Book Reviews of Charming Billy

A graceful tale, an extended wake and reflection on the life of a man. Poignant, well-written characters, can't exactly say it was a pleasure to read but the author is very skilled in helping us see a man's life -- the joys, the despairs, the rejection.

Book in excellent condition. This story will touch your heart. A secret between friends changes their lives forever. Billy's tragic sorrow juxtaposed against his ability to be generous and charming to everyone he meets makes him a true hero.

Good ol' Irish immigrant story set in NY. The story is beautiful and sad. Floats between the past and the present with each character.

I actually thought this book dragged on waaay to much. About half-way through the book I realized that I didn't care about the characters.

I don't recommend this book.

I couldn't get into this book at all. I found it a little strange and boring. The characters were lame, the topic was weird, the setting was boring and the story didn't seem to grab me. I strated the book about 4 times and honestly couldn't finish the book.

Well-written but not for me as it was hard to keep my train of thought and follow the narration; partly because of the use of pronouns when too many relations of the same sex were being referred to and partly because of the subject line and the underlying questions being asked not holding enough interest for me.

A National Book Award winner about the Irish-American family and relationships.

"An astoundingly beautiful novel about the persistence of love, the perseverance of grief, and all-but-unbearable loneliness, as well as faith, loyalty and redemption."

A slow detailed start but a good read once you get into it. It is on Oprah's book Club list.

Excellent, excellent writing style. This author is amazing. Her attention to detail enables you to feel like you're right there with the characters with every head nod, facial expression, clearing of the throat...you get the idea. I couldn't stop reading this, anxious to see how Billy's life unfolded and how it affected all those he met along the way. Get it --- read it!

The wake for Billy Lynch, held at a small Bronx bar and attended by many of Billy's family and friends, becomes Billy's tragic story. Their mourning becomes a homage to all the lives in their small community.

Billy's family and friends have gathered at the small Bronx bar to comfort his widow. As they trade tales of his famous humor, charm and sorrow, their voices from Billy's tragic story and pays homage to all the lives in their small community.

Very interesting from an Irish Catholic from NYC point of view.

"An astoundingly beautiful novel about the persistence of love, the perseverance of grief, and all-but-unbearable loneliness, as well as faith, loyalty and redemption."

Super story teller and a fast read.

Too many characters with hard to follow relation to one another plus very lttle happening made this book a real snooze!

This book is hard to put down.

Humorous, yet filled with compassion.

A charming and doomed alcoholic in an Irish-American family.

From Kirkus Reviews
McDermott extends her view of Irish-American life with this gentle portrait of an alcoholic freshly dead from drink, and of the family he leaves behind to reveal and remember. Everyone at the wake agreed that Billy Lynch was a fine man -- when sober. But they also knew something of his pain, born from the long-ago death of his fiancee‚ just before she was to come back to Brooklyn after a trip to Ireland. Only his cousin and best friend Dennis, though, knew the whole story: Eva didn\'t die, but she did marry her Irish love -- a fact he concealed from Billy for 30 years, not knowing that Billy would mourn what might have been for the rest of his life, even after he met and married the gentle, love-struck Maeve. Then, in Ireland in 1975, to take The Pledge after years of hard drinking, Billy learned the truth by chancing to meet Eva as he was on his way to visit her grave -- and promptly took back his Pledge. As he had in times previous, Dennis helped Maeve through the years that followed, answering Billy\'s wee-hours phone calls and bringing him to bed whenever he\'d passed out, even as Dennis\'s own wife sickened of cancer and died. And now Dennis\'s daughter, grown with children of her own, has come home to support him after Billy was found dying in the street -- just as Dennis supported Billy and Maeve, and as his father before him supported countless penniless Irish relations as they made the leap across the Atlantic to a new life. It\'s this daughter who puts the pieces of Billy\'s sad but profoundly loyal existence together, mingling them with her father\'s and her own in a special way that leaves her well prepared for the turn of events to come. A softly resonant and nostalgic tale told so masterfully, so movingly, that it seems to distill a human essence on virtually every page.

Beautiful even though it is a sad story of a man that has
passed. Friends and family have gathered to eulogize Billy.It is not maudlin but the tale of trading stories paying homage to the life of Billy. Many secrets come out and much sorrow has been in Billy's life. He was funny, a charmer, and a romantic. I liked this read. It was wonderfully written, and left me thinking about what my own friends and family will say when i am gone. Alice McDermott writes stories that leave you thinking and have depth.

Charming Billy is a small, lyrical book that primarily focuses on relationships. It unwinds slowly, with an emphasis on detail that makes the Irish and Irish-American characters and their lives in NY very vivid - you can practically hear their voices in your head. The story, as many have said, centers on the life of Billy, a recently deceased man who was an alcoholic. There is basically only one plot element, involving the death of Billy's first fiancee, which is why I say it is a small book, and the book wraps its way around this story, filling it out richly and ultimately building to a gentle climax. The narrator moves back & forth in time, and only gradually reveals who she is, which I suppose is why some readers have said they found it confusing or couldn't get into it. So if you're looking for a plot-driven or fast moving book, this is not for you. But if you'd appreciate a richly woven tale from an author who understands human character, and the complicated ways that people love each other, Charming Billy is a good bet.

I felt there needed more character development as well as plot development, but overall it was a charming story.

Have not read

From Library Journal
When Billy, the glue of a tight Irish community in New York, dies as a result of lifelong alcohol abuse, mourners gather around roast beef and green bean amandine to tell tales and ruminate on his struggle for happiness after he lost his first love, Eva. With carefully drawn character studies and gentle probing, McDermott, who won the National Book Award for this work, masterfully weaves a subtle but tenacious web of relationships to explore the devastation of alcoholism, the loss of innocence, the daily practice of love, and the redeeming unity of family and friendship.

A good read.