Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Someone - by Alice McDermott

I like Alice McDermott's work. But this one never really engaged me. I don't know why. It is the story of Marie Commeford, a life in glimpses. Somewhere in the middle she says she wants to find someone who will love her. Perhaps this is the "someone" of the title, but more likely it is Marie herself, an ordinary person who is still "someone". Perhaps we all want that more than anything else: to be "someone". We follow Marie as she weathers tragedy and disappointment, into her life working in a funeral parlor, work that seems to suit her, her personal life with a troubled brother, her life as a mother. Somehow I didn't connect this time but I suspect many others will and have.