Rating: 
Summary: Lyrical, memoir-like story
Review: The central character of Alice McDermott's "Child of My Heart" is sister to a string of girlhood heroines whose names are as familiar as those of old friends: Wendy Darling, Pollyanna, Heidi, Dorothy Gale, Polly Pepper, Jo March. Like them, McDermott's Theresa is the perfect babysitter, story-teller, and charmer. In this memoir-like novel she is captured in that glorious, golden moment when she is the heroine of her own life, and she knows it.Theresa is adored by children and pets, treasured by mothers, admired by fathers. She has no peers to intrude upon her kingdom and offer criticism or scorn. She is the solitary queen of her Long Island village in a summerland that is as hazy and nostalgic as a painting by Cassatt.
McDermott walks a fine line here, because Theresa's awareness of her youth and beauty, and of the power that they give her, could make her insufferable. To McDermott's credit, she manages to make us love Theresa as much as the children and animals do... perhaps almost as much as McDermott does. For despite her self-knowledge, Theresa is neither vain nor selfish, and she wields her power with love and a wisdom well beyond her years. This is the story of a single week in the month of June, when Theresa's eight year old cousin, Daisy, comes to visit from the sticky heat of a New York City summer. Poor Daisy is the middle child of eight, a little girl lost in a crowd of siblings. In an almost diary-like format, Theresa recounts the six long, summer days that she and Daisy spend together. In the course of this single week, nothing - and everything - happens. Life happens. Theresa, from the realm of childhood, observes with perceptive eyes the grown up world that she is about to enter - the world that the other children cannot yet see. No longer a child, not yet a women, she is both at once. She is wise woman and fairy godmother, not just to her cousin Daisy, but to the grown-ups as well. Like a modern Titania, she experiments with her own blossoming sexuality as if it were a pair of newly discovered fairy wings. What she cannot do, though, is change the fate of those in her charge. Try as she might, she cannot alter the courses of their lives.
In this elegantly simple book, McDermott portrays that glimmering, evanescent moment of girlhood, when an almost-woman perceives herself as bold, self confident, and powerful, before she is hobbled by the expectations, limitations and heartbreak of the grown-up world.
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling
Review: I read this book with great interest, being very sound in characterization and story. I did however find the relationship between Theresa and the painter somewhat disturbing, a jolt or bitter pill to digest. The book on the whole was beautifully written and I found myself-weeks after finishing the book-thinking about the characters and longing to know more about them. I would highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Melancholy
Review: This is a difficult book to appraise. My reaction is based on the affection I have for the characters, especially the girls Theresa is nurturing the summer this story takes place during. There is something lonely and unsettled about Theresa's life and about her charges Daisy and Flora. Parents and adults in this book are not very imaginative or involved but are not dilikeable either. The novel is really about loss and the beautiful frailty of remembered moments. McDermott is a stunning writer. Many other readers took offense to the 'creepy' relationship between the artist father of Flora (who seems very Picasso-like to me) and Theresa but I felt there was a certain reality to it. Beautiful young women, which is precisely what Theresa is becoming, are often drawn to old men with talent. It is a fact of the world. His sexuality must be potent for he is still a man who commands several women in his life. As inexplicable as it may seem to some of us, it does happen. Theresa almost behaves in a dreamlike maner around him, perhaps a form of rebellion against the cautious dreams her parents have formed on her behalf. A book I would recommend to anyone who likes a nostalgic, yet not sugary coming-of-age novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Yeah, right
Review: I muttered throughout this whole entire book. Doesn't Theresa have anyone her own age to hang out with? With an ego like Theresa's it is no wonder she only has babies, dogs, 70 year old men and street urchins to keep her company. Who her age would want to be around her? This story has great potential at the beginning then quickly takes a nose dive. Let Charming Billy be your introduction to Alice McDermott and leave this one on the shelf.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: I liked this book a lot. I did find the relationship between Theresa and the painter to be distasteful and at odds with the author's character development of these individuals. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed reading this beautifully written book.
Rating: 
Summary: Initial delight and late disappointment
Review: I heard Alice McDermott on the radio, promoting her book on NPR and I was instantly captivated by her elegant comments. She read the second paragraph of the book and the next thing I know I was rushing to the bookshop to buy it. It was very easy to get attached to the book right from the first page. The lightness of the narration is enchanting and was addictive for some time, but soon it became boring when I realized that the story was not going anywhere. After I lost my enthusiasm, I left the book aside for a few months and sort of just finished recently just to get rid of it. The sexual involvement of Theresa with a 70-year old drunk and womanizer artist was profoundly disturbing to me and kind of out of context. It made me regret reaching the end of the book. I really would like to ask the author the reason behind this passage. Also, Theresa's irresponsibility of knowing that Daisy was sick and not taking any action did not gain my sympathy either. Although I was not fond of the book itself, McDermott has a charismatic way of writing and I certainly plan to read her other books.
Rating:
Summary: Not to my taste
Review: I really expected to like this book. I normally enjoy books that get inside the head of a female protagonist. But this one left me cold. It's the story of Theresa, a beautiful 15 year old living in Long Island who looks after the neighborhood children and animals over the summer. She is also charged with the care of her eight year old cousin, Daisy. The pace is VERY slow and the book takes a long time to get going. To me, Theresa (the narrator) never felt real. She seemed too mature to be only 15. Her smug confidence in her beauty and its power irritated me, as did her passive observations of so much around her. Nor did her actions seem particularly believable. Books that I think captured this age better were "The way I found her" by Rose Tremain and "Joy School" by Elizabeth Berg.
Rating:
Summary: "A Disappointment"
Review: I, automatically, read any book that Alice McDermott writes. I began with "That Night" and have progressed through "At Weddings and Wakes" and into "Charming Billy." In each instance it was a joy to watch her writing style mature and blossom--with each book better than the one before. That string was broken with "Child of My Heart." I am glad that all of the neighbors find Theresa to be such an endearing caretaker for their children and household pets. I found her interesting at the beginning. But as it became clear that she was to end up being seduced by the 70-year old painter father of one of her charges, I really lost interest. I had given her more credit--and the author had led me to believe that I should--than to be taken in by this drunken, aspirin-popping seducer of everyone. Maybe there is something in this novel that I don't get--but I finished it more to get it out of the way and to move on than for any other reason. I felt disappointment at the end and can only hope that Ms. McDermott will regain her stride soon.
Rating:
Summary: Evocative & Lyrical
Review: McDermott is wonderful at evoking time and place, as she does here with early-'60s Southhampton in the summertime. To me, this book is closer in tone to her early "That Night" (also a very good book) than to her more recent novels concerning more adult & Irish-American themes. Theresa is smart and likeable, and to me, her attraction to the 70-year-old artist is believable and hinted at early on, as she realizes that they both are involved with creating fictional worlds -- he with his brush and canvas, she with the fantasy tales which she regales her small charges with. The pall of loss and death are never absent, but it doesn't feel heavy-handed or trite. A leisurely summer book for readers who value attention to language and mood and aren't too lazy to pay attention themselves to the small moments, either in life or in novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Novel or memoir? I think she wrote this one first...
Review: I have a feeling this book was the author's first - before
the brilliant "Charming Billy," which I adored, and which
inspired me with the book I'm writing about my family. "Child" feels precious and self-congratulatory...the story of
her own life as a cutesy adolescent loved by one and all in
her little fishing village. Frankly, I found it too dull to finish,
which shocked me. I expected to devour it, as I had
"Charming Billy." As someone below has noted, the "wrong" note here is
that there is no pre-teen or teenager on earth who just
loves all little children. Pre-teens and teenagers are
blessedly self-centered and even if they get a kick out of
kids they resent having to babysit more than an hour at
a time, having to give anyone but themselves more than
an hour of intense attention. Anyone who understands
children knows that. So - Theresa - saintly little caretaker? No way!!! I know this is going to sound strange to some, but I think
any kid like that would be a little sick in real life. Perhaps
the kind who is anorexic or bulimic, rebelling against having
to be perfect. My feeling is that this book is how the author remembers
her youth, and it's too sugary for words, literally. Had she
written it as a memoir, in fact....it would have been
more gutsy, and she wouldn't have been allowed the
self-canonization.
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