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Someone
A fully realized portrait of one woman’s life in all its complexity, by the National Book Award–winning author
An ordinary life—its sharp pains and unexpected joys, its bursts of clarity and moments of confusion—lived by an ordinary woman: this is the subject of Someone, Alice McDermott’s extraordinary return, seven years after the publication of After This. Scattered recollections—of childhood, adolescence, motherhood, old age—come together in this transformative narrative, stitched into a vibrant whole by McDermott’s deft, lyrical voice.
Our first glimpse of Marie is as a child: a girl in glasses waiting on a Brooklyn stoop for her beloved father to come home from work. A seemingly innocuous encounter with a young woman named Pegeen sets the bittersweet tone of this remarkable novel. Pegeen describes herself as an “amadan,” a fool; indeed, soon after her chat with Marie, Pegeen tumbles down her own basement stairs. The magic of McDermott’s novel lies in how it reveals us all as fools for this or that, in one way or another.
Marie’s first heartbreak and her eventual marriage; her brother’s brief stint as a Catholic priest, subsequent loss of faith, and eventual breakdown; the Second World War; her parents’ deaths; the births and lives of Marie’s children; the changing world of her Irish-American enclave in Brooklyn—McDermott sketches all of it with sympathy and insight. This is a novel that speaks of life as it is daily lived; a crowning achievement by one of the finest American writers at work today.
An ordinary life—its sharp pains and unexpected joys, its bursts of clarity and moments of confusion—lived by an ordinary woman: this is the subject of Someone, Alice McDermott’s extraordinary return, seven years after the publication of After This. Scattered recollections—of childhood, adolescence, motherhood, old age—come together in this transformative narrative, stitched into a vibrant whole by McDermott’s deft, lyrical voice.
Our first glimpse of Marie is as a child: a girl in glasses waiting on a Brooklyn stoop for her beloved father to come home from work. A seemingly innocuous encounter with a young woman named Pegeen sets the bittersweet tone of this remarkable novel. Pegeen describes herself as an “amadan,” a fool; indeed, soon after her chat with Marie, Pegeen tumbles down her own basement stairs. The magic of McDermott’s novel lies in how it reveals us all as fools for this or that, in one way or another.
Marie’s first heartbreak and her eventual marriage; her brother’s brief stint as a Catholic priest, subsequent loss of faith, and eventual breakdown; the Second World War; her parents’ deaths; the births and lives of Marie’s children; the changing world of her Irish-American enclave in Brooklyn—McDermott sketches all of it with sympathy and insight. This is a novel that speaks of life as it is daily lived; a crowning achievement by one of the finest American writers at work today.
240 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 10, 2013
820 people are currently reading
23598 people want to read
About the author
Alice McDermott
27 books1,544 followersAlice McDermott (born June 27, 1953) is Johns Hopkins University's Writer-in-Residence. Born in Brooklyn, New York, McDermott attended St. Boniface School in Elmont, Long Island, NY [1967], Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead NY [1971], the State University of New York at Oswego, receiving her BA in 1975, and later received her MA from the University of New Hampshire in 1978.
She has taught at the UCSD and American University, has been a writer-in-residence at Lynchburg and Hollins Colleges in Virginia, and was lecturer in English at the University of New Hampshire. Her short stories have appeared in Ms., Redbook, Mademoiselle, and Seventeen.
The 1987 recipient of a Whiting Writers Award, and three-time Pulitzer Prize for Fiction nominee, lives outside Washington, with her husband, a neuroscientist, and three children.
She has taught at the UCSD and American University, has been a writer-in-residence at Lynchburg and Hollins Colleges in Virginia, and was lecturer in English at the University of New Hampshire. Her short stories have appeared in Ms., Redbook, Mademoiselle, and Seventeen.
The 1987 recipient of a Whiting Writers Award, and three-time Pulitzer Prize for Fiction nominee, lives outside Washington, with her husband, a neuroscientist, and three children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,500 reviews
December 14, 2013
I remember conversations with the school librarian at the elementary school where I first taught. He spoke fondly of older children's books, such as Blueberries for Sal or The Story of Ping. He called these children's books "Quiet stories." That is how I think of the novel Someone by Alice McDermott. It is not a novel where a lot of exciting things happen. It reminds me of the short stories The Dubliners by James Joyce. The prose is exquisite and the writing is so self-assured. The novel is relatively short (242 pages), and it reads as basically scenes from a rather simple life. Several themes run through it, from being of Irish descent in America, to growing up Catholic and the issue of dealing with people who are different (I won't provide spoilers here as to what made people different). If you require a straightforward novel full of involving plot details, then this book is definitely not for you. If, however, you want to submerge yourself into a character living an ordinary life, told in almost poetic fashion, then you will relish this book.
July 26, 2018
“Someone” by Alice McDermott
I have been a book lover/book junkie for decades. Still it is a first for me to finish the last word on the last page and then immediately go back to the first page and re-read the whole book again. The author, Alice McDermott, flawless writing explains why she has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize. McDermott casts a wide net with this novel; this is a story about nothing and everything, a human life. Though the story may seem mundane at first, its life-like complexities draw one in. The story takes place in between WWI and WWII. We meet the heroine when she is seven years-old, sitting on a Brooklyn stoop, waiting for her dad to come home. Though the story is not linear, it ends when she is an old woman dying in assisted living. To say “the characters jump off the page” does not give due service to McDermont's skills. Her writing is always tender and subtle never melodramatic managing to hide an upcoming punch that will make you gasp for air.
I have been a book lover/book junkie for decades. Still it is a first for me to finish the last word on the last page and then immediately go back to the first page and re-read the whole book again. The author, Alice McDermott, flawless writing explains why she has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize. McDermott casts a wide net with this novel; this is a story about nothing and everything, a human life. Though the story may seem mundane at first, its life-like complexities draw one in. The story takes place in between WWI and WWII. We meet the heroine when she is seven years-old, sitting on a Brooklyn stoop, waiting for her dad to come home. Though the story is not linear, it ends when she is an old woman dying in assisted living. To say “the characters jump off the page” does not give due service to McDermont's skills. Her writing is always tender and subtle never melodramatic managing to hide an upcoming punch that will make you gasp for air.
October 17, 2017
"Who's going to love me?" I said.
The brim of his hat cast his eyes in shadow. Behind him, the park teemed with strangers.
"Someone," he told me. "Someone will."
Waiting, hovering over the concrete stoop, eyes cast in expectation towards the throng of people on that heated sidewalk, young Marie Commeford looks longingly for a glimpse of her father. The familiar tilt of the hat, the jaunt of his walk. Waiting.....
Marie's story is filled with that waiting. Perched in corners, standing in shadows, Marie wishes only to be heard and to be seen. We find Marie in a typical Irish family in pre-Depression Brooklyn. Money is tight and amusement is taken to the streets with children inventing their own rules. Rules that focus on the acceptable and the unacceptable. The fair and the unfair.
Strange how that transfers into adulthood with the remnants of childhood still clinging to the spirit. Cruelties that still find their way home. Rituals never questioned, but embraced for the long haul. Pieces of us that are shaped and formed like potter's clay.
Alice McDermott draws you deeply into the everyday lives of these remarkable characters. Times change as they always do, but McDermott nudges us with the reality that we are complicated, intricate creatures at the receiving end of all of our encounters, mistakes, trials, misfortunes, and triumphs. And curiously enough, we bear the scars of those decisions made by others, and more importantly, the ones at our own hands.
McDermott always shines with her splendid characterizations: the families, the store owners, the immigrants, the neighbors, the physically and mentally challenged. I fell in love with McDermott's The Ninth Hour recently. I pledged to myself that I would read every one of her offerings. Those, dear reader, are like a literary delicacy for the mind. It is my hope that you will have the opportunity as well. Some encounters in life are brief. McDermott's have that indescribable staying power and will become part of you.....
The brim of his hat cast his eyes in shadow. Behind him, the park teemed with strangers.
"Someone," he told me. "Someone will."
Waiting, hovering over the concrete stoop, eyes cast in expectation towards the throng of people on that heated sidewalk, young Marie Commeford looks longingly for a glimpse of her father. The familiar tilt of the hat, the jaunt of his walk. Waiting.....
Marie's story is filled with that waiting. Perched in corners, standing in shadows, Marie wishes only to be heard and to be seen. We find Marie in a typical Irish family in pre-Depression Brooklyn. Money is tight and amusement is taken to the streets with children inventing their own rules. Rules that focus on the acceptable and the unacceptable. The fair and the unfair.
Strange how that transfers into adulthood with the remnants of childhood still clinging to the spirit. Cruelties that still find their way home. Rituals never questioned, but embraced for the long haul. Pieces of us that are shaped and formed like potter's clay.
Alice McDermott draws you deeply into the everyday lives of these remarkable characters. Times change as they always do, but McDermott nudges us with the reality that we are complicated, intricate creatures at the receiving end of all of our encounters, mistakes, trials, misfortunes, and triumphs. And curiously enough, we bear the scars of those decisions made by others, and more importantly, the ones at our own hands.
McDermott always shines with her splendid characterizations: the families, the store owners, the immigrants, the neighbors, the physically and mentally challenged. I fell in love with McDermott's The Ninth Hour recently. I pledged to myself that I would read every one of her offerings. Those, dear reader, are like a literary delicacy for the mind. It is my hope that you will have the opportunity as well. Some encounters in life are brief. McDermott's have that indescribable staying power and will become part of you.....
November 25, 2013
From a purely intellectual standpoint, I understand and even appreciate (I think) what McDermott is trying to do. She's writing about a woman, and an unbeautiful one, and her relationship with her own body throughout her life. The novel's main character is probably born in the 1930s(?) and we get glimpses into key moments of her life--important moments in her childhood, the first time she falls in love, her first real job, illnesses, her wedding day, the birth of her first child--all these puzzle pieces adding up to make something whole. I should mention her brother, Gabe, who plays an important role too. Is McDermott trying to write a female version of the kinds of novels that Roth and Bellow are known for? I think she is. I think she's trying to write about a woman from that generation, and set her in this immigrant, working class neighborhood. In Brooklyn, to be specific. Maybe McDermott is too young. She's writing about a life she's imagining but never lived, and so the energy isn't there. I don't know. She has a good idea, but this writing feels like a trance, like cautious, passionless, painful work. I don't think she can have enjoyed writing it. I felt traces of interest. Some scenes written near the very end felt more vibrant, but it was much too little, far too late.
I don't want to spend time summarizing the plot. Why didn't this book ever get off the ground? Was McDermott trying too hard? Trying to write an Important Book, instead of simply giving us a good read? It's as if she's been too careful. You begin the book and it's as if she'd put a pot on the stove and started it on at very low heat. You keep reading, hoping the heat will crank up, and finally get to a rolling boil. But no. Simmer, simmer, simmer. Nothing. I felt no pleasure reading this novel. I felt vaguely uncomfortable throughout. Wondering why I was wasting my time with it, but I kept at it, dutifully, doggedly. Alas, my faith was in vain. It never got off the ground for me.
The thing is, in many ways, this book seems completely unobjectionable. The prose is lovely and descriptive. The characters real and lovable. I wanted the book to succeed. But it lacked that zip. That tangy zip. It was mayonnaise, and I prefer Miracle Whip.
I don't want to spend time summarizing the plot. Why didn't this book ever get off the ground? Was McDermott trying too hard? Trying to write an Important Book, instead of simply giving us a good read? It's as if she's been too careful. You begin the book and it's as if she'd put a pot on the stove and started it on at very low heat. You keep reading, hoping the heat will crank up, and finally get to a rolling boil. But no. Simmer, simmer, simmer. Nothing. I felt no pleasure reading this novel. I felt vaguely uncomfortable throughout. Wondering why I was wasting my time with it, but I kept at it, dutifully, doggedly. Alas, my faith was in vain. It never got off the ground for me.
The thing is, in many ways, this book seems completely unobjectionable. The prose is lovely and descriptive. The characters real and lovable. I wanted the book to succeed. But it lacked that zip. That tangy zip. It was mayonnaise, and I prefer Miracle Whip.
September 28, 2017
I have come to realize after many, many years of reading , that sometimes the best books... the ones that stay with you the longest... are the ones that seemingly, on the surface , don't seem to be about anything at all. Someone by Alice McDermott is one of those books for me.
This story begins on a Brooklyn stoop in the pre-Depression years, where Marie, a little girl about seven years old awaits her father's return from work. The story is told in Marie's voice and takes the reader from the present, in which Marie is an elderly woman in a nursing home to the past, where she is recalling all of the moments of her life which brought her to where and who she is now.
Marie, the daughter of Irish American immigrants, beautifully relates the story of her life... from that little girl with very poor eyesight wearing thick glasses to the young woman she becomes. You learn about her family... her father, with whom she had a very special bond; her mother, with whom she clashed at times. and her brother, Gabe.. a shy, bookish boy who would go on to become a priest but left the priesthood a year later, for reasons Marie never really understood.
Marie shares the memories of her father's death which occurred when she was but a young woman and the devastation she felt at that loss. She remembers the first time her heart was broken and the little twinge of understandable malicious glee she felt when she accidentally came into contact with this man, discovering that he had become quite overweight and appeared to have a serious drinking problem. Marie recalls the sweetness of her wedding to Tom Commeford.. to whom she would be married to his death many years later; she recalls the agony of the birth of her first child and the sometimes difficult relationship she has with her oldest daughter, Susan.
It is through the beautiful simplicity of Marie Commeford's memories that we travel with her through all the moments, big and small, which make up her life. I have thought a great deal about Marie's story and in HER memories, I have re-discovered some of my own. Whether you measure your life in the big moments.... graduations, weddings, births and funerals....or whether for you, life is made up of all of the small everyday moments, I believe that you, like me, will appreciate and recognize a bit of your own life in the beautiful and quiet simplicity of the life of this woman, Marie Commeford. And perhaps you may take a journey through your own memories , rediscovering those moments that when added up, constitute your own quiet, yet beautiful life.
This story begins on a Brooklyn stoop in the pre-Depression years, where Marie, a little girl about seven years old awaits her father's return from work. The story is told in Marie's voice and takes the reader from the present, in which Marie is an elderly woman in a nursing home to the past, where she is recalling all of the moments of her life which brought her to where and who she is now.
Marie, the daughter of Irish American immigrants, beautifully relates the story of her life... from that little girl with very poor eyesight wearing thick glasses to the young woman she becomes. You learn about her family... her father, with whom she had a very special bond; her mother, with whom she clashed at times. and her brother, Gabe.. a shy, bookish boy who would go on to become a priest but left the priesthood a year later, for reasons Marie never really understood.
Marie shares the memories of her father's death which occurred when she was but a young woman and the devastation she felt at that loss. She remembers the first time her heart was broken and the little twinge of understandable malicious glee she felt when she accidentally came into contact with this man, discovering that he had become quite overweight and appeared to have a serious drinking problem. Marie recalls the sweetness of her wedding to Tom Commeford.. to whom she would be married to his death many years later; she recalls the agony of the birth of her first child and the sometimes difficult relationship she has with her oldest daughter, Susan.
It is through the beautiful simplicity of Marie Commeford's memories that we travel with her through all the moments, big and small, which make up her life. I have thought a great deal about Marie's story and in HER memories, I have re-discovered some of my own. Whether you measure your life in the big moments.... graduations, weddings, births and funerals....or whether for you, life is made up of all of the small everyday moments, I believe that you, like me, will appreciate and recognize a bit of your own life in the beautiful and quiet simplicity of the life of this woman, Marie Commeford. And perhaps you may take a journey through your own memories , rediscovering those moments that when added up, constitute your own quiet, yet beautiful life.
March 23, 2018
When Alice McDermott describes a room, you are standing in the middle of it. When she describes a character, that person is standing in the room with you, and when she paints a scene with dialogue and movement, you feel the shock, or pain, or elation, or boredom, of the scene as though you are living through it yourself.
In fact, maybe you have lived through it yourself, because her specialty is in describing ordinary lives, unremarkable people going about the daily business of just getting along, loving their families, worrying about our parents or siblings or children, making a life that is reasonably happy and decent. And in telling us about the ordinary life of Marie Commeford in this novel, she also reminds us that we're all a part of a bigger world and history, and we are all connected by our very humanness. I have felt this way about every book I've read by this author, and anytime I feel despair about the way the world seems to be heading these days and need to be reminded that there are a lot of really good people still in the world trying to be decent and kind, I will pick up another one. When I have finished them all, I'll start all over again.
In fact, maybe you have lived through it yourself, because her specialty is in describing ordinary lives, unremarkable people going about the daily business of just getting along, loving their families, worrying about our parents or siblings or children, making a life that is reasonably happy and decent. And in telling us about the ordinary life of Marie Commeford in this novel, she also reminds us that we're all a part of a bigger world and history, and we are all connected by our very humanness. I have felt this way about every book I've read by this author, and anytime I feel despair about the way the world seems to be heading these days and need to be reminded that there are a lot of really good people still in the world trying to be decent and kind, I will pick up another one. When I have finished them all, I'll start all over again.
August 19, 2016
This novel moves me very much with its insights into sister-brother relations and its time shifts based on a psychological order rather than a chronological one. I prefer to think the narrator saved her brother's life, as she only wonders if perhaps she did.
October 28, 2023
Reading Alice McDermott's novel Someone is like sitting at Grandma's kitchen table with a mug of tea and a slice of pound cake while she and the aunts share the family news.
A quiet book, Someone is luminous with it's lovely writing which is rich in detail and immerses me in the time and place. It tells the story of Marie from the age of 7 in 1920's Brooklyn--childhood, sexual awakening, work, marriage, children, and growing old. I watch her life unfold in the small moments as well as in the larger events that occur. The narrative occasionally jumps backward and forward in time illuminating a point McDermott is making. She creates characters that are genuine and I come to know and care for them.
Just one example of how McDermott creates emotion and impact in a few simple sentences is Marie is entering adolescence: “ ‘I suppose this is how it’s going to be,’ she [Mother] said softly, more to herself than to me. ‘You’re growing up.’ And then, for a moment, she put a gentle hand to my head. She said, ‘God help us both,’ and left the kitchen.”
McDermott depicts mortality and suffering and compassion and love and care--universal happenings in every life. And reminds me that there are many someones in my life as well.
“The ordinary, rushing world goes on, closing up over happiness as readily as it moved to heal sorrow.”
Publication 2013
A quiet book, Someone is luminous with it's lovely writing which is rich in detail and immerses me in the time and place. It tells the story of Marie from the age of 7 in 1920's Brooklyn--childhood, sexual awakening, work, marriage, children, and growing old. I watch her life unfold in the small moments as well as in the larger events that occur. The narrative occasionally jumps backward and forward in time illuminating a point McDermott is making. She creates characters that are genuine and I come to know and care for them.
Just one example of how McDermott creates emotion and impact in a few simple sentences is Marie is entering adolescence: “ ‘I suppose this is how it’s going to be,’ she [Mother] said softly, more to herself than to me. ‘You’re growing up.’ And then, for a moment, she put a gentle hand to my head. She said, ‘God help us both,’ and left the kitchen.”
McDermott depicts mortality and suffering and compassion and love and care--universal happenings in every life. And reminds me that there are many someones in my life as well.
“The ordinary, rushing world goes on, closing up over happiness as readily as it moved to heal sorrow.”
Publication 2013
September 20, 2013
The writing is just so perfect that you feel as though you are there sitting on the stoop with 7 year old Marie waiting for her father to come home from work. As Marie's narrative seems to seamlessly glide between times in her life , you can see it and feel it - all of the events in this simple , ordinary life she leads . This book is filled with emotion and Alice McDermott makes you care about everything that happens to Marie. Reading this reminded me of her other wonderful books , Charming Billy , Child of My Heart and why she is one of my favorite authors . This book is why I Iove to read . A well deserved nomination for NBA.
December 17, 2013
I am a big fan of McDermott’s. She does not disappoint in this novel. Her writing is subtle, lyrical, and soothing. This story is narrated by Marie Commeford, as she tells her life story in a nonlinear fashion. She begins her story when she was a child, waiting for her father to come home from work. Each memory spurs another memory. Marie’s story describes the urban shifting of Brooklyn, the memories of childhood cruelties, the stories of averages lives, the beauty as well as the ugliness of everyday humans. McDermott’s observations of human frailties and compassion are superb. Each of McDermott’s characters are flawlessly developed. Gabe, Marie’s brother, and Tom, Marie’s husband are men you want to protect and befriend. A great story. An interesting note: I read this for bookclub, and a couple of members thought it was similar to "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn".
August 27, 2013
"Someone" is a quiet novel, like a black and white movie for old souls. I adored the book, the author's melodic prose and the way her every day characters related to each other in an unspoken way through a knowingness and acceptance of each other, and their faith in their respectful relationships with each other. Life is, after all, one leap of faith after another. Some successful, and some not, but we all hope for the best, and we all hope to have a relationship with a special "Someone." Enjoy!
I was chosen for the "Readers Panel" for Real Simple Magazine, and my review they published is in the September Issue, p.38. My original review I handed in is posted on my blog: www.betteretiquette.blogspot.com.
I was chosen for the "Readers Panel" for Real Simple Magazine, and my review they published is in the September Issue, p.38. My original review I handed in is posted on my blog: www.betteretiquette.blogspot.com.
June 10, 2023
According to my records, I read this book a year ago but failed to post a review. I must have liked it because I gave it 4 stars, but have absolutely no recollection of it. Astounding. I must have been in a coma. When my book club chose it, I felt it was the first time I was reading it -- such a wonderful book. The consensus was unanimous with the book club. McDermott's use of imagery, her sensual yet evocative descriptions of light in its many forms, light as metaphor, light as memory trigger. Light and dust. Smells and sounds. As one member put it, there was not one cliche despite this being a memory piece about a woman's life that held no high drama except for that encountered in everyday life. The glory is in the details, as Stephen Sondheim has written: in the silver, in the curtains, in the buttons, in the bread.
September 2, 2016
An exquisite novel of an "unremarkable woman's unforgettable life." Recollecting details from when she was seven-years-old sitting on the stoop of her Brooklyn home to when she's an old woman, Marie Comerford reminds us of how the ordinary people who fill our youth, adolescence and adulthood impact our ordinary existence.
Alice McDermott's novel might appear simplistic at first glance, but it is filled with deep understanding as she turns from one era to the next to portray Marie. Having lived through the same years as Marie and in the same place, the details in this book added to my appreciation and to the recognition of Alice McDermott as a great writer.
Alice McDermott's novel might appear simplistic at first glance, but it is filled with deep understanding as she turns from one era to the next to portray Marie. Having lived through the same years as Marie and in the same place, the details in this book added to my appreciation and to the recognition of Alice McDermott as a great writer.
July 12, 2022
Someone was a remarkable experience for a few different reasons. My first experience with anything written by Alice McDermott and it definitely won’t be my last. This was a novel that grabbed me quickly, gently but persistently. I don’t know about you, but I could relate to Marie. The glory of a life lived. The mistakes, the successes. Those loved and those lives touched. Through Marie we experience a typical life with everything it offers. Don’t we all feel a fool at some point, if not at many points in our own lives? A story of a lifetime told in intermixed pieces, moving backwards and forwards in time. The writing is soft, gentle and beautiful.
Someone was also a remarkable experience for a different reason. I began listening to audio books earlier this year, and have come to enjoy them. However, I haven’t listened to a book that I rated over three stars. Was it the the stories I was listening to or the limitations of the listening experience? Someone broke that trend for me. I rated it four stars. Would it have been five stars if I had read it versus listened to it? Would the structure of the story, which I enjoyed so much, have been better if read? I don’t know. I don’t have enough experience comparing and contrasting the two formats to have any definite opinion. I do know that Kate Reader, who narrated Someone, created a great listening experience.
Someone was also a remarkable experience for a different reason. I began listening to audio books earlier this year, and have come to enjoy them. However, I haven’t listened to a book that I rated over three stars. Was it the the stories I was listening to or the limitations of the listening experience? Someone broke that trend for me. I rated it four stars. Would it have been five stars if I had read it versus listened to it? Would the structure of the story, which I enjoyed so much, have been better if read? I don’t know. I don’t have enough experience comparing and contrasting the two formats to have any definite opinion. I do know that Kate Reader, who narrated Someone, created a great listening experience.
October 11, 2013
What is remarkable about this novel is how Alice McDermott is able to create seven fully-realized decades in the life of Marie Commeford in just over 200 pages. When the novel opens, we met a 7-year-old Marie sitting on her front stoop and developing those "easy bonds" with the other Irish immigrants in her Brooklyn neighborhood. We laugh when she sabotages the soda bread so that her mother will be reluctant to seek her help in the kitchen in the future. We stand in the chill as she waits for her alcoholic father to leave the speakeasy and understand why, years later, she is still charmed by the smell of alcohol on a man's breath. We are at her side when she is in the "throes of my first foray into love's irrational joys," and sympathize when she is jilted when her lover, "with the hitch in his walk and the built up shoe" announces his engagement to someone else because he wants to give his "future children the best chance I can give them." McDermott lingers on the details which elevates this ordinary life into an extraordinary story.
March 23, 2020
McDermott's writing doesn’t work for ME, at least not here, not in this book! I didn't relate, and that is strange since this is a book about women, all women, what we share. Not the famous, not the outstanding but the ordinary, albeit ”Western" woman. I think it tries to say too much. It washes out; it becomes too general.
The jokes, the girl-talk, the first love, how we relate to our husbands, the birth of our children, religious contemplations. It is all here, but I didn't relate......and I don't think I am all that different from other ordinary women! There is a remove, a distance.
The storyline hops around in time. It isn’t hard to follow once you are into the book and know who is who, but this device doesn’t add to the book, so why is it used?
The lines have certainly NOT been destroyed by the audiobook's talented narrator, Kate Reading. You simply cannot beat her narrations.
The jokes, the girl-talk, the first love, how we relate to our husbands, the birth of our children, religious contemplations. It is all here, but I didn't relate......and I don't think I am all that different from other ordinary women! There is a remove, a distance.
The storyline hops around in time. It isn’t hard to follow once you are into the book and know who is who, but this device doesn’t add to the book, so why is it used?
The lines have certainly NOT been destroyed by the audiobook's talented narrator, Kate Reading. You simply cannot beat her narrations.
February 18, 2016
Beautifully written ~ slower pacing, detailed descriptions which pull you into each setting. It took me longer to get into Marie's character, but once I did, I was eager to read further. The description of her experience with childbirth was extremely harrowing! I flew through that chapter. The ending was disappointing for me...after finally becoming invested in the main characters, I felt that the book might be going somewhere. But, it fell flat. Maybe that was the point of the book to seem like real life. Things happen, some extraordinary things happen to ordinary people and life goes on.
November 18, 2014
"It was the first light my poor eyes ever knew. Recalling it, I sometimes wonder if all the faith and all the fancy, all the fear, the speculation, all the wild imaginings that go into the study of heaven and hell, don’t shortchange, after all, that other, earlier uncertainty: the darkness before the slow coming to awareness of the first light." Alice McDermott
Alice McDermott is a minimalist. Her specialty is capturing the poetry of everyday life. In Someone she masterfully demonstrates the writing advice Jane Austin famously gave to her niece: "Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on, and I hope you will do a great deal more, and make full use of them while they are so very favourably arranged."
Here, "three or four families" are neighbors living on the same block and their "country village" is an unnamed, working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn. Marie, the protagonist and first person narrator, struggles with poor eyesight, social anxiety and parental loss, but she evolves into a caring and confident mother, a devoted spouse and a intuitive life support for her ailing older brother. Marie's life may seem ordinary, but in the hands of a gifted writer like McDermott, there is divinity in the commonplace. I was touched repeatedly by the small miracles that make up a life well-lived. Marie is more fortunate than many, because she discovers at an early age that seeing things clearly is impossible unless you learn to see with all your senses. McDermott, the minimalist, paints her images with the light, deft touch of an expert water colorist. She seems confident that her audience will fill in the blanks with the details from their own experience.
December 30, 2014
I normally try to give a book at least 50 pages before abandoning it, but I couldn't do that here. It was obvious from the get-go that this book and I were not meant to be. Sorry, book -- it's not you, it's me.
Alice McDermott turns a lovely phrase. Her sentences are poetic and evocative. For many goodreaders, it seems, that's enough, or even more than enough. Not for me.
The few pages I read were highly disjointed, with abrupt and unexpected jumps back and forth in time for no apparent reason. I wasn't sure why I should be interested in Marie. Or her neighbor who dies. Or her poetry-reciting brother. I suppose there was a narrative arc somewhere. I didn't care to read long enough to find out.
I didn't think Charming Billy was all that great either, and I seem to be in the minority there too. This was a similar experience. I can appreciate great writing, but I need a reason to care about the characters and/or their storyline. This book gave me neither.
Alice McDermott turns a lovely phrase. Her sentences are poetic and evocative. For many goodreaders, it seems, that's enough, or even more than enough. Not for me.
The few pages I read were highly disjointed, with abrupt and unexpected jumps back and forth in time for no apparent reason. I wasn't sure why I should be interested in Marie. Or her neighbor who dies. Or her poetry-reciting brother. I suppose there was a narrative arc somewhere. I didn't care to read long enough to find out.
I didn't think Charming Billy was all that great either, and I seem to be in the minority there too. This was a similar experience. I can appreciate great writing, but I need a reason to care about the characters and/or their storyline. This book gave me neither.
September 23, 2017
Un romanzo volatile, impalpabile come lo zucchero filato. Non brutto, tutt’altro, scritto molto bene, con uno sguardo al microscopio sui gesti minimi dei personaggi che vivono in ambienti domestici minuziosamente descritti. La famiglia della protagonista, Marie, vive a Brooklyn, la storia parte dagli anni ’20 per arrivare al dopoguerra, è una normale famiglia cattolica irlandese, anche Marie è una bambina che passa inosservata, è timida e non parla mai, poi, attraverso una narrazione fatta di flashback, si trasforma in una giovane donna non bella né brutta, con spessi occhiali senza i quali non riesce a vedere nulla e dietro ai quali si nasconde, che alla fine si sposerà –per amore, sì, ma per un amore che è più tenerezza che passione- con uomo qualsiasi, un “qualcuno” che è capitato per caso nella sua vita, anche lui bruttino e scialbo. Non accade nulla nella vita modesta e banale di Marie, solo minimi eventi quotidiani che accadono nella vita di ognuno di noi.
Quello che mi è piaciuto meno è stata proprio la “mediocrità” non tanto della storia, quanto delle emozioni vissute e trasmesse dalla scrittrice. Però come scrive bene la McDermott, è un piacere leggerla.
Quello che mi è piaciuto meno è stata proprio la “mediocrità” non tanto della storia, quanto delle emozioni vissute e trasmesse dalla scrittrice. Però come scrive bene la McDermott, è un piacere leggerla.
August 28, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
When this novel opens Marie is a seven-year-old sitting on a stoop in Brooklyn, NY waiting for her dad to come home. It’s the pre-Depression years. What follows is Marie telling the story of her life in a mostly linear fashion. Most of the characters are “damaged” in some way, which to me means they are very human. Marie herself suffers from poor eyesight. Now this is something with which I can definitely relate. I was that four eyed girl wearing coke bottles as a kid! An ordinary life elevated from mundane to sublime because this author knows how to use words and put them together. My first Alice McDermott but not my last.
And one last note, this book was chosen by our book club, which I joined in January 2019 and it is the first time we all gave it 5 stars. Thank you, Margo, for such a great choice!
Goodreads 2025 Challenge - Book #82 of 125
When this novel opens Marie is a seven-year-old sitting on a stoop in Brooklyn, NY waiting for her dad to come home. It’s the pre-Depression years. What follows is Marie telling the story of her life in a mostly linear fashion. Most of the characters are “damaged” in some way, which to me means they are very human. Marie herself suffers from poor eyesight. Now this is something with which I can definitely relate. I was that four eyed girl wearing coke bottles as a kid! An ordinary life elevated from mundane to sublime because this author knows how to use words and put them together. My first Alice McDermott but not my last.
And one last note, this book was chosen by our book club, which I joined in January 2019 and it is the first time we all gave it 5 stars. Thank you, Margo, for such a great choice!
Goodreads 2025 Challenge - Book #82 of 125
January 2, 2019
Alice McDermott makes one deeply care about her characters--everyday people living in an Irish immigrant neighborhood in Brooklyn. Her writing is exquisite and compassionate as she describes the ups and downs in the life of Marie, her brother Gabe, and their parents. Although Marie wears thick black glasses, she's very observant as a young girl seeing life in the neighborhood from the stoop of their brownstone. Later, she learns about death and how to interact with people when she works as a greeter at Fagin's Funeral Parlor. After some disappointment, Marie experiences happiness in her marriage to a warm, cheerful man. We view an ordinary life lived well as the aged Marie looks back to her youth during the Great Depression. Throughout the book there is a sense of empathy for the lonely, the challenged, and the frail. McDermott understands people and their emotions, and draws us into their lives with her lovely writing.
September 28, 2013
Another quiet beauty by Alice McDermott, a lens focused minutely yet compassionately on an "ordinary" life (though McDermott disproves that any such thing exists). In patchwork fashion, leaping back and forth in time, McDermott pieces together the entire lifespan of Marie Commeford: her childhood with her older brother Gabe and her parents in an Irish-American neighborhood in Brooklyn in the 30s; her young womanhood working in the local funeral home as a receptionist and "consoling angel"; her heartbreaking first love; her good marriage to a WWII veteran and brewery worker; the raising of her family on Long Island...and on into old age.
The drama here is muted but poignant: the early death of her beloved father from cancer, possibly exacerbated by alcoholism; her brother's ordination as a Catholic priest, loss of his vocation, later nervous breakdown; her romantic disappointment at the hands of a neighbor boy whose physical disability -- one too-short leg-- makes him sadistic; her near-death experience in the delivery of her first child, after which the doctors warn her that she should never have another -- but she courageously decides to go on freely loving her husband, risking death for the sake of more abundant life.
The "Someone" of the title, I believe, signifies that, in McDermott's evocation of a close-knit ethnic community of a bygone America, despite cruelty and tragedy there was always Someone who would console, protect, offer hope, break a fall.
I would like to go back and reread the book immediately, to pick up the little clues about the characters' fates that the author drops in passing, easy to miss or perhaps to underappreciate the first time - and also to savor her writing, especially her descriptions of light which run throughout the novel and give it a pervasive luminosity.
The drama here is muted but poignant: the early death of her beloved father from cancer, possibly exacerbated by alcoholism; her brother's ordination as a Catholic priest, loss of his vocation, later nervous breakdown; her romantic disappointment at the hands of a neighbor boy whose physical disability -- one too-short leg-- makes him sadistic; her near-death experience in the delivery of her first child, after which the doctors warn her that she should never have another -- but she courageously decides to go on freely loving her husband, risking death for the sake of more abundant life.
The "Someone" of the title, I believe, signifies that, in McDermott's evocation of a close-knit ethnic community of a bygone America, despite cruelty and tragedy there was always Someone who would console, protect, offer hope, break a fall.
I would like to go back and reread the book immediately, to pick up the little clues about the characters' fates that the author drops in passing, easy to miss or perhaps to underappreciate the first time - and also to savor her writing, especially her descriptions of light which run throughout the novel and give it a pervasive luminosity.
May 10, 2013
I love Alice McDermott. I don't think anyone is better at rendering *ordinary* lives extraordinary through brilliant writing. The details she chooses and the language she uses create a world so visually and emotionally rich that sometimes I find myself holding my breath while reading. For me, she's the literary equivalent of a brilliant figure skater or gymnast.
October 30, 2013
Lyrical story of the absolutely ordinary life in early to mid-century Brooklyn. Told superbly. I knew nothing about the subject matter, nor the time period before reading this book- had not read one review either. Yet before I was 60 pages in to it, I was mesmerized. It made the hairs on my arms stand up. Although about 30 years before my own time period, nearly every detail re the community and Church, and neighbors and even style of residence in this novel- all completely familiar to my own life. Some details are exact. But we had more kids and Irish dancing lessons for free (instead of street ball). I have read that nostalgia is useless and self-serving to altered memory. But I can attest that death came to the young and to the older more often and sooner then- but that life itself seemed to hold far more safety and support for the majority than it does now. You will not like this book if you disdain the poetic or the mystical nuance, IMHO.
And no deep mystery or quirky reveal- but just life. Told for real. Real life and human travail and endeavor, as it played out in a much more defined and rigid cultural expectation and perception than the present. Far simpler and often far harsher. How the heat felt in those clothes, for instead. Or Mass on Lenten mornings when we girls got the marathon giggles and used our chapel veils as masks. Or going to a neighbor's at night to say the Rosary, all kneeling, 12 to the room.
I still remember my Pegeen; it was a weekend case of polio and not the stairs- but I can SO remember the aqua of her eyes.
Usually I am a hard marker, but not this time. 4.5 stars just for the tempo and transitions. But five all the way, because I was so connected to this Marie and Alice McDermott's pristine writing. William Kent Krueger's Ordinary Grace and this novel are the two best books of this genre amongst my reading for this present year.
And no deep mystery or quirky reveal- but just life. Told for real. Real life and human travail and endeavor, as it played out in a much more defined and rigid cultural expectation and perception than the present. Far simpler and often far harsher. How the heat felt in those clothes, for instead. Or Mass on Lenten mornings when we girls got the marathon giggles and used our chapel veils as masks. Or going to a neighbor's at night to say the Rosary, all kneeling, 12 to the room.
I still remember my Pegeen; it was a weekend case of polio and not the stairs- but I can SO remember the aqua of her eyes.
Usually I am a hard marker, but not this time. 4.5 stars just for the tempo and transitions. But five all the way, because I was so connected to this Marie and Alice McDermott's pristine writing. William Kent Krueger's Ordinary Grace and this novel are the two best books of this genre amongst my reading for this present year.
May 22, 2018
Another book club selection which makes me wonder if I'm in the wrong book club. Story really dragged, nothing really happening, more was "told" than "shown" (ie. reader not involved in the action), jumped around in time (even on the same page, no warning), fairly pointless although I'm told one has to go back and re-read to pick up the subtleties. That's fine for some, I guess, but I'm not taking a literature course. I read to escape and enjoy, not to strain to figure out "now what must the author be wanting me to pick up on here". So yes, a bit manipulative. I could see if it were a mystery; then I would enjoy looking for clues. I usually enjoy historical fiction, but this one just didn't work for me.
Not sure if I would try reading others by McDermott although I've heard they're much more engaging than this one. Anyone out there with similar opinion of "Someone" who might recommend another by this author?
*kinda strange, the star rating on Goodreads, with only the one-star depicting a critical review -- all other stars are positive. I would've rated this tw0 stars on another site...
**update: It's been 6 mos since I rated this; have adjusted my rating system since. One star = hated the read. Two stars = I didn't really care for this, not my "cup of tea".
Not sure if I would try reading others by McDermott although I've heard they're much more engaging than this one. Anyone out there with similar opinion of "Someone" who might recommend another by this author?
*kinda strange, the star rating on Goodreads, with only the one-star depicting a critical review -- all other stars are positive. I would've rated this tw0 stars on another site...
**update: It's been 6 mos since I rated this; have adjusted my rating system since. One star = hated the read. Two stars = I didn't really care for this, not my "cup of tea".
March 17, 2022
This story begins in Brooklyn in the 1920’s, in a neighborhood much like any other during that time, with Marie taking in all of the goings-on in the neighborhood from the stoop of the apartment building where she lives. Her older brother Gabe will be leaving soon for the seminary, with hopes that he will become a priest, and her father works as a clerk.
This is a relatively quiet novel, without a lot of notable events happening, but McDermott brings this to life through her lovely prose. A simple life lived simply, an Irish-American family who seem content with their life, with a sense of real gratitude for their life there, and what few joys they have. The family is their focus, and while their story isn’t always filled with happiness, they are content. It isn’t that this story is without emotion, but it is shared in such a quietly expressed way that it pulls the reader into their lives. Lives filled with a humble gratitude for what little they have, quietly accepting their sorrows, and giving thanks for the simple grace of the gift of life.
Simply lovely.
June 10, 2016
An exquisitely written story about a mostly ordinary Irish-American working class woman, and her life from little girl in the 20s to very old woman some time around now. The book picks up, in a way, where Tree Grows in Brooklyn leaves off - Marie sits on a stoop about 10 years after we last see Francie sitting on one, and Marie's family is less troubled and more upwardly mobile than Francie Nolan's, but many of the themes are the same. Someone is a love poem to Brooklyn too - an elegy for a neighborhood, that like Marie's mother (and then Marie herself) grows increasingly decrepit. (That neighborhood, never quite specified but hinted at, is somewhere quite near my own - and has a new life as home to ever-wealthier yuppies - but Marie's family isn't part of that - they make the pilgrimage to Long Island some decades before).
A very quiet book, and a fast read, but also with many indelible images and moments worth savoring. The project of telling an ordinary life is an interesting one, and McDermott's gifts are such that we don't realize,until the end, that the small dramas of this book are really the essential ones of any long life.
A very quiet book, and a fast read, but also with many indelible images and moments worth savoring. The project of telling an ordinary life is an interesting one, and McDermott's gifts are such that we don't realize,until the end, that the small dramas of this book are really the essential ones of any long life.
November 18, 2013
In precise and understated language, Alice McDermott tells the story of Marie, an "ordinary" woman and her full, eventful life. We see her as a shy child quietly observing the goings-on on her street in Brooklyn, then as a yearning adolescent, as a bride and young mother, and finally as an elderly widow. We are struck by how intense and important tiny events are & how deeply felt. The author describes the newly widowed Marie drying her hands "in her own efficient, getting-on-with-it way." No complaints, few tears. This describes my mother exactly, washing her hands and "getting-on-with-it!" There are some characters, older women, who communicate with raised eyebrows, slight gestures, touches to the nose -- always in a few quiet words "telling a good positive story." This is what Alice McDermott does in this book -- communicating a precise intimate knowledge of the characters with few words. She turns a gentle spotlight on an unremarkable woman, revealing her depth and complexity. A lovely book.
December 12, 2013
This is a quiet, unassuming book about a woman, Marie, born in Brooklyn in the 1930's(?). The author reveals Marie's life to us in chapters. She may be young in one chapter and then an old woman in the next. Normal life events happen to her, but nothing so out of the ordinary that reader can't relate to her thoughts and feelings. One thing that I noted while reading that was special about the book was the imagery McDermott was able to create with words. The way the light may come through the window or the way women may gossip around the living room or the way a teenage girl makes iced tea. You felt like you were in the room witnessing all of these events taking place. Overall, a 4 star read for me.
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