Rating: 
Summary: Something I would expect from Alice McDermott: superlative
Review: I am a first-time reviewer and was amazed at the disparate reviews ahead of mine, but also respectful of them. It was a tough read at times and perhaps in the end more frustrating than any novel of hers before. I loved the book but would love to talk to Ms. McDermott because I think I missed the point, the crux, of the novel. And that is this - did Dennis, who told a lie to Billy, have a major influence on Billy's life or was he correct in surmising that if Billy did not drink himself to death over Eva it would have been somebody/something else? I get the feeling, after getting a rough sketch of Billy's early life before Eva, that he would not have been plagued with alcoholism had Eva behaved as "she should have" and come back to New York. What I am less sure of is if Dennis had not told a lie but had told the truth whether Billy would have wallowed in self-pity (the screwed over person) and used this as an excuse to drink himself to death. I really was uncomfortable with Dennis; I think the lie literally caused Billy to self-destruct. But Ms. McDermott needed to tell us this more directly, which she did not. That was an unsatisfying aspect of this book. Billy should have said something a bit more meaty to Dennis when they were at the cottage in the Hamptons after Billy came back from Ireland...instead he told a funny anecdote to Dennis' daughter about Dennis arriving late for a baptism. I got the impression when Billy was talling to Eva in Ireland and learning the godawful truth that he was decimated. He was saying in his own head how he was going to break his pledge. This event had simply devastated him yet he goes back to Dennis and never utters anything resembling this sense of betrayal or devastation. Having said this, I hunger for Ms. McDermott's books. It appears she writes her books at the rate of one every five years. Her prose is so elegant and sometimes I had to read a sentence several times to get its full meaning. This book somewhat reminded me of another one of my favorite authors and a theme....Last Orders, by Graham Swift, winner of the Booker Prize.
Rating: 
Summary: Difficult reading, but interesting observations
Review: The book is difficult reading. The characters are not formally introduced and the story skips about in time. The prose requires a lot of concentration. However, it does address interesting themes about relationships, life's experiences, and alcoholism.
Rating: 
Summary: You'll either love it or hate it--there's no in-between.
Review: From these reviews, it seems obvious that you'll either love this book or hate it. I loved it. I found the character development to be exordinary and believable. But then, seeing so many of my own family members in this book, I suppose it's natural that I was so touched by how Alice McDermott has depicted the characters in this book. My advice if you're considering this title is: try it, you might like it!
Rating: 
Summary: No Charm In Billy
Review: This book was a major disappointment for me. I felt suffocated by its characters and story and had little sympathy for Billy, who seemed to be totally self-indulgent and self-destructive. Even though the book was short, it felt like War and Peace as I tried to plow through it because I was enticed by the raving reviews and its National Book Award status. But it was tedious, annoying, and, ultimately, unrewarding.
Rating:
Summary: Quite charming,...
Review: The book is good. That's what I have to say. It contains a very light story for light reading and a historical sense into the Irish families. The plot set in such well mannered it was depicting a soft dying day where Maeve is hard on finding her future. When Billy died, she was so devastated and the loomy days where described in up-miost excellence, as beautiful and as mundane as a dying day. What I feel in this book is a sense of belonging. The narration really put me there, just like a person beside with much to listen on their little conversations. The book show the courage and the pain and the lost. But it ends well, with new hope. THANK YOU Alice.
Rating:
Summary: This book displays absolute brillance in prose, and texture.
Review: Alice McDermott's "Charming Billy" is a novel filled with exhuberant characters, artistry, and passionate love. Told from a unique perspective, and an interesting style, the reader travels from the present, with Billy's funeral, to his passionate love affair with "that Irish girl." From his failing relationship, to his alcoholism, and family blunders, one will be fully satisfied with not only McDermott's prose and lyricism, but the plot, and riveting-driven characters.
Rating: 
Summary: poetic language, weak characterization & plot
Review: I was disappointed in this book. I share the northeast, Irish American background described in the novel, but didn't find the characterizations especially compelling. The plot would have been ok for a short story but just doesn't hold up in a novel. Also, there is a tradeoff between this modern, "in" style and simple clarity -- I suppose I generally prefer clarity! Some of the passages are very poetic, however. I can see how some folks would enjoy this, but it's definitely not my cup of tea.
Rating:
Summary: No charm in Billy
Review: The Irish in Limerick. The Irish in Dublin. And now the Irish in Queens. Alice McDermott takes us on a protracted tour of various dismal little neighborhoods that she tells us too much about in this repetitive, stifling, claustrophobic memoir. But the book's main figure is one Billy Lynch, a charming, sweet, intelligent Irish man completely loyal to a lost cause and utterly self-destructive. We are asked to enter Billy's "glorious" life and listen to the endless talk of all his relatives, his neighbors, and his lost love Eva, over whom he apparently pines away for years and years, believing she died in Ireland after having had a brief summer romance with him on Long Island. We are told over and over and over again about this tragic affair and how Billy took to his cups over it, or maybe not. The book's characters endlessly debate this point. But then, the kicker is, Eva really didn't die after all. She just couldn't take Billy (and I don't wonder why) but instead absconded with his $500 he sent her to bring her back to him from Ireland. Indeed, Eva went off and married someone else, had four kids, gained weight, and grew old, just like most folks do. Except for old Billy, who pined and pined and drank and drank and fell on his face all over Queens, much to the chagrin of his hopelessly loyal martyred wife and wise, but ineffectual cousin Dennis. Well, this story isn't quite enough to make a full-blown book, so we have to hear about everyone else's life too, not just Billy's, but Billy's cousin Dennis, Dennis's mom, Dennis's mom's husbands, Dennis's wife, Billy's wife, and even some of the neighbors. These people really don't bring much to the party, the whole lot of them, except long suffering, lots of talk about one another, lots of talk about the Church, and constant speculation about Billy and what made his poor miserable glorious soul tick. At about page 112 I really wanted to be done with this suffocating story except the blurbs wallpapered all over its cover and insides kept telling me it was "heartbreaking," "brilliant," "astoundingly beautiful," and, worst of all, the National Book Award Winner! So I plowed on, hoping for Joycean ecstasies or McCourt-like pathos, only to find more of the same, written with dogged persistence, and finally ending with a marriage of cousin Dennis to Billy's martyred widow. As I unhappily turned the last page, I wondered what was wrong with me. Why wasn't I thinking "magical," "mesmerizing," and "poignant" instead of miserable, merciless, and dull? Did it strike too close to my cradle Catholic roots or my Queens depressing childhood? Or was the book really a failure in editing? Is it just an overblown short story that should have been rigorously cut down and distilled to its essence? Yes, I think that's it. I would have been much happier if it were half as long, made its unhappy point, and said goodbye. Properly edited, it may even have been able to stand close to the work of the great Edna O'Brien or the mighty Flannery O'Connor. But as it stands now, I advise you to bring a tank of oxygen along when you read it. You'll need it to stop from smothering in its endless chatter, unwanted details, and airless atmosphere.
Rating:
Summary: Alice McDermott is a literary genius
Review: Alice McDermott's use of language is so rich that every sentence reads like poetry. Her ability to seamlessly weave complex scenes is in a class of its own. I found myself reading passages again and again. When I read the other reviews and find so many disapproving I can only reflect that McDermott's style is so unique and new that it takes readers aback. The sad truth is that people find comfort in the ordinary. Bravo to Ms. McDermott for taking literature to new heights.
Rating:
Summary: Less than Charming Billy
Review: At first I really cared about the main character, Billy, but as the book plodded along I found myself caring less and less about this stereotype of an Irish-American. I cared even less about about his ever-suffering, saint-seeking, co-dependant wife, Maeve. This book was confusing, dull. Like the previous reader said, "who gives these awards?" I was sorely dissapointed.
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