“My wife always knows exactly,” he said. There was a bit of tobacco on his wet lip. “But that’s probably because she… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“With her eyes to the ceiling she said, “It’s a baby grand.” Her husband turned his head on the pillow. He might… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“Her husband put his arm across the back of the seat. “Everybody set to go?” he said. He had been too harsh… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“In church she had prayed for contentment. She was thirty, with no husband in sight. A good job, an aging father, a… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“His wife was beside him, buried in pillows. He was fifty-one and would be a new father again by the end of… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“Now, as the labor began, it was the storm she recalled. The thrash of wind and trees and the quiet terror that… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“Not a soul,” Mary Keane said to her husband, the wind lifting her words, tossing them gently back over her shoulder, the… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“Her husband closed the door on her, gently, with both hands, as if he were covering her with a blanket. He crossed… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“There was still more music to listen to after they had fallen apart. She thought she was beginning to recognize some refrain,… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“Did he hear it, she wondered as she glimpsed her husband’s face through half-closed eyes and saw what was quickly becoming a… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“Did he hear it, she wondered as she glimpsed her husband’s face through half-closed eyes and saw what was quickly becoming a… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“And when Mary nodded, Pauline said, "You'd better hurry then, you know how how is," and laughed to show she would not… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“Some vestige of his race or of his sex made him think, whenever he looked out across the ocean: As it was before me… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
“If you want to see how far we have not come from the cave and the woods, from the lonely and dangerous days of… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
“John Keane pressed his chest to the steering wheel as he put the key in the ignition, taking a deep breath as he did,… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
“The fourth contraction seized her and suddenly she was perspiring. She heard herself cry out and then she heard the children’s voices like sparks… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
“THE TINY SPIDERS that lived in the higher branches of the downed tree (which now meant the branches that lay on the other side… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
What makes a sentence, a phrase, a moment, or a scene delightful? Something about recognizing the truth in it, hearing the music in it,… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
“Michael had slipped beyond the crest of the dune. Jacob was lying flat out now, on his stomach, his little men all before him,… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
“Not a soul,” Mary Keane said to her husband, the wind lifting her words, tossing them gently back over her shoulder, the way it… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
“There wasn’t a tear to be seen on the faces of the men and women in the street as the two of them walked… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
“His love for his children bore down on his heart with the weight of three heavy stones. There were all his unnamed fears for… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
“Mr. Persichetti knew that six weeks before its time and with a good thirty-minute ride to the hospital once the ambulance came (would it… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
“Mike Shea became a medic during the war and was now married, working for Pfizer. To this day he can’t look at her straight.… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
As a writer, I'm too busy and worried to experience the delight while composing my own work, although, of course, I hope a reader… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
“Why not?” but without conviction, confirming for them both that this was a sudden impulse that most likely would not last out the afternoon.… — Alice McDermott Copy Share
