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Title: National Book Award? Why?
Review: I looked forward to reading "Charming Billy" because I like McDermott, and I was delighted that she'd won the National Book Award. Perhaps I began with too positive an attitude because it wasn't long before I was thinking "Why the award? What is fresh about this story?" The most compelling part of the book occurs when Billy returns to Ireland and unexpectedly meets his 60-year-old love, a scenario that McDermott never really develops. Did I think Billy was charming? No! He was an unpleasant, self-centered alcoholic. I can't imagine why all these people felt such a stupendous loss when he died. (And maybe that's the point: he fooled them all.) My monthly book club met as I was finishing the book, and several of us had read it. No one felt the book was worth recommeding to those who hadn't. Still, the question remains, what have we missed that the National Book Award Committee saw?
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