Charming Billy
By: Alice McDermott
3.48
Format: 257 pages, Kindle Edition
Charming Billy is the winner of the 1998 National Book Award for Fiction. Alice McDermott's striki…
Want to Read $ 11.99"so your husband's home with the little ones?—it'll be good for him, let him see what it's like with kids all day, right? men never understand until you ask them to do it and then they say, Well, the kids only act like this with me, it has to be much easier when you're with them, isn't that the truth? They're really thinking, You can't possibly put up with this day after day, can you?"-Alice McDermott, Charming Billy
"Dan Lynch was chuckling, his hand around his small glass. 'I remember Billy saying that AA was a Protestant thing when you came right down to it. Started by a bunch of Protestants. He said he didn't like the chummy way some of them were always calling Our Lord by his first name. I drove him to the first meeting and waited to take him home, 'cause Maeve didn't want him driving, and when he came out he said you could tell who the Catholics were because they'd all been bowing their heads every ten seconds while the Protestants bantered on about Jesus, Jesus Jesus.' (And sure enough, up and down our stretch of table, heads bobbed at the name.)"-Alice McDermott, Charming Billy
"It made it easier that they both believed in the simplest kind of afterlife - that my father could say to her, even in those last days, joking but without irony, 'You're going to get tired of hearing from me. I'll be asking you for this that and the other thing twenty-four hours a day. JESUS, you'll be saying, here comes another prayer from Dennis.' And my mother would reply, her voice hoarse with pain, 'Jesus might advise you to take in a movie once in a while. Give your poor wife a rest. She's in heaven, after all.' It was a joke, but they believed it, and they believed, too, I think, that their love, their loyalty to one another, was no longer a matter of chance or happenstance, but a condition of their existence no more voluntary or escapable than the pace of their blood, the influx of perception...There was, in their anticipation of what was to come, a queer self-satisfaction. It was clear now that they would love each other until the last moment of her life - hadn't that been the goal from the beginning? They would love each other even beyond the days they had lived together; was there any greater triumph?"-Alice McDermott, Charming Billy
"In the arc of an unremarkable life, a life whose triumphs are small and personal, whose trials are ordinary enough, as tempered in their pain as in their resolution of pain, the claim of exclusivity in love requires both a certain kind of courage and a good dose of delusion. Irish Mary, Eva's sister, would have been happy enough to accept my father's ring, I suppose, had Eva not chosen to stay in Ireland and marry Tom. My mother's first fiancé would have married her gladly if he hadn't been kept too long overseas by the Navy, if my father hadn't beaten him home, on points, a full year before. It might have been Cody or John in the car with your father, that day on Long Island. I might have been gone. Those of us who claim exclusivity in love do so with a liar's courage: there are a hundred opportunities, thousands over the years, for a sense of falsehood to seep in, for all that we imagine as inevitable to become arbitrary, for our history together to reveal itself as only a matter of chance and happenstance, nothing irrepeatable, or irreplaceable, the circumstantial mingling of just one of the so many million with just one more."-Alice McDermott, Charming Billy
If you liked the adult plot in Charming Billy by Alice McDermott , here is a list of 13 books like this:
Similar categories in Anne Lamott's Blue Shoe book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- novels
- adult
- fiction
- contemporary
2. The Eustace Diamonds (Palliser, #3)
By: Anthony Trollope , John Sutherland , Stephen Gill
3.42
Format: None pages, Paperback
Following the death of her husband Sir Florian, beautiful Lizzie Eustace mysteriously comes into po… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Anthony Trollope's The Eustace Diamonds (Palliser, #3) book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literature
- fiction
- historical fiction
3. A Summons to Memphis
By: Peter Taylor
4.04
Format: 431 pages, Paperback
One of the most celebrated novels of its time, the Pulitzer Prize winner A Summons to Memphisintrod… read more
Want to ReadSimilar categories in Peter Taylor's A Summons to Memphis book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
4. After Annie
By: Anna Quindlen
4.03
Format: 304 pages, Hardcover
When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her four young children and her closest friend are lef… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Anna Quindlen's After Annie book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- adult
- fiction
- contemporary
5. Let Us Descend
By: Jesmyn Ward
3.70
Format: 320 pages, Hardcover
From Jesmyn Ward—the two-time National Book Award winner, youngest winner of the Library of Congres… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Jesmyn Ward's Let Us Descend book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- adult
- fiction
- historical fiction
"You must leap. You must do as your people did. You must sink in order to rise."-Jesmyn Ward, Let Us Descend
6. James
By: Percival Everett
4.54
Format: 303 pages, Hardcover
A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , both harrowing and f… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Percival Everett's James book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- novels
- fiction
- historical fiction
7. North Woods
By: Daniel Mason
4.15
Format: 372 pages, Hardcover
A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those … read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Daniel Mason's North Woods book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- historical fiction
- novels
- adult
8. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
By: James McBride
4.00
Format: 385 pages, Hardcover
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new housing de… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in James McBride's The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- historical fiction
- adult
- book club
9. Wandering Stars
By: Tommy Orange
3.89
Format: 315 pages, Hardcover
The eagerly awaited follow-up to Pulitzer Prize-finalist Tommy Orange’s breakout best seller There … read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Tommy Orange's Wandering Stars book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- historical fiction
- contemporary
- adult
"And in the year 1924 Indian citizenship will have been granted, even though they will mean to dissolve tribes by giving citizenship, dissolve being another word for disappearance, a kind of chemical …"-Tommy Orange, Wandering Stars
10. Day
By: Michael Cunningham
3.57
Format: 273 pages, Hardcover
As the world changes around them, a family weathers the storms of growing up, growing older, fallin… read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Michael Cunningham's Day book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- adult
"Here, then, is the answer. A degree of cruelty is necessary because Garth, like most men, can only deposit his needs at her feet, can only declare his love—that romantic hallucination, which would be…"-Michael Cunningham, Day
11. Long Island (Eilis Lacey, #2)
By: Colm Tóibín
3.82
Format: 294 pages, Hardcover
From the beloved, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author comes a spectacularly movi… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Colm Tóibín's Long Island (Eilis Lacey, #2) book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- historical fiction
- adult
- ireland
- irish literature
12. The Bee Sting
By: Paul Murray
3.96
Format: 656 pages, Hardcover
From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and … read more
Want to Read $ 12.99Similar categories in Paul Murray's The Bee Sting book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- literature
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- book club
- irish literature
- ireland
"It is for love. You are doing this for love."-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
"We all have problems. But often instead of accepting the truth about ourselves, we cover it up. We try to make ourselves the way we think we’re expected to be."-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
"Maybe every era has an atrocity woven into its fabric. Maybe every society is complicit in terrible things and only afterwards gets around to pretending they didn’t know. When the kids ask, tell them…"-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
"Maybe that’s how it will go – instead of one definitive cataclysm, a series of ‘anomalies’, each time lasting longer, with the stretches of what you call normal life becoming further and further apar…"-Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
13. Table for Two
By: Amor Towles
4.26
Format: 464 pages, Hardcover
From the bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Rules of Civility, a… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Amor Towles's Table for Two book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- historical fiction
- contemporary
- adult
"And though she couldn’t remember the exact reference and whether it was from mythology or the Bible, she knew instinctively as they approached the pier’s limit she mustn’t look back."-Amor Towles, Table for Two
"It is a funny aspect of life, thought Charlie, how a group of grown people can convince themselves to do something that none of them really want to do. They start by talking an idea into existence. O…"-Amor Towles, Table for Two
14. Great Expectations
By: Vinson Cunningham
3.35
Format: 272 pages, Hardcover
A historic presidential campaign changes the trajectory of a young Black man’s life in the highly a… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Vinson Cunningham's Great Expectations book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- historical fiction
- contemporary
- novels
"For him, identity had been a kind of curation or collation—he picked up aspects as he went, freestyle."-Vinson Cunningham, Great Expectations
"It had always struck me as a place to be lost, experienced passage by passage in a series of unfolding images—not something you could take in in one possessive glance."-Vinson Cunningham, Great Expectations
15. The Vulnerables
By: Sigrid Nunez
3.61
Format: 256 pages, Hardcover
The New York Times –bestselling, National Book Award–winning author of The Friend and What Are You … read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Sigrid Nunez's The Vulnerables book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- literature
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
"Only when I was young did I believe that it was important to remember what happened in every novel I read. Now I know the truth: what matters is what you experience while reading, the states of feeli…"-Sigrid Nunez, The Vulnerables
16. This Strange Eventful History
By: Claire Messud
3.63
Format: 448 pages, Hardcover
An immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history, from one of our finest… read more
Want to Read $ 9.66Similar categories in Claire Messud's This Strange Eventful History book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- adult
- fiction
- historical fiction
"Literature... Now, that's a religion I can believe in. That is perhaps my God."-Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History
"Family life, like playing chess, involved always thinking several steps ahead."-Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History
"... she'd been a fool, enamored of a figment, had created the soul of a man who never existed -"-Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History
"All-U-Can Hi-way 4-Sale Thru. This American English thrilled him - its energy, its freedom, its carelessness."-Claire Messud, This Strange Eventful History
17. Charming Billy
By: Alice McDermott
3.48
Format: 257 pages, Kindle Edition
Charming Billy is the winner of the 1998 National Book Award for Fiction. Alice McDermott's striki… read more
Want to Read $ 11.99Similar categories in Alice McDermott's Charming Billy book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- literature
- fiction
- historical fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- adult
- book club
- irish literature
- ireland
"so your husband's home with the little ones?—it'll be good for him, let him see what it's like with kids all day, right? men never understand until you ask them to do it and then they say, Well, the …"-Alice McDermott, Charming Billy
"Dan Lynch was chuckling, his hand around his small glass. 'I remember Billy saying that AA was a Protestant thing when you came right down to it. Started by a bunch of Protestants. He said he didn't …"-Alice McDermott, Charming Billy
"It made it easier that they both believed in the simplest kind of afterlife - that my father could say to her, even in those last days, joking but without irony, 'You're going to get tired of hearing…"-Alice McDermott, Charming Billy
"In the arc of an unremarkable life, a life whose triumphs are small and personal, whose trials are ordinary enough, as tempered in their pain as in their resolution of pain, the claim of exclusivity …"-Alice McDermott, Charming Billy
18. Tell Me Everything (Amgash, #5)
By: Elizabeth Strout
4.46
Format: 352 pages, Hardcover
From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elizabeth Strout comes a hopeful, healing novel about new friend… read more
Want to Read $ 14.99Similar categories in Elizabeth Strout's Tell Me Everything (Amgash, #5) book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- literature
- fiction
- contemporary
- novels
- adult
"...Bob caught a glimpse of himself in the store window that was right there. He was startled. Who was that tall older man? Was that him? A sense of bewilderment came to him. He turned away, then turn…"-Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything (Amgash, #5)
19. Bear
By: Julia Phillips
3.38
Format: 304 pages, Hardcover
A mesmerising novel of two sisters on a Pacific Northwest island whose lives are upended by an unex… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Julia Phillips's Bear book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- adult
- fiction
- contemporary
"There'd been only three hundred students in the whole school, which made it a tiny, gossipy hellhole, a bucket of crabs snapping at each other and falling over themselves."-Julia Phillips, Bear
"What was Sam afraid of? Withering away here. Dreaming of chances she'd never be able to take, and shriveling up from that denial, getting poorer and put under more pressure and pushed farther from th…"-Julia Phillips, Bear
20. Consent: A Memoir
By: Jill Ciment
3.96
Format: 145 pages, Hardcover
In this unflinching account of the ardent love affair between the author and her painting teacher, … read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Jill Ciment's Consent: A Memoir book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
21. Long Island Compromise
By: Taffy Brodesser-Akner
3.88
Format: 464 pages, Hardcover
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An exhilarating novel about one American family, the dark moment that shatter… read more
Want to Read $ 13.99Similar categories in Taffy Brodesser-Akner's Long Island Compromise book and Alice McDermott's Charming Billy
- literary fiction
- fiction
- historical fiction
- contemporary
- novels
