Synopses & Reviews
In Alice McDermott's first work of fiction since her best-selling, National Book Award-winning
Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.
The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
Alice McDermott is the author of six novels and a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The recipient of a Whiting Writers Award, Ms. McDermott is currently the Richard A. Macksey Professor for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Her articles, reviews and stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, Redbook and elsewhere. A Los Angeles Times Best Book
In Alice McDermott's haunting new work of fictionher first since the best-selling Charming Billy, winner of the National Book Awarda woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.
The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island among the summer houses of the rich, Teresa is the town's most sought-after babysittercheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animalsbut also a solitary soul already attuned to the paradoxes and compromises of adult life. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has left a crowded working-class household in the city to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place, under Theresa's benevolent eye.
While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the mysteriously compelling attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is put to the test as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood.
McDermott's deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season lends her surprising story its uniquely resonant impact. Once again, Alice McDermott explores the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
"A meditation on the massacre of the innocents . . . Child of My Heart concerns itself with . . . the almost timeless, action-free lagoon of the spirit, the territory of dalliance and delightand also with its paradoxes, and also with how to make a story out of it."Margaret Atwood, The New York Review of Books
"Has something of a classic about it . . . [Its] craftsmanship and its moral intelligence are as one . . . Immaculate."The New York Times Book Review
"A meditation on the massacre of the innocents . . . Child of My Heart concerns itself with . . . the almost timeless, action-free lagoon of the spirit, the territory of dalliance and delightand also with its paradoxes, and also with how to make a story out of it."Margaret Atwood, The New York Review of Books
"It is one of Alice McDermotts many gifts that she is able to borrow from the riches of literature, both religious and secular, without becoming heavy-handedly allegorical or swapping resonance for allusion. In this novel, we have echoes and stirrings of Hardy, Shakespeare, Dickens, James, Beatrix Potter, Christina Rosetti . . . and a host of biblical and mythical tales. Because of these stirrings, the novel manages, in all of its simplicity, to contain the eerie and shimmering depths of a hologram . . . But what haunts, at the end of the novel, is the future, rather than the past, and it is this haunting that is McDermottss greatest accomplishment."Laura Kasischke, Chicago Tribune
"This is a novel which moves slowly and awakens the senses. Freed from the demands of an intricate plot, it lingers over light and shade, the taste of ripe peaches, and the smell of suntan lotion until we lose all sense of boundary between our world and its. McDermott does not rely on the momentum of the story to pull us along; rather, she commands our attention through arresting similes, original metaphors, and resonant, poetic descriptions. The dialogue, too, is expertly rendered, conveying a character's world-view in a single sentence. Although several of the wealthy Hamptonites conform to type, the novelist's keen ear ensures they never revert to cliché."Heather Clark, The Times Literary Supplement
"Alice McDermott is a genius of quiet observation. Her antenna is perpetually raised and turning, humming and warm with reception . . . Its apt that McDermott weaves into her story elements of A Midsummer Nights Dream, for this novel casts the same mystical spell as Shakespeares fantasy . . . McDermott, one of our finest novelists at work today, is the master of a domain that in the hands of most writers would be limiting. In Child of My Heart, she has transformed her trademark material of Irish American life into a poignant and rewarding fictional world."David Ebershoff, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"[A] quietly enchanting novel, graced by McDermott's well-calibrated writing and observant eye . . . Filled with subtle truths and hard-won wisdom."The Charlotte Observer
"Her prose is effortlessly effective, her characters varied and interesting, her narrative smoothly coherent . . . exquisitely subtle."Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
"Emotionally intelligent . . . unfailingly sensual, tactile, fragrant."The Raleigh News & Observer
"Subtle and beautiful . . . the tender relationship between [Daisy and Teresa] . . . is as revelatory and touching as any friendship recounted in recent fiction . . . If we have to learn the lessons of loss, let it be by reading novels such as this one."The Commercial Appeal
"Like an elegantly carved miniature of a person long dead and half forgotten, this novel captivates by its very darkness and sadness and reserve."Buffalo News
"A terrific writerprecise, immaculate, and with a keen lyrical ear."The Economist
"McDermott sculpts her small story with a meticulous eye for the telling detail and transcendent metaphor."Kirkus Reviews
"Magical . . . McDermott's gorgeous novel is laced with sly literary allusions and provocative insights into the enigma of sexual desire, the mutability of art, death's haunting presence, our need 20for fantasies, and the endless struggle to keep love pure."Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)
Review
"Though hobbled by a tendency toward sentimentality and self-consciousness, McDermott sculpts her small story with a meticulous eye for the telling detail and transcendent metaphor. We know what's coming, but so do the characters that's part of this tale's bittersweet power." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Just as the calm and sparkling sea can conceal a tricky undertow, McDermott's gorgeous novel is laced with sly literary allusions and provocative insights into the enigma of sexual desire, the mutability of art, death's haunting presence, our need for fantasies, and the endless struggle to keep love pure." Donna Seaman, Booklist
Review
"McDermott's prose is even and elegant, and the complex character of Theresa offers subtle emotion imbued with haunting prescience." Library Journal
Review
"This specific, full world, along with McDermott's stringent modesty and moral rigor, allows her to ponder deep contemporary and eternal questions (in her hands they seem to be the same ones) without fuss or bombast....McDermott displays a vibrant romantic hope exactly matched by a realist's awareness of daily devastation." Mona Simpson, Atlantic Monthly (read the entire Atlantic review)
Synopsis
In Alice McDermott's first work of fiction since her best-selling, National Book Award-winning
Charming Billy, a woman recalls her fifteenth summer with the wry and bittersweet wisdom of hindsight.
The beautiful child of older parents, raised on the eastern end of Long Island, Theresa is her town's most sought-after babysitter--cheerful, poised, an effortless storyteller, a wonder with children and animals. Among her charges this fateful summer is Daisy, her younger cousin, who has come to spend a few quiet weeks in this bucolic place. While Theresa copes with the challenge presented by the neighborhood's waiflike children, the tumultuous households of her employers, the attentions of an aging painter, and Daisy's fragility of body and spirit, her precocious, tongue-in-check sense of order is tested as she makes the perilous crossing into adulthood. In her deeply etched rendering of all that happened that seemingly idyllic season, McDermott once again peers into the depths of everyday life with inimitable insight and grace.
About the Author
Alice McDermott is the author of four previous novels:
Charming Billy, winner of the National Book Award in 1998;
At Weddings and Wakes; That Night; and
A Bigamists Daughter. She lives with her family outside Washington, D.C.
Reading Group Guide
1. How old is Theresa as she narrates her memoir? In what time period is the novel set? How were you able to figure this out?
2. Discuss McDermotts writing style. Why doesnt she separate the novel into chapters? Would you describe her language as poetic? Is it easy to understand?
3. Theresa describes herself as “pretty, intelligent, mature in speech although undeveloped physically (another plus), well immersed in my parents old-fashioned Irish Catholic manners (inherited from their parents, who had spent their careers in service to this very breed of American rich), and, best of all, beloved by children and pets” (p. 14). Describe Theresas other characteristics. How does her personality develop throughout the novel?
4. “He might well have been a genius, a famous artist, a man whose signature and doodles were valuable, but I was fifteen and pretty and I didnt doubt for a moment that I was the one with the advantage here” (p. 22). How does Theresa use her good looks to manipulate people? Does she do it intentionally?
5. Theresa acknowledges that her parents are “wary . . . of what they must have believed was the fast-approaching time of my fulfillment of their dream for me—of my absorption into that world they had taken so much trouble to place me on the threshold of” (p. 33). Describe Theresas parents. Do you find them superficial or genuine? Are they good parents? How do they compare to the other parents in the novel? What does Theresa think of her parents?
6. How does Theresas childhood compare to Daisys, the Morans, the Kaufmans, and Floras?
7. “I would have thought the housekeeper was too old to be included in such talk, just as, a few minutes ago, I might have presumed I was too young and Floras mother too elegant to speak such a word” (pp. 64-65). What does Theresa think of adults? Does she consider herself one? Would you describe this book as a coming-of-age novel?
8. The name Theresa is prevalent in Catholic religious history. Do you think McDermott is making a reference to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, a beautiful child of doting parents who entered the convent with special permission from the Vatican at age fifteen; or to Saint Teresa of Ávila, who partially recovered from a serious illness through the intercession of Saint Joseph; or to Mother Teresa, renowned caregiver of the sick and dying? McDermott references another saint as well—Saint Joseph, chaste husband of the Virgin Mary. Is McDermott referring to the artist with irony?
9. Does Theresa consider herself better than Ana and the cook even though they are all employees of the house?
10. “It was this watching that disturbed me, because in it I saw his belief that he could penetrate with his amused eyes the person I thought I was and find something more to his liking at the core” (p. 170). Theresa is acknowledging that the artist makes her feel as if she is no longer merely a pretty child, but a sexual being and a woman. Is Theresa afraid of growing up? Is she nervous about the sexual urgings developing between her and the artist? What does the artist find at her “core”?
11. Do you find the love scene between the artist and Theresa disturbing?
12. Bill, the young writer who visits Floras father, asks Theresa, “Are you too young to know whats going on here? I mean, what the arrangement is” (p. 187). Is she too young? What is the arrangement?
13. McDermott draws a number of secondary characters into the story. Why are Petey, Bernadette, Dr. Kaufman, Mrs. Richardson, and all of the others so important? Do you relate to any one character the best?
14. How important is location to the novel? Are you able to visualize East Hampton? Can you imagine this novel set in any other location?
15. Why does Theresa keep Daisys ailing health a secret? How does this make you feel?
16. “I wanted them scribbled over, torn up. Start over again. Draw a world where it simply doesnt happen, a world of only color, no form. Out of my head and more to my liking: a kingdom by the sea, eternal summer, a brush of fairy wings and all dark things banished, age, cruelty, pain, poor dogs, dead cats, harried parents, lonely children, all the coming griefs, all the sentimental, maudlin tales fashioned out of the death of children” (p. 180). Describe the emotions in this statement. Why does Theresa incorporate so much magic and fantasy into her life and the lives of the suffering children who surround her?
17. What is Theresas vision of love?
18. Children are at the forefront of this novel. Why are McDermotts juvenile characters so captivating? Does she depict childhood realistically?
19. At the close of the novel, weve lost the two central characters—Daisy to death, and Theresa to adulthood. How do these two forms of loss differ?