Someone by Alice McDermott is a well written story about a very ordinary life. Marie is a child with thick glasses observing life in Brooklyn pre-Depression. Not a beauty, she's the kind of person who is overlooked, but she gleans a lot through her observations and humor.
back blurb: Through her first heartbreak and eventual marriage; her brother's brief stint as a Catholic priest and emotional breakdown; her career as a funeral home "consoling angel"; the deaths of her parents and the births of her children - we follow Marie through the changing world of the 20th century and her Irish-American enclave.
Alice McDermott's writing is tidy, pithy, and conveys the joy and heartbreak of life with a light touch and rich descriptions of the environment. I read this during a rainy week (yea for us in TX), and it was the perfect book to cozy up to in my chair.
