Someone by Alice McDermott

I liked this book. It was a "journey book", the story of someone's life. :)  It meanders along, skipping back and forth in time - so that you sometimes know what happened before you find out how it happened. You know what Marie's children think about something long before you find out what Marie thinks herself, of the same thing from years/decades before. One thing that makes the story less confusing (because this technique would not always work when telling a story!) is that Marie's world is very small. At the beginning of the book Marie is around 7 years old. At the end of the book, she is elderly. We are introduced to the people who affect Marie's life in the first few pages of the book. These same people are mentioned (thought of) by Marie in the last pages of the book. It's not difficult to follow a story if there are only a few main characters that affect someones life!  

There are things in the book that are not fully explained, simply because Marie can't figure it out - or doesn't want to - so we don't get a full explanation either. I like to have a full analysis of events and people, so there were times I definitely wanted to know more. One great example of this is Marie's brother, Gabe. I have SO many questions about him! I really wanted Marie to be more forthcoming about asking him what troubled him. Good thing she married Tom, because she certainly needed a talker like Tom in her life. (I really liked Tom. He seemed so loving and caring and accepting, especially to his family and Gabe). I really wanted to know more about Gabe's breakdown and his stay at Suffolk, and quite honestly, why he left the priesthood! He gives Susan and Helen an answer, but there was more to it than that. And is he involved in a relationship, or does his deep faith prevent him from that? There are certainly some details to make assumptions, but nothing clearly defined.  I guess in life we really don't know what is inside of someone else, even those we are closest to, so that makes this story "authentic" in that we don't always get an analysis of events and/or people.

Marie had her heartaches and difficult times, but all-in-all, those events made her appreciate what she had in her life.  She seemed to be fulfilled by her life, despite the disappointments, the sadness, and the "smallness" of it.  Maybe because of those things.  She was certainly deeply affected by the few people that impacted her life, even though many of them were only a very small part of her long life. Pegeen, Walter and Bill Corrigan, to name three!

Wendy's Rating: ****