Rating: 
Summary: reminiscent of my family home
Review: I enjoyed this story, as it reminded me of my own family, and spending my childhood on Long Island. The names were all to familiar and the places too. I had a warm feeling when reading this. I do wish that the narrator had explained more about herself a bit earlier, as I was confused about her role in the whole story. I did enjoy it very much.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful, just awful
Review: Confusing, depressing, dismal, dry, awful just awful. And to the reader from NYC on May 17th. I read plenty and I don't need to read anymore than I already do to know the difference between a good book and an awful one such as this one. This book doesn't even deserve 1 star. I tried to keep reading but after page 90 gave up. And quite frankly, I don't even know how I managed to read that far. Want to read a 5 star book? Read the Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy and tell me this book deserves 5 stars. This was a dull, dull, dull book. Waste of my money and time.
Rating:
Summary: Duller than dull, didn't captivate me at all
Review: What a shame. I wanted to like this book but I'm struggling to finish it. How is it that Dennis' daughter possesses these deep insights and the rest of the family appears clueless? And I have no sympathy or empathy for any of these characters. This novel could be summed up this way: Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets drunk and dies. The rest of the content you could probably catch at an AA meeting. The prose is ponderous- Read Barbara Gowdy, E. Annie Proulx, or if you want to read another book about an Irish family, read Seamus Deane's fine novel "Reading in the Dark."
Rating: 
Summary: A best seller should be good...NOT
Review: I bought Charming Billy because it was on the best seller list. What a disapointment. It started off fairly well but never got better. I had to stop half way through because it was just so uninteresting. The main (dead) character was pathetic in all his stupidity and alcoholism. I'll read the readers reviews from now on, not just the "official reviewers" and maybe I'll get a more accurate picture of what to expect.
Rating:
Summary: Booooring.....
Review: According to a reviewer on May 17, if I didn't like this book then I should read more. Well, I read PLENTY (about 4 - 5 books a month) and I found this book to be a lot of tedious drivel. I don't see what the big deal is. I finished it only because I wanted to see if it would get any better. What a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: A Mass of Confusion
Review: This is the first book in several years that I have started and finally caved in to giving up on at about page 75. It's hard to follow and goes off into incredibly disassociated tangents.Don't waste your time. You won't be entertained. You won't be inspired. You won't be introspective - you'll just be frustrated.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful....
Review: I honestly can't believe there were so many negative reviews of this book! A lot of people said they "didn't get it" or the characters weren't developed enough or that Billy wasn't charming..etc... Anyway- I honestly enjoyed Charming Billy and am actually reading it again. McBermott really has a fine grasp of the English language and she writes so poetically. If you can't appreciate the story-- at least read it for the prose!! And for all of you who just didn't get it or understand the story or who were unable to keep up with the plot and skipping around of the story line...maybe you should read more! That isn't meant to be a mean comment---but if you read more books written in the same style as Charming Billy-- you will have an easier time of understanding them and truly seeing the beauty in the characters and words.
Rating:
Summary: It's a literary masterpiece
Review: This was one of the better books I've read in a long time. It is on my Top 10 favorites. Alice Mc Dermott captured the essense of family, the feel of Queens, New York, the feel of East Hampton, New York, the 1940's up to the 1990s. I wanted to copy down some of her great words of wisdom on dying, and living and lonliness... However, I would only recommend this book to someone who is relatively content - the despair of lonliness lingers throughout each page.
Rating: 
Summary: Gritty, sumptuous prose
Review: A portrait of second-generation Irish odyssey in America. The book begins with Billy's funeral, and struggles to understand his plight.
Rating:
Summary: Charming Billy is the best sleeping pill around.
Review: It's rare that I read a book that I didn't grow to appreciate in some way by the time I finish. The only thing I appreciated about this was finally closing it. This novel doesn't "flow", it's difficult to follow from the start. The characters aren't developed well, I found myself not really caring about them. I wish I had listened to the bookseller when she struggled to find something positive on this one.
I'd suggest Mercy Road, Dalia Pagani or Amy & Isabelle, Elizabeth Strout, both strong new writers, as more enjoyable.
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