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Charming Billy

Charming Billy

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $29.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Where's the charm?
Review: I love good literature, but I'm having a tough time finding anything about this book to praise. Its "plot", if you can call it that, is circular and self-defeating. I suppose being dead doesn't automatically disqualify a main character from being interesting, but in this case I didn't really care a fig about Billy or any of his numerous, ordinary relatives. A few ruminations in a book give one time to reflect along with the author. An entire book of ruminations is tedious in the extreme. If you are looking for recreational reading, I would suggest you pass this one up.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not a prize winner
Review: McDermott failed to portray the characters of the book in a way that held my interest. It was extremely difficult to latch on to the story or it's characters as McDermott failed to let us spend more than two pages on one character! I found the content and construct of the book excessively boring. I never fail to find pleasure in all books I read, however, Charming Billy was the first.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Charming, but...
Review: This is a sweet, thoughtful, intelligently written book...but what was all the hoopla about? While Billy's story is alternately amusing and sad, it never achieves the tragic dimensions that would make it great literature. Ordinary man, ordinary book.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Where's the Charm?
Review: The committee which awarded the prize for this book must have been in Ireland, under the influence, for this book certainly deserves no prize. Billy is not charming, but a user of people. His friends and relations are not forgiving, but co-dependents in his alcoholic stagger through life. Alice McDermott's prose, while occasionally pretty, is never deep. It's time to leave our fascination with the Irish and move on to another nationality.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A "tightly woven fabric of affection"
Review: I'm sorry to read negative reviews of this book. It was exquisite, in simplicity of language, vividness of character, intracacies of plot and structure. What I love is the mirroring of lives as tales are told through the perspectives of the generations of this Irish American family. Billy's story is Dennis' story; Eva's story is Maeve's story; Kate's story is is Claire's story, and all stories are the narrator's story: that's what a family is. So much to explore and reflect upon here: youth, death, obsession, love, perception, truth, benevolence, mercy, generosity, guilt, selfishness, redemption, illusion, reality, to say nothing of alcoholism, marriage, family, success, racism and religion. My favorite line, which I think sums the book up tidily: "...then the story of his life, or the story they would begin to re-create for him this afternoon, would have to take another turn." There is the reality of a life, and quite separate from it are the perceptions that color it, in actuality and in memory. This book exquisitely explores perception and attitude, and the difference they make in a life. Hats off to Alice McDermott; this is such a rewarding, thought-provoking piece of work, I just thank her for creating it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Just stick to the story!
Review: Let me begin by saying that the characers and plots in this book were exquisitely protrayed by the author. Ms. McDermott truly has talent. However, the convoluted way in which she rambled through the tale was distracting. Also, I never understood why this story was told from the perspective of Dennis' daugter in the form of some sort of narrative to her husband. That character's personal interjections into the story seemed unnecessary. Though this novel was filled with wonderful messages, people, and ideas, in the end, it was usurped by its ramblings. But keep working Ms. McDermott--you have talent.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Sad lot
Review: A little lesson on the affects of betrayed love. It was overall ok. Nicely written, but I didn't really feel a solid connection to the storyline or the characters.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: CHARMING JOYCE
Review: I just finished reading Charming Billy and the attending customer reviews. Very poetic, therefore repetition. I didn't like the book, but believe that if I could understand James Joyce, I might have. Unlike some customer reviewers, I would have no trouble liking a drunk (especially a ficticious one). But I didn't get to know one from this writing, very little of the story was told from Billy's perspective.

I wonder if the sentence beginning, "Unable" on p.211 relfects the author's frustration with long ago run-on sentence prohibition?

Reminded me somewhat of a humorless Neil Simon childhood account. (I was not able to appreciate the "witty" content referred to by one pro[fessional] reviewer.) I enjoyed the description of the Long Island house and landscape.

I couldn't understand the author's seeming condemnation of "the lie" (intended to comfort), as set against the constant comforting references to the Next Life. And Billy drank through both lie and truth.

I had no trouble getting through the book, although I kept waiting for something abrupt to happen at the end. And it did. The last several paragraphs were upbeat. They in fact reflected a phenomenal (unbelievable?) adjustment to old age, old spouses, even old loss of faith. Only youth is tragic.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Beautifully written but excruciatingly confusing.
Review: The plot of this novel is readily available in the first chapter. Billy falls in love with Eva. Eva moves back to Ireland. Billy sends money to Eva to pay for her return passage. Eva takes Billy's money and marries someone else. To save Billy from embarassment, he is told by a family member that she has died. He mourns her death FOREVER. Of course there are many nuances to the story...faith, love, religion, obsession, alcoholism, family ties that bind, alcoholism, enablers, what is real, believed or imagined. There are some scenes which will take your breath away. When Maeve, Billy's unloved wife, thinks she hears him in the kitchen with his dog, or when her father tells her there isn't any need for her to dress up for Billy, or the entire first chapter, you understand implicitly what McDermott is trying to accomplish. Our Book Club, of 20, came up with the 2 stars. The two stars were awarded because McDermott shifts perspective and time lines so frequently, it IS hard to follow.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: If you can follow it, this book is good
Review: I have to agree with some of the others who reviewed this book when they say the narration is very hard to follow. It is. Not only does the point of view skip around, but I feel like Ms. McDermott moves on to a new time period before she has really finished with the current time period. However, the prose is beautiful and the characters well-developed.I'm willing to wade through some of the problems in the narration for interesting characters.


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