Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful book
Review: I loved this book, as I do all books in which the characters are real enough to be relatives of mine. Ms. McDermott has an uncanny ability to "nail" people. They speak, not with fictionalized, stylized dialogue, but in voices which resonate with humanity. This book alternately brought me to tears and made me laugh out loud. Those of you who didn't get it...maybe it's an "Irish" thing. Much as Billy saw the ghosts and faces of all of his "American" family members and friends during his pilgrimage to Ireland, I saw mine in this book. Great fiction doesn't "pretend" to be real life, it IS real life.
Rating: 
Summary: I must have missed the point
Review: This was a recommendation for our book club and all 6 of us were struggling with it. This beloved Billy was so underdeveloped as the central theme character and the other characters were weak and enabling to the point where you could not feel for any of them. The story jumped back and forth and the plot was very weak. What in the world made this book such an award winner? OBVIOUSLY, I MISSED SOMETHING HERE!
Rating:
Summary: Hard to follow, not very interesting
Review: Like many who have reviewed this book, I found this story hard to follow and even more difficult to get into. An alcoholic fool would have been a more accurate description of Billy than was "charming". I managed to finish the book in the vain hope that the story would get better but it did not. The story was just plain sad and not very redeeming. In fact, throw in some colorful language and a prostitute and you would have "Leaving Las Vegas" with Irish people.
Rating:
Summary: Stuck on page 50
Review: I am up to page 50 and can't go on anymore. Can someone please tell me if I should continue reading? The book is not grabbing my attention. I am bored reading it. Should I even bother finishing it?? Someone please advise. Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Making the ordinary extraordinary
Review: Alice McDermott weaves a tale that, despite the vicious selfishness of Eva, we have all heard a thousand times- probably from someone in our own neighborhood or family. What makes this book worthwhile is the author's eloquence coupled with her ability to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary; transforming the trite into unique. If the reader can set aside their preconceived notions of the way a novel should be set up (i.e. chronological order) this is a book you will definitely enjoy. One that will make you reflect on it and its characters even days or weeks after you have finished reading it. Most importantly, it is a book that will make you feel better and want to be better simply for having read it!
Rating: 
Summary: OK
Review: I really felt like quitting in the middle of this book b/c I just couldn't get into it but I trudged on and finally read a few chapters in a quiet place w/ no distractions and I began to like the book and I'm glad I finished it. It is a very sad story - but this may be lost on you b/c the writing can be very confusing if you are not totally focused on the book (like if you're reading on a train or bus, etc) so you may have to re-read a page or two if you find yourself thinking 'what is she talking about?'. Also, the way the older characters spoke seemed to be more Irish than Irish-American and this was annoying for me because I had to keep trying to imagine them without accents and I just couldn't. I don't think it deserved an award, but despite all this I liked it anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: Charming, but a bit confusing.
Review: I truly enjoyed this book. It was an intimate look at the closeness and caring of the typical Irish-American Catholic family. The characters themselves enchanted me, but the switching back and forth between generations made me have to stop and go back just to figure out where I was in time.
Rating:
Summary: Ignore the naysayers!
Review: It seems that some people are only satisfied when they are spoon-fed formulaic pap. They don't deserve a book as fine as Charming Billy. This is a deeply satisfying novel.
Rating:
Summary: Boring!
Review: I lost my copy of this book after I had trudged through 100 pages or so. I never missed it.
Rating:
Summary: BLABBERMOUTHS !!!!
Review: Why have most of the reviews and some of the customer comments given away what happens to Billy's relationship with Eva? Granted, the author reveals what happened at the end of the first chapter, and since this is not a mystery novel surprise is not the most important element. However, discovering this on my own would have had a greater impact than knowing well ahead of time what happened to Billy.
| 
