings and Wakes” (In that book, she flawlessly enables the reader to enter
different perspectives of members of a family—it is an exercise in empathy and
realizing that one’s perspective could be quite different from the real
thing---like reading about a family through a prism. She trains the reader to
distrust his/her own stereotyped judgments towards "the other". Great and beautifully
written.) In Charming Billy, McDermott is still an amazing writer, although
this book would not make it on my top ten list of favorites. This is the story
of a beloved, tragic uncle who ended up an alcoholic. Written from the
perspective of the grown niece, stories and memories of this uncle (and the
family, in general) piece together into a portrait of a life. I love how
McDermott humanizes a family; you begin to see your own relatives through different eyes and realize
that experiences make us into much of what we are. The story's gentleness serves as a reminder to withhold
brutal judgment from family members that get under your skin. J This book is one of McDermott's most famous ones, but I would say that I enjoyed “Of Weddings and Wakes” more.
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