At Weddings and Wakes

Rating:
Summary: OH SO BORING
Review: :[ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Rating:
Summary: In relation to relatives
Review: A familiar story, the pathos of Irish Catholics in 20th century America, told with skill, grace, lament. Readers of McDermott's "Charming Billy" will feel right at home in this story as well, although this is probably the more skillfully done of the two. The author attempts several more challenging devices - the viewpoint of the children, the discontinuous timing and a repetition of the final scene for effect - most of which works. The richness of the descriptions and the characters, the familiarity of the scenes, evoking a sense of longing for what is past and irrecoverable, or what was desired and never attained (the view of the child). The writer's feel for the female characters is deeper and more evoked - but then women live in a world of beauty that men will never know. McDermott's writing talent is extraordinary - but as with "Charming Billy" her storytelling skills lag behind her literary skills. Still, thoroughly enjoyable scenes of life - family relationships, the working and middle class in early urban America moving into the wider scene of suburbia - for better or worse, marking well the landmarks as they appear and recede.

Rating:
Summary: This book is (almost quite entirely) exasperating
Review: Alice McDermott is obviously not for everyone. Her language is dense, at times difficult, but it's also hauntingly beautiful. Her writing in AW&W is just a pitch-perfect rendering of a child's memory of the complex life of an extended family. For some of us, the revelations in this novel resonate strongly with our own lives and experience: growing up Catholic in post-war America in a suburban family with urban roots. Ev en those lacking these personal connections might come to appreciate McDermott's artistry. (Just so you'll know where I'm coming from: this book, Possession by A.S. Byatt, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov are my favorite fiction of those I've read in the last year or so.)

Rating:
Summary: A book of wonder, nuance, tragedy, and joy
Review: Alice McDermott is obviously not for everyone. Her language is dense, at times difficult, but it's also hauntingly beautiful. Her writing in AW&W is just a pitch-perfect rendering of a child's memory of the complex life of an extended family. For some of us, the revelations in this novel resonate strongly with our own lives and experience: growing up Catholic in post-war America in a suburban family with urban roots. Ev en those lacking these personal connections might come to appreciate McDermott's artistry. (Just so you'll know where I'm coming from: this book, Possession by A.S. Byatt, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov are my favorite fiction of those I've read in the last year or so.)

Rating:
Summary: McDermott not for vid-brains
Review: Alice McDermott's books, and this is a perfect example, are not for the MTV-reared set who expect jump cuts every half a page. And it's not for those who take their cues from Hollywood and expect lots of dialogue, action, and scene changes every other page. It *is* for people raised on books and who appreciate narrative, description, verisimilitude, and sheer poetry of language. Someone here called this book "dense" -- I suspect you know what's going through my mind right about now.

Rating:
Summary: a family history through the memories of the children
Review: At Weddings and Wakes was a very interesting look at the history of a family through the collected (not collective) memories of the children who saw the developments through their child-eyes. The details that are so clear to a child, the sounds,the tastes, the physical feel of things, the lack of conversational detail and nuance, the end results of the day, all give a clean and simple feel to this story. The way that the different children have a slightly different perspective on the same occasion or type of occasion was insightful beyond ordinary reason. The children did not automatically connect one happening in their lives to another. To them there was no trainload of fault and blame to be emptied at every unhappy ( or happy) occurance. Sometimes good things just happen, sometimes bad. They seemed to feel that life just unfolded itself for them to observe it. The simplicity of a childs acceptance of things in their life is accomplished only through the complex thought and the gentle hand of an excellent writer like Alice McDermott. The entire novel was like a walk through the park holding a child's hand, as they open their heart to you completely, trying to help you understand life as they perceive it. Alice McDermott seems to know that it is not the destination but the journey itself that make life worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Worth reading several times
Review: Beautifully written and highly evocative, the story stays with you like a childhood memory. The depiction of the father through the children's eyes is marvelous. This is one of my favorite books.

Rating:
Summary: another disappointment
Review: I keep hearing all of these wonderful things about McDermott's books, but I just cannot seem to find the light that people are talking about. In "weddings and wakes" I kept expecting some sort of development and none could be found. There was no character development and like in the Bigamist's daughter you are left with a feeling of apathy towards the characters. I was expecting so much more but found myself painfully pushing through this book.

Rating:
Summary: Did not like this book
Review: I read this book a few years ago and thought: Booooring, with long-winded descriptions that make you want to scream "Enough already!" (A much better job of various characters remembering events differently is "The Irish Princess" by Amy J. Fetzer.) Thinking maybe I had just 'missed something', or that the style in which she wrote was just for "At Weddings and Wakes" and a different book by her would be better....WRONG! Just as boring, and didn't even bother to finish it----can't even remember the name of it. Couldn't believe she was recently given some writing award (sorry, can't remember its name) for her most recent novel, "Charming Billy." I sure won't be fooled into reading it.

Rating:
Summary: One of My All-Time Favorites
Review: I read this book when it first came out about seven years ago. I have since re-read it twice, it is simply one of my favorites, so finely written that I can feel and taste the vacations on Long Island and see the lace curtains in the apartment in Brooklyn. A wonderful, wonderful book. It never received the attention that it should have.