“our mother recalled it. But the nun’s language in these matters—matters of the body, of the flesh, what went on between women… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“What is wrong with you?” their father was saying. “Why can’t you behave?” Michael—it was not fear on his face, only a… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
My parents were both first-generation Irish Catholics raised in Brooklyn. But it was more for me - it was that women of… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
“His love for his children bore down on his heart with the weight of three heavy stones. There were all his unnamed… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“She unwrapped the lamb chops from their white butcher paper and peeled a few potatoes and opened a can of peas. Her… — Alice McDermott Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share Image
My love for the child asleep in the crib, the child's need for me, for my vigilance, had made my life valuable… — 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
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
