Everyone loved him. If you knew Billy at all, then you loved him. The late Billy Lynch's family and friends, a party of forty-seven, gather at a small bar and grill somewhere in the Bronx to remember better times in good company, and to redeem the pleasure of a drink or two from the miserable thing that a drink had become in Billy's life. His widow, Maeve, is there and everyone admires the way she is holding up, just as they always admired the way she cared for Billy after the alcohol had ruined him. But one cannot think of Billy Lynch's life, one's own relentless affection for him, without saying at some point, "There was that girl. The Irish girl". And one can't help but think that the real story of his life lay there. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

The death of charming Billy Lynch from alcoholism is the starting point from which McDermott (At Weddings and Wakes) meticulously develops this poignant and ironic story of a blighted life set in the Irish-American communities of Queens, the Bronx and the Hamptons. With dialogue so precise that a word or two conjures a complex relationship, she examines the curse of alcoholism and the cost it takes on family and friends. Did Billy drink because of a broken heart caused by the death of Eva, the young woman he ardently loved who had gone back to Ireland after their brief summer together? If so, his cousin Dennis has much on his conscience, since he knew that Eva used the money Billy sent her for return passage to put a down payment on a gas station for the man she decided to marry. Dennis spared Billy the humiliation of public jilting by inventing the story of Eva's demise. Or is alcoholism "the genetic disease of the Irish," a refuge for souls who can sustain their religious faith in an afterlife only if earthly existence is pursued through a bleary haze? Was plain, courageous Maeve, the woman Billy eventually married, devastated by his drinking, or was her uncomplaining devotion yet another aspect of an ancient pattern in Irish families? McDermott sensitively probes the ties of a people bound by blood, long acquaintance, shared memories, the church and the tolerance of liquor in its men. If Billy drank to sustain his belief in heaven, to find redemption for his unfulfilled life on earth, is the church's teaching about death "a well intentioned deception"? McDermott's compassionate candor about the demands of faith and the realities of living brings an emotional resonance to her seamlessly told, exquisitely nuanced tale. (Jan.) From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

When Billy, the glue of a tight Irish community in New York, dies as a result of lifelong alcohol abuse, mourners gather around roast beef and green bean amandine to tell tales and ruminate on his struggle for happiness after he lost his first love, Eva. With carefully drawn character studies and gentle probing, McDermott, who won the National Book Award for this work, masterfully weaves a subtle but tenacious web of relationships to explore the devastation of alcoholism, the loss of innocence, the daily practice of love, and the redeeming unity of family and friendship. (LJ 11/1/97) From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Alice McDermott was educated at the State University of New York at Oswego and the University of New Hampshire. Currently, she is the Writing Seminars Professor of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Department.

After graduating college, McDermott got a job reading unsolicited manuscripts for Redbook magazine and did some freelance reading for Esquire. She has taught writing at American University, the University of New Hampshire, the University of California at San Diego and the Sewanee Writing Conference.

McDermott has written A Bigamist's Daughter and That Night, which was nominated for a National Book Award in 1987 and was made into a film starring C. Thomas Howell and Juliette Lewis in 1992. She also wrote At Weddings and Wakes and Charming Billy, which won the National Book Award for fiction in 1998.

(Bowker Author Biography) Alice McDermott, 1953 - Novelist Alice McDermott was born June 27, 1953 in Brooklyn New York to William J., a power company business representative, and Mildred Lynch McDermott. She grew up in suburban Long Island in an Irish Catholic family with two older brothers. She received a B.A. from the State University of New York (Oswego) in 1975 and an M.A. from the University of New Hampshire in 1978. She married David M. Armstrong, a research neuroscientist, in 1979, with whom she had three children.

McDermott was discouraged by her family from becoming a professional writer, so she decided on a career in law. While in college, she won a scholarship to the writing program at the University of New Hampshire. She became serious about writing and sold a story to a magazine. McDermott read manuscripts for Redbook and earned 70 cents for each story while her husband attended graduate school. She also taught writing at Johns Hopkins University.

McDermott's first novel was "A Bigamist's Daughter" (1982). "That Night" (1987) and "At Weddings and Wakes" (1991) were both finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. "Charming Billy" (1998) won the National Book Award in 1998. McDermott describes Billy as "the lovable drunk. It's not a party or a family gathering unless he's there."

(Bowker Author Biography) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.