Rating: 
Summary: Recommend it!
Review: I have recommended this bookto numerous friends and family. I grew up in this neighborhood, and I knew quite a few Uncle Billys. Hard working, well meaning, mild mannered, kindly sorts - as we used to say "poor unfortunates." He harmed himself more than anyone else. This book and its characters hit home. I felt as if I knew most of them.
Rating:
Summary: Easily transferred to Boston and its South Shore Irish
Review: After reading some of the other reviews of "Charming Billy," I wondered if I might have read something quite different altogether. I found the story entirely realistic, reminding me of the secrets kept from me by own over-protective family. The conspiracy of loving lies in the fictional Lynch family was too much like those in my own for me to ignore. Yes, I saw through Dennis' deception before I finished the first chapter and yes, I found it hard to believe that Billy would travel to Ireland of all places to undertake "the cure." These are truly minor flaws in a novel that caused me to remain inside, reading and reflecting, on a beautiful late summer Vermont day.Until "Charming Billy" came along I had no idea that New York City area Irish-Americans are so much like Boston area Irish-Americans with their summer homes on the "Irish Riviera," the South Shore communities along Cape Cod Bay. Hooray for Alice McDermott. I shall seek out her other works.
Rating: 
Summary: Heartbreaking, heartwarming, loving, funny and real--worthy
Review: Like an impressionist painting, this book is different from other books from the opening chapter. As this family's story unfolds, one becomes "the fly on the wall" who gets to really see it all. The turns in plot are predictable, but that's as it should be. That's how life is. Another reviewer complains that the reader can't "identify" with the characters; that's not what great literature is about. It's a growing thing. I want to go somewhere new and feel stuff differently than I ever have before. I felt the forties by reading these words, I felt Irish, I felt a Lynch, I felt human.
Rating: 
Summary: So hard to follow--
Review: I am on page 42 and I just realized from reading another review who the narrator is. I was enthusiastic about reading this book, and now I am very disappointed. I am trying to get through the rest, but the writing is boring, the characters are boring, etc., etc., etc.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much pathos, not enough charm
Review: This book tried to do what "Angela'a Ashes" actually did. There were too many characters with too much pain in their lives to allow the reader to identify with any single one. The strange choice of narrator futher clouded the novel. McDermott does a fine job of placing a word on a page; her prose is melodic and rich to read. But when those words try to become a story, they fall short. I found very little believable threads in this book and would not recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: A character study through the eyes of a burdened family
Review: Alice McDermott crafts a thoughtful eulogy to the sad earthly existence of the nararrator's Uncle Billy, a sweet, mannered alcoholic resigned to life without true love. The plot structure is challenging to read in that it continually jumps from time period to time period and first to third person in its attempt to provide a full analysis of the beligered Billy. As family members comment on their lifelong experiences with the decedent at Billy's funeral, you get the feeling that he caused more grief in their lives than the narrator (Billy's niece) is willing to admit or understand. However, the book does provide a realistic and plausible confirmation that true love does exist even in this chaotic and burdensome world we live in.
Rating:
Summary: Artistry in language and story telling
Review: Alice McDermott takes the reader on a guided tour of a man's life through the eyes of his family and friends. It's a thoughtful story of the fortitude of the heart, the aching of love lost and wasted and the power of family. McDermott writes with a warmth that quietly pulled me in. I became attached to the characters, and grieved for what could have been. A truly charming book in its story and in the charm of its language.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely boring and confusing to follow
Review: I thought this book was extremely boring. The narrator had a perspective that made this book very difficult to follow. I was so bored that I really wondered what the author was trying to accomplish in this book.
Rating:
Summary: The mixed reviews are on target.
Review: "Charming Billy" is not a book that you cannot wait to resume reading when you return from work each day. It is a book that you compel yourself to continue because you know it has literary worth and because you hope there is a payoff at the end. While the book features zero suspense, it does reward the reader with exquisite writing (although the run-on and fragment sentences can be irksome at times), and a few small twists at the end (only one of which I found predictable). Basically, if you want a book that reels you in and engrosses you, this is not it. But if you want a contemplative work poetically written, try it.
Rating:
Summary: An utterly captivating, character driven story.
Review: I needed to submit this review to contradict the negative commentaries. This book is a complete delight. The characters are real, the dialogue is true. Obviously, if one is looking for major plot twists and non stop action, this book is not for you. It is for a thoughtful reader who loves language and is content with a lyrical pace and rhythm.
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