HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

At Weddings and Wakes (1992)

by Alice McDermott

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
550843,485 (3.43)22
Twice a week, Lucy Dailey leaves suburbia with her three children in tow, returning to the Brooklyn home where she grew up and where her stepmother and unmarried sisters still live. Aunt Veronica, with her wounded face and dreams of beauty, drowns her sorrowsin drink. Aunt Agnes, an acerbic student of elegance, sips only from the finest crystalas she sees Aunt May, the ex-nun, blossom with a late and unexpected love.And all the while, the children watch, absorbing the legacy of their haunted family. At once a moving evocation of life’s inexplicable calamities and a magical celebration of childhood and familial love,At Weddings and Wakesis the story of three generations of an Irish-American family through the eyes of its youngest members. With eloquence and grace, master storyteller Alice McDermott transforms everyday experience into the heroic and universal.… (more)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 22 mentions

English (7)  Spanish (1)  All languages (8)
Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)
Time is handled in a "This Is Us" fashion: time goes backwards and forwards in At Weddings and Wakes. Time moves through memory and observation and seems incrementally slow. This is the story of what it means to be Irish-American in New York, told from the point of view of Lucy Dailey's school-aged children. Again, I was reminded of "This Is Us." The viewpoints are poignant and sad, tender and true to life. This Is Life. Lucy dutifully brings her children from Long Island to see her sisters and stepmother in Brooklyn. The three generations of family all have a rich bittersweet history to tell. Aunt Veronica needs alcohol to numb her grief. Aunt Agnes is nothing but sharp-tongued and career driven. But, the sweetness and light is found with Aunt May, a former nun in the midst of a romance with mailman.
McDermott is a master at displaying human emotions and behaviors in a way that you swear the characters are in your life; just ghosts who have just passed into another room while you weren't looking.
As an aside, can I just say how much I love the slug scene that appears in the beginning of the book and then returns at the end? ( )
  SeriousGrace | Jun 15, 2023 |
There are so many topics presented in this book, and so many meaningful lines. However, finding much of the information was difficult for many reasons. The book contained many characters, not all named. McDermott's writing provided so much information regarding inner thoughts and the sensual aspects of life. It was definitely worth reading. ( )
  suesbooks | Jul 23, 2022 |
Alice McDermott can create a sense of place like almost no one else, and her minutely observed descriptions of people and use of language are head and shoulders above the skills of most writers. Unfortunately, in the case of At Weddings and Wakes, all of that was not enough to overcome what at times felt like a glacial pace and, more important, a terribly awkwardly executed shift in time. The way she handled the fate of one of the main characters was both confusing and, ultimately, took away from the impact of what happened, which is really a shame. ( )
  CaitlinMcC | Jul 11, 2021 |
My third Alice McDermott novel and I just love her writing. Very beautiful! ( )
  briannad84 | Feb 12, 2013 |
Though I admired some of the writing, I found the book to be poorly constructed overall. I'm an attentive readers, but found myself struggling to differentiate characters, and found the authors seemingly random jumps back and forth in time, and in voice, to be further disorienting. ( )
  handy1 | Feb 12, 2011 |
Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Twice a week, Lucy Dailey leaves suburbia with her three children in tow, returning to the Brooklyn home where she grew up and where her stepmother and unmarried sisters still live. Aunt Veronica, with her wounded face and dreams of beauty, drowns her sorrowsin drink. Aunt Agnes, an acerbic student of elegance, sips only from the finest crystalas she sees Aunt May, the ex-nun, blossom with a late and unexpected love.And all the while, the children watch, absorbing the legacy of their haunted family. At once a moving evocation of life’s inexplicable calamities and a magical celebration of childhood and familial love,At Weddings and Wakesis the story of three generations of an Irish-American family through the eyes of its youngest members. With eloquence and grace, master storyteller Alice McDermott transforms everyday experience into the heroic and universal.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.43)
0.5
1 2
1.5
2 9
2.5 2
3 24
3.5 11
4 22
4.5 5
5 7

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,523,611 books! | Top bar: Always visible