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Loading... At Weddings and Wakes (1992)by Alice McDermott
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. 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. 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. no reviews | add a review
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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. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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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? ( )