At Weddings and Wakes
Alice McDermott
Warner Books
<p><i><span>The three children of an Irish-American family on Long Island are witnesses to the cycles of dissatisfaction, bitterness and recurring affection that make up the lives of their extended family. A tender, sad and funny book from the author of the&nbsp;</span><span><b>National Book Award-nominated That Night</b><span>&nbsp;</span>and&nbsp;<b>Charming Billy.</b></span></i><br></p><p><span>Slipping effortlessly between past and present, between memory and observation,&nbsp;</span><span>At Weddings And Wakes</span><span>&nbsp;tells the story of three generations of an Irish-Catholic family through the eyes of its younger members. At once a haunting evocation of life's inexplicable calamities and a magical celebration of childhood and familial love,&nbsp;</span><span>At Weddings And Wakes</span><span>&nbsp;transforms every experience into the heroic and the universal. It is a testament to the remarkable gift of a literary master writing at the peak of her storytelling powers.</span></p><p><span><i>"F<span>ollowing the author's splendid That Night (1987), this remarkable novel—about the temper and times of an Irish-American family in 1950's Long Island and Brooklyn—firmly establishes McDermott as a writer of major talent. Like Anglo-Irish novelist William Trevor, McDermott plots the touching dignity of ordinary lives pursued on the crest of inevitable sadness...&nbsp;</span></i></span><span><i><span>In translucent prose with rich recognitions, a fine novel of vigorous wisdom and heartbreaking humanity."</span>&nbsp;</i> -&nbsp;&nbsp;<span><b>Kirkus Reviews</b></span></span><br></p><p><span><b>Alice McDermott&nbsp;</b><i>received her BA in 1975 and MA from the University of New Hampshire in 1978 and is currently Johns Hopkins University's Writer-in-Residence.&nbsp;She has taught at the UCSD and American University, has been a writer-in-residence at Lynchburg and Hollins Colleges in Virginia, a lecturer in English at the University of New Hampshire, the 1987 recipient of a Whiting Writers Award, and a three-time Pulitzer Prize for Fiction nominee.</i></span></p>