Beyond the charm

One the most passionate characters of "Charming Billy" is Dan Lynch, a man who is characterized by the eloquent letters to the editors he writes protesting Irish-American stereotypes. No doubt he would have something to say to the nay-sayers who dismiss Alice McDermott's prize winning novel as just another example of authors trying to cash in on the popularity of anything dealing with things Irish.

Yes, McDermott's effort has all the requisite good-humored, hard working yet poor, devoutly Catholic and even more devoutly alcoholic cast of characters that the genre is known for, and these characters combine their fragmented memories of the title character to present a charming, if typical, portrait of Billy.

Yet, to only judge the novel on this level is to miss the point, for McDermott is not as interested in presenting a charming Billy for her audience to fawn over, but instead she focuses on the events in life that allow Billy himself to be charmed into trying to escape life through drink. While the minor theme of the story is of love, lost and found, the major focus of the novel lies in the examination of the devices we use to allow us to make those transitions between despair and redemption in our lives.

Billy's drinking problem might be cliched, but his larger addiction to poetry and the escape it provides is less expected, and McDermott's examination of these themes is anything but typical. With a powerful style of writing more often found in good short fiction than long novels, Alice McDermott does the Irish community and her readers a favor by presenting a story that goes beyond the stereotypes of a certain ethnic group to examine questions that impact all humankind.