Someone - Couverture rigide

McDermott, Alice

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1408847248 ISBN 13 : 9781408847244

Editeur : Bloomsbury Circus, 2013

Synopsis

Someone begins on the stoop of a Brooklyn apartment building where Marie is waiting for her father to come home from work. It is the 1920s and in her Irish-American enclave the stories of her neighbours unfold before her short-sighted eyes. There is war-blinded Billy Corrigan and foolish, ill-fated Pegeen - and her parents' legendary Syrian-Irish marriage - the terrifying Big Lucy, and the ever-present Sisters of Charity from the convent down the road. As the years pass Marie's own history plays out against the backdrop of a changing world. Her older brother Gabe leaves for the seminary to study for the priesthood, his faith destined to be tested to breaking point. Marie experiences first love - and first heartbreak - marriage and motherhood, and discovers how time can reveal us all to be fools and dreamers, blinded in one way or another by hope, loss or the exigencies of life and love. One life in all its devastating pains and unexpected joys; its bursts of brilliant clarity and moments of profound confusion. Fragments of a curious childhood, of adolescent sexual awakenings, of motherhood and, finally, old age are pieced together in this resonant story of an unremarkable, unforgettable woman.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

A novel that speaks of life as it is daily lived; a crowning achievement by one of the finest American writers

An ordinary life-its sharp pains and unexpected joys, its bursts of clarity and moments of confusion-lived by an ordinary woman: this is the subject of Someone, Alice McDermott's extraordinary return, seven years after the publication of After This. Scattered recollections-of childhood, adolescence, motherhood, old age-come 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. She describes herself as an "amadan," 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 Brooklyn-McDermott sketches all of it with sympathy and insight.

Biographie de l'auteur :

ALICE McDERMOTT is the author of six previous novels, including After This; Child of My Heart; Charming Billy, winner of the National Book Award; and At Weddings and Wakes. That Night, At Weddings and Wakes and After This were all finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. McDermott lives with her family outside Washington, D.C.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Bloomsbury Circus
• Date d'édition: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1408847248
• ISBN 13: 9781408847244
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 240