Farrar, Straus and Giroux
September 2013
On Sale: September 10, 2013
240 pages ISBN: 0374281092 EAN: 9780374281090 Kindle: B00CQYBA84 Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
A fully realized portrait of one woman’s life in all its complexity, by the National Book Awardโwinning author
An ordinary lifeโits sharp pains and unexpected joys, its bursts of clarity and moments of confusionโlived by an ordinary woman: this is the subject of Someone, Alice McDermott’s extraordinary return, seven years after the publication of After This. Scattered recollectionsโof childhood, adolescence, motherhood, old ageโcome together in this transformative narrative, stitched into a vibrant whole by McDermott’s deft, lyrical voice.
Our first glimpse of Marie is as a child: a girl in glasses waiting on a Brooklyn stoop for her beloved father to come home from work. A seemingly innocuous encounter with a young woman named Pegeen sets the bittersweet tone of this remarkable novel. Pegeen describes herself as an โamadan,โ a fool; indeed, soon after her chat with Marie, Pegeen tumbles down her own basement stairs. The magic of McDermott’s novel lies in how it reveals us all as fools for this or that, in one way or another.
Marie’s first heartbreak and her eventual marriage; her brother’s brief stint as a Catholic priest, subsequent loss of faith, and eventual breakdown; the Second World War; her parents’ deaths; the births and lives of Marie’s children; the changing world of her Irish-American enclave in BrooklynโMcDermott sketches all of it with sympathy and insight. This is a novel that speaks of life as it is daily lived; a crowning achievement by one of the finest American writers at work today.
Media Buzz
Diane Rehm Show - NPR - August 27, 2014 On Point - March 17, 2014 Studio 360 - October 26, 2013 CBS This Morning - October 9, 2013 All Things Considered - September 13, 2013 Fresh Air - NPR - September 4, 2013
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