Alice McDermott Criticism
Alice McDermott is a distinguished American novelist and short story writer known for her profound exploration of perception, memory, and the loss of innocence. Her works often delve into childhood experiences, using children's perspectives to highlight the transition into adult awareness of mortality and loss. Born in Long Island, New York, McDermott pursued her education at SUNY Oswego and later at the University of New Hampshire, where she honed her writing skills. She gained critical acclaim with her debut novel, A Bigamist's Daughter (1982), which explores themes of love and familial expectations through the story of Elizabeth Connelly, as observed by critics such as Anne Tyler, Stephen Harvey, and Timothy J. Wood.
Her subsequent work, That Night (1987), set in the 1960s suburban Long Island, has been praised for its rich period details and complex emotional depth, as discussed by critics like David Leavitt and Richard Eder. Despite some confusion regarding narrative perspectives, it remains a poignant tale of thwarted romance and societal expectations. Her third novel, At Weddings and Wakes (1992), continues her thematic exploration, focusing on familial ties and the inevitability of loss, earning praise from Michiko Kakutani and others for its evocative depiction of family life and its emotional resonance.
McDermott's writing is celebrated for its linguistic richness and emotional depth, eschewing minimalism in favor of a style reminiscent of 19th-century literature, as noted by Wendy Smith and others. Her ability to render the ordinary with profound insight is a hallmark of her literary craft, making her a significant voice in contemporary American literature.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Essays
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A Bigamist's Daughter
(summary)
In the following, she offers a mixed assessment of A Bigamist's Daughter and maintains that, despite its occasionally fatuous characterization, the novel effectively demonstrates how childhood experiences determine adult expectations of love.
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A Bigamist's Daughter
(summary)
In the following positive review of A Bigamist's Daughter, Harvey commends McDermott's refusal to sentimentalize her characters' loneliness.
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A Bigamist's Daughter
(summary)
In the following review, Wood praises McDermott's matter-of-fact depiction of love in A Bigamist's Daughter, but maintains that her secondary characters are underdeveloped.
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Lost Illusions
(summary)
In the following mixed review of That Night, Kakutani asserts that while McDermott's failure to clarify the relationship between her narrator and the events she recounts proves confusing, this weakness does not diminish the novel's elegiac appeal.
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Fathers, Daughters and Hoodlums
(summary)
In the review below, he asserts that the 'baroque richness of Ms. McDermott's sentences, the intellectual complexity of her moral vision, and the explicit emotion of her voice' distinguish That Night from other novels treating similar themes and incorporating suburban settings.
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That Night
(summary)
In the following review of That Night, he lauds McDermott's fresh, detailed evocation of suburbia as well as the characterization of her female protagonist.
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Adolescent Angst
(summary)
Brown is an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. In the excerpt below, she admires the tight construction of That Night as well as McDermott's poignant insistence on the inevitability of loss.
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A Streetcar Named Syosset
(summary)
In the following review, Watkins maintains that although McDermott's narrator often distracts readers from the characters whose story she is recounting, That Night powerfully represents the loss and longing that ensue from the aging process.
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Families
(summary)
In the excerpt below, Balliett, an American critic who frequently writes about jazz, praises McDermott's use of language and pacing in That Night.
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All-American Novels
(summary)
Towers commends the accuracy with which McDermott recreates a lower-middle-class Long Island town during the early 1960s as well as her focus on the ordinary in That Night, but he questions the book's merit as a contender for the National Book Award for Fiction.
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The Lessons of Loss Learned in Childhood
(summary)
In the following review, Kakutani praises McDermott's use of children as narrators in At Weddings and Wakes and her thematic focus on loss.
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Alice McDermott
(summary)
In the following essay, based in part on conversations with McDermott, she provides an overview of McDermott's career as well as her insights into the writing process.
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Letting a Little Air In
(summary)
In the following review, Eder appreciates McDermott's use of period detail and complex narration in At Weddings and Wakes.
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Grief That Lasts Forever
(summary)
In the following review, he provides a highly favorable assessment of At Weddings and Wakes.
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Imperishable Identities
(summary)
In the following review, Baumann commends McDermott's evocation of daily life and family ties in At Weddings and Wakes.
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Peculiar Realism
(summary)
In the following review, Pool praises McDermott's vivid depiction of family closeness and the mounting emotional power of her narrative in At Weddings and Wakes as well as the novel's inherent realism.
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A Bigamist's Daughter
(summary)
- Further Reading