That Night by Alice McDermott Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of That Night
Book Review: INTERESTING
Summary: 4 Stars
I did not find this to be the best of Alice McDermott's works, but I did enjoy it........Rick and Sheryl are high school sweet hearts. Sheryl's father died suddenly, leaving an empty place in her heart. She fills that emptiness with Rick and when she tells her mother that she might be pregnant, her mother immediately sends her from their home in a Long Island suburb to an aunt's family in Ohio....Sheryl did not even have time to let Rick know and he is going crazy trying to find her until finally, one evening he and some pals armed with chains go to Sheryl's house causing a riot......The men of the neighborhood come to the aid of Sheryl's mother and the boys get arrested and everyone gets treated for minor injuries......In the meantime, Sheryl tried to reach Rick by phone, but never was able to talk to him.......Sheryl and Rick go on to live out their lives as their destiny dictates.......This story brings us back to our own teen years and first loves.Book Review: Loved This Book!
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book! I graduated from high school in 1959 and this book took me back, no doubt about it. I knew a couple of girls who got pregnant while still in school, and it was as terrible as is depicted in this book. (Thank goodness for progress and change.....) This book has very strong, well-developed, definitive characters, especially the young narrator. I can still feel the book as if I lived in the neighborhood......Book Review: McDermott makes magic of the moon!
Summary: 5 Stars
If there is a synonym for splendid, it is THAT NIGHT. Reading this superior novel is like taking a journey down the suburban sidewalks of youth, cracked and weathered, but familiar. It is a journey through the high school yearbooks of everyone you have ever loved, their photos smiling out at you in that moment right before the shutter clicks and adulthood begins. McDermotts story is one of first love, between teenagers, told with such an urgency that any "adult" love we may stumble upon later in life pales in comparison. The author writes with a keen eye for detail and a highly tuned ear for the sounds of growing up, and growing away from those we have loved. When this book breaks your heart, and it will, it does so without the sentimental trappings of so many love stories. If you don't love this book--I'll take it off your hands.Book Review: Melancholy and Cliche
Summary: 2 Stars
Come on, people, get over yourselves. You could find a hundred lovely writers out there, and while McDermott may be one of them, it doesn't mean there's anything particularly interesting about this book. It's filled with such melancholy and self-importance about subject matter that is really cliche at this point. Lovers torn apart, young children in the neighborhood wondering how babies are made, teen pregnancy. It's like something a junior high class might read.
McDermott might be trying to pull off something magestic here, but it just comes off as weird. Why is this first person narrator, who isn't even a main character in the story, wandering through these people's lives like a ghost, and killing them all off? That's right, when McDermott runs into a situation that's rather dull, which is often, she gives us a little aside about someone's child dying. It's manipulative and cheap writing.
Book Review: Not Her Best But Pretty Good
Summary: 4 Stars
I really love Alice McDermott's writing and she didn't really disappoint me with 'That Night'. It seemed very real, very authentic. Some of it might have been a bit over the top and the ending was a little smooth but all in all I enjoyed it and recommend it. Read her others, like 'Charming Billy' and especially 'Child Of My Heart'. Better and best respectively.