Charming Billy Book

I confess, I have OWNED this book for a couple of years. I started it twice, thinking an award-winning book should surely win me, but both times set it aside. But after reading McDermott's "After This" recently, I picked up "Charming Billy" again. I can only think that the books we respond to are inextricably related to whatever consciousness or thoughtfulness or even patience with life we are currently experiencing. This all to say that this time around, I loved this book. The writing is so beautifully crafted, each sentence interesting as it wends its way through, down, and across the pages. The story of a tightly-knit group of New York Irish Catholics mourning the loss of one of their own, you almost emerge from the fog of an hour's reading with a brogue on your lips (though the characters have long lost theirs).