Alice McDermott
Author of Charming Billy
About the Author
Alice McDermott was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 27, 1953. She received a B.A. from the State University of New York at Oswego in 1975 and an M.A. from the University of New Hampshire in 1978. After graduating college, she got a job reading unsolicited manuscripts for Redbook magazine and did show more some freelance reading for Esquire. She has taught writing at American University, the University of New Hampshire, and the University of California at San Diego. Currently, she is the Writing Seminars Professor of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Department. Her short stories and articles have appeared in numerous publications including Ms., Redbook, Mademoiselle, The New Yorker, Seventeen, the New York Times and the Washington Post. She has written several novels including A Bigamist's Daughter, At Weddings and Wakes, Child of My Heart, After This, Someone, and The Ninth Hour. That Night was made into a film starring C. Thomas Howell and Juliette Lewis in 1992. She has won several awards including the National Book Award for fiction in 1998 for Charming Billy, a Whiting Writers Award, and the 2008 Corrington Award for Literature. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Alice McDermott
Associated Works
Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink (2007) — Contributor — 553 copies, 10 reviews
More Stories We Tell: The Best Contemporary Short Stories by North American Women (2004) — Contributor — 62 copies
Selected Shorts: Food Fictions (Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story) (2007) — Contributor — 11 copies, 3 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- McDermott, Alice
- Birthdate
- 1953-06-27
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
Bethesda, Maryland, USA - Education
- St. Boniface School, Elmont, Long Island, New York, USA (1967)
Sacred Heart Academy, Hempstead New York, USA (1971)
State University of New York, Oswego (BA|1975)
University of New Hampshire (MA | 1978) - Occupations
- novelist
professor - Relationships
- Turco, Lewis (teacher)
- Organizations
- University of California, San Diego
American University - Awards and honors
- Whiting Writers' Award (1987)
F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Fiction (2010) - Agent
- Harriet Wasserman (Harriet Wasserman Literary Agency)
- Short biography
- McDermott was born in Brooklyn, New York. She attended St. Boniface School in Elmont, New York, on Long Island (1967), Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead (1971), and the State University of New York at Oswego, receiving her BA in 1975, and received her MA from the University of New Hampshire in 1978.
She has taught at UCSD and American University, has been a writer-in-residence at Lynchburg College and Hollins College in Virginia, and was lecturer in English at the University of New Hampshire. Her short stories have appeared in Ms., Redbook, Mademoiselle, The New Yorker and Seventeen. She has also published articles in The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Ms. McDermott lives outside Washington, D.C. with her husband, a neuroscientist, and three children. She is Catholic, though she once deemed herself "not a very good Catholic
Members
Discussions
novel, 50s-60s era, family, four kids? Catholic, one son dies in Vietnam in Name that Book (November 2016)
Reviews
Charming Billy by Alice McDermott
The Ninth Hour a story by Alice McDermott is well written vivid and an interesting insight into 20th Century Irish Catholic Brooklyn and while I found the book well written prose wise I did find the novel quite disjointed and at times difficult to follow.
The Story starts out quite strong with Jim a young Irish immigrant recently fired from his job as a subway motorman takes his own life in the Brooklyn apartment he rents with his pregnant wife Annie. Sister St. Saviour from the Little Nursing Sisters of the Sick appears on the scene and takes the young widow under her wing.
The life of the Little Nursing Sisters was to go out in the very Catholic Brooklyn community and nurse those who were sick or suffering and I found this really interesting and informative in the book. Their nursing went far and beyond what was normal duties for a nurse as the sisters would also cook, clean, take in laundry, provide company, and sustenance for people in need. The sisters contributed immensely to the community they worked in and it was nice to see that portrayed in this story as there are many wonderful caring nuns who dedicate and have dedicated their lives to the poor and suffering.
There is much to like about this novel and I could possibly rate the writing 5 star as the scenes were vivid and so well written and yet the book dragged for me and became a little bit of a chore. I liked the characters and yet I never felt I got to know them or connected with them. A short novel and yet a book that became a long read and therefore a 3 star rating from me.… (more)
The Story starts out quite strong with Jim a young Irish immigrant recently fired from his job as a subway motorman takes his own life in the Brooklyn apartment he rents with his pregnant wife Annie. Sister St. Saviour from the Little Nursing Sisters of the Sick appears on the scene and takes the young widow under her wing.
The life of the Little Nursing Sisters was to go out in the very Catholic Brooklyn community and nurse those who were sick or suffering and I found this really interesting and informative in the book. Their nursing went far and beyond what was normal duties for a nurse as the sisters would also cook, clean, take in laundry, provide company, and sustenance for people in need. The sisters contributed immensely to the community they worked in and it was nice to see that portrayed in this story as there are many wonderful caring nuns who dedicate and have dedicated their lives to the poor and suffering.
There is much to like about this novel and I could possibly rate the writing 5 star as the scenes were vivid and so well written and yet the book dragged for me and became a little bit of a chore. I liked the characters and yet I never felt I got to know them or connected with them. A short novel and yet a book that became a long read and therefore a 3 star rating from me.… (more)
This story of an Irish family in the 50s and 60s is mostly told from the children's point of view as a collective voice. Sometimes the chapter will focus on a single person's thoughts, but only temporarily. Twice a week during the summer the 3 children and their mother make the trip from Long Island to Brooklyn to spend the day with their 3 aunts and their step-grandmother. Except for Aunt May, the ex-nun all have negative outlooks. You get a picture of the 3 generations and what has made up their life circumstances. There is a problem with alcohol, hopes unfulfilled and lives lived small. An interesting picture of a family.… (more)
Tricia was a newlywed when her husband Pete was assigned as an attorney in Vietnam. There, she meets Charlene. Charlene presents herself as altruistic and charitable.
Now, years later, Tricia reflects upon her time in Vietnam, and her relationship with Charlene, and the impact that this time had on her. She explains all of this in correspondence to Rainey, Charlene's daughter. Rainey also tells Tricia about her thoughts about her mother and her influence.
It was an interesting account of how women had to be subservient to their husbands, and how some charitable actions aren't truly charitable.… (more)
Now, years later, Tricia reflects upon her time in Vietnam, and her relationship with Charlene, and the impact that this time had on her. She explains all of this in correspondence to Rainey, Charlene's daughter. Rainey also tells Tricia about her thoughts about her mother and her influence.
It was an interesting account of how women had to be subservient to their husbands, and how some charitable actions aren't truly charitable.… (more)
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