Someone

This latest novel by prize winner Alice McDermott is just a lovely little novel. It's actually sort of a study in novel writing, kind of like writing the way the brain works, if that makes any sense. The main character is Marie Commeford, a young girl growing up in Brooklyn in the days between the World Wars. She's 7-years-old with thick glasses, and she's waiting for her dad to come home from the train. So begins an ordinary life told with extraordinary charm.

Marie tells her story through a series of vignettes, memories really, of the blind WWI vet who's the go-to umpire for the neighborhood stickball games; the girl down the street who dies from falling down the stairs; her brother Gabe's recitations after dinner, his attending seminar, and his abrupt departure from the priesthood for reasons unknown. And Marie remembers the important milestones in her own life: the death of her father; the first boy who loved her; and the birth of her first child. Ordinary moments that most of us experience, but told with such charm, and humor, and gentle wit, and in a seemingly haphazard pattern, that actually makes total sense.

This is just a lovely story about someone who worries she won't find someone to love, and who winds up beloved by so many.


Someone