Alice McDermott

“John Keane pressed his chest to the steering wheel as he put the key in the ignition, taking a deep breath as…

— Alice McDermott

“The wind was just above them. It seemed to skim the tops of the surrounding dunes, bending the grass. But here the…

— Alice McDermott

“He could have left out the fact that one had but a few hours to live, while the other had another life…

— Alice McDermott

“For one of us at least, we knew, we were certain - this is how we saw the world - there would…

— Alice McDermott

“saw the first fat flakes pass like small shadows across the office window and expressed her disapproval of nature itself with a…

— Alice McDermott

“dull—she did not, with equal longing, wish to be a part of the whispering spinster chorus at the edge of other, more…

— Alice McDermott

“The cold wind made it difficult to breathe, as if it could snatch your next breath before you had time to swallow…

— Alice McDermott

“They placed the blankets and the pillow and the toys into the trunk, depositing as they did a residue of sand that…

— Alice McDermott

“It was a balancing act, to hold off quarrel and worry, the coming years, the coming months, even tomorrow morning for just…

— Alice McDermott

“The goal, Sister Clare had taught them in school, was shorthand so neat and so legible that anyone can pick up your…

— Alice McDermott

“She had an image of her unborn child, its head up under her heart, its ear pressed to the wall of her…

— Alice McDermott

“Her husband put his arm across the back of the seat. “Everybody set to go?” he said. He had been too harsh…

— Alice McDermott

“If one of these, if a hundred of them, a thousand, came too soon or failed to thrive or were born incomplete…

— Alice McDermott

“toward the quilted hamper, unzipped it, and then paused, a single wax-paper-wrapped sandwich in her hand. “Our food will be full of…

— Alice McDermott

“In church she had prayed for contentment. She was thirty, with no husband in sight. A good job, an aging father, a…

— Alice McDermott

“It was as if he stopped time for them two weeks out of every year, cut them off from both the past…

— Alice McDermott

“They’re all in church,” he said and saw the flush of guilt, or of wind, on her broad cheeks. The wind lifted…

— Alice McDermott

“She shifted again, leaning her weight onto one thigh and then the other as the baby offered its own counterbalance. She moved…

— Alice McDermott

“Herding them all toward the basement, their father paused at the dining-room window, pulled back the curtain and shone the beam through…

— Alice McDermott

“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

“She unwrapped the lamb chops from their white butcher paper and peeled a few potatoes and opened a can of peas. Her…

— Alice McDermott

“He called the operator from the phone in the kitchen and then left a message for Mr. Keane at his office. As…

— Alice McDermott

“Her husband closed the door on her, gently, with both hands, as if he were covering her with a blanket. He crossed…

— Alice McDermott

“I suppose I've never set out to write a novel in which nothing happens . . . only to write a novel…

— Alice McDermott

“The banging at the door was his excuse to turn away—some people had their coats in there—and while he stood with his…

— Alice McDermott

“Mary Keane watched her daughter and felt as well the punch and turn of the baby not yet born and saw the…

— Alice McDermott

“Can I play?” she asked finally, understanding, even at six, that the timidity of the question invited a single reply. “No.” Looking…

— Alice McDermott

In the reading and writing life, delight, for me, is where the mystery lies. Easy enough to figure out how scenes of…

— Alice McDermott

“He crossed the wide breadth of beach, hearing their voices coming to him on the wind before he saw them at the…

— Alice McDermott

“It was in its strangeness and in its familiarity an illustration of someone else's life going on in its own way, steeped…

— Alice McDermott

“The fourth contraction seized her and suddenly she was perspiring. She heard herself cry out and then she heard the children’s voices…

— Alice McDermott

“have been in the war? Suddenly she said, “Are you the piano player, upstairs?” For that was how she and John had…

— Alice McDermott

“Saw in her mind’s eye that delicious moment when Stan—a version of the piano player himself, when you thought about it—smiled the…

— Alice McDermott

“Now, as the labor began, it was the storm she recalled. The thrash of wind and trees and the quiet terror that…

— Alice McDermott

“Not a soul,” Mary Keane said to her husband, the wind lifting her words, tossing them gently back over her shoulder, the…

— Alice McDermott

“bent under the April sun and into the bitter April wind, jackets flapping and eyes squinting, or else skirts pressed to the…

— Alice McDermott

“He leaned toward her, slowly raising his hand to his hat and then doffing it quickly, as if taken by surprise, when…

— Alice McDermott

“Their father took his hand from his shoulder. The wind rattled the windows, careful now. “Listen to that,” their mother said. “It’s…

— Alice McDermott

“she felt the wind rise, felt the pinprick of pebble and grit against her stockings and her cheeks—the slivered shards of mad…

— Alice McDermott

“Midwest childhood, a kidney condition that kept him out of the service, a stint at the Navy Yard before the job at…

— Alice McDermott