Happy New Year
Jan. 2nd, 2003 03:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
decemberthirtyWell, I'm back at work now, so hopefully I can start posting more regularly again.
Anyhow, I'm still reading Charming Billy, and I'm really enjoying it. It has a little bit of an interesting narrative structure, in that you seem to find out all of the major plot points within the first two chapters, and the rest of the book is spent fleshing out the details. It doesn't make for very suspenseful reading, but I'm having a good time reading slowly and savoring the prose, which is excellent. Nonetheless, giving away the ending in the beginning seems like a strange strategy for an author to take. It makes me wonder if I don't actually know as much as I think I do, and if there are other secrets that are still waiting to be revealed...
All in all, I like the book. As I was saying earlier, I like the Irishness of it, and I think that McDermott has done a great job of capturing the varieties of Irish-American temperaments. She has also done a good job of evoking a past time. She really manages to imbue the book with an authentic late 40s feel. In fact, she does so to such an extent that when I'm reading one of the contemporary scenes, I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not still in the postwar era.
Anyhow, I'm still reading Charming Billy, and I'm really enjoying it. It has a little bit of an interesting narrative structure, in that you seem to find out all of the major plot points within the first two chapters, and the rest of the book is spent fleshing out the details. It doesn't make for very suspenseful reading, but I'm having a good time reading slowly and savoring the prose, which is excellent. Nonetheless, giving away the ending in the beginning seems like a strange strategy for an author to take. It makes me wonder if I don't actually know as much as I think I do, and if there are other secrets that are still waiting to be revealed...
All in all, I like the book. As I was saying earlier, I like the Irishness of it, and I think that McDermott has done a great job of capturing the varieties of Irish-American temperaments. She has also done a good job of evoking a past time. She really manages to imbue the book with an authentic late 40s feel. In fact, she does so to such an extent that when I'm reading one of the contemporary scenes, I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not still in the postwar era.
