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Article: FICTION; THE CROSSES FAMILIES BEAR; A working-class couple on Long Island struggle to uphold their family of four children as the wounds of World War II heal and the Vietnam War looms.(ENTERTAINMENT)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- September 17, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Katherine Bailey
Special to the Star Tribune
Using the same authenticity with which William Faulkner portrays Yoknapatawpha County and Thomas Hardy renders Dorset, Alice McDermott sets her narratives in Brooklyn, Queens and suburban Long Island. She writes about the milieu in which she was raised - Irish Catholic neighborhoods in the post-World War II era. Besides having a similarity in setting, her six novels consistently explore familial love and the joys and sorrows it occasions. The impact of death on a family and its correlative, acceptance of loss, are also constants in her fiction.
Indeed, death lurks throughout McDermott's latest ...