Many years ago I read and thoroughly enjoyed Alice McDermott's Charming Billy. Now, many years later, I have read Child of My Heart. So you don't have to.I'm not a big fan of sweetness and sentimentality. And I had an immediate antipathy to this book. But in despite of that, I plugged on.
The story isn't bad; children in the off-season in the Hamptons, the main character, the older girl, budding into adolescence.
But the problem with this book - and it is a large & ultimately insurmountable one - is that the narrator "I" character should have been the observed "she" character. In other words, if the writer wants to have a pretty, charming, beloved character, it's far better to have her observed by another ("she was pretty, charming and beloved") rather than be the narrator ("I am pretty, charming and beloved. Everybody thinks so.") Unless, of course, the narrator turns out to be unreliable, or their smug self-satisfaction is to be devastated by a rude awakening. How I longed for a very rude awakening. But the book continued sweet, sentimental & self-satisfied to the end.
Oh, and a kid dies in the book. Cheap.
Really lovely cover, though.
4 comments:
Seems you dint think th narrator was pretty, charming and belovd.
Im sorry to hear that.
Since EVRYBODY thinks she is, accordin to th RELIABLE narrator herself, I think that kinda makes you NOBODY, donit?
You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
Wow! Cissy, you ought to be a professional book critic. 'Course, Alice McDermott might no longer have a career.
I doubt one bad review can kill any career - especially now with the diversity of opinion out on the interweb.
I've been on the receiving end of brillliant reviews, scorching reviews, reviews where they just didn't get it. Yet I hardly paused before launching this blog. Mostly because I will be reading by my own choice, not on assignment as 'real' reviewers must. So the number of negative reviews in the mix has been and will be low.
Yesterday I abandoned a book (an unusual occurrence) so that won't be reviewed here on Blue Flyer. Professionals don't have that luxury.
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