Someone

A Novel

By: Alice McDermott

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

A fully realized portrait of one woman's life in all its complexity, by the National Book Award–winning author

An ordinary life—its sharp pains and unexpected joys, its bursts of clarity and moments of confusion—lived by an ordinary woman: this is the subject of Someone, Alice McDermott's extraordinary return, seven years after the publication of After This. Scattered recollections—of childhood, adolescence, motherhood, old age—come together in this transformative narrative, stitched into a vibrant whole by McDermott's deft, lyrical voice.

Our first glimpse of Marie is as a child: a girl in glasses waiting on a Brooklyn stoop for her beloved father to come home from work. A seemingly innocuous encounter with a young woman named Pegeen sets the bittersweet tone of this remarkable novel. Pegeen describes herself as an "amadan," a fool; indeed, soon after her chat with Marie, Pegeen tumbles down her own basement stairs. The magic of McDermott's novel lies in how it reveals us all as fools for this or that, in one way or another.

Marie's first heartbreak and her eventual marriage; her brother's brief stint as a Catholic priest, subsequent loss of faith, and eventual breakdown; the Second World War; her parents' deaths; the births and lives of Marie's children; the changing world of her Irish-American enclave in Brooklyn—McDermott sketches all of it with sympathy and insight. This is a novel that speaks of life as it is daily lived; a crowning achievement by one of the finest American writers at work today.

A Publishers Weekly Best Fiction Book of the Year

A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013

A New York Times Notable Book of 2013

A Washington Post Notable Fiction Book of 2013

An NPR Best Book of 2013


Includes a bonus interview with Alice McDermott and her editor Jonathan Galassi

Program features original music composed specifically for the novel:
Beginnings (W. Armstrong/traditional) • You Don't Want to Go Into New York City (W. Armstrong) • It Is All Solved by Walking (W. Armstrong)

©2013 Alice McDermott (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“McDermott's nuanced writing turns the mundane into poetry. Kate Reading's narration fits perfectly.” —AudioFile

“In this deceptively simple tour de force, McDermott . . . lays bare the keenly observed life of Marie Commeford, an ordinary woman whose compromised eyesight makes her both figuratively and literally unable to see the world for what it is . . . We come to feel for this unremarkable woman, whose vulnerability makes her all the more winning--and makes her worthy of our attention. And that's why McDermott, a three-time Pulitzer nominee, is such an exceptional writer: in her hands, an uncomplicated life becomes singularly fascinating, revealing the heart of a woman whose defeats make us ache and whose triumphs we cheer. Marie's vision (and ours) eventually clears, and she comes to understand that what she so often failed to see lay right in front of her eyes.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)

“One of the author's most trenchant explorations into the heart and soul of the 20th-century Irish-American family . . . Marie's straightforward narration is interrupted with occasional jumps back and forward in time that create both a sense of foreboding and continuity as well as a mediation on the nature of sorrow . . . Marie and Gabe are compelling in their basic goodness, as is McDermott's elegy to a vanished world.” —Kirkus

Worst Narrator Ever

Would you try another book from Alice McDermott and/or Kate Reading?

I would love to read another book from Alice McDermott. I will never, ever listen to another book by Kate Reading.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

She sounds like a sing-song robot.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The author wrote a beautiful book-- butchered by the narrator.

Any additional comments?

I want a refund.

Boring

This is the most boring book I've ever listened to. The book is boring; the reader is boring. And the reference to a song about the white cliffs of Dover in the years right after WWI is a jarring anachronism that reveals the author's laziness.

Worst reader I've encountered

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Alice McDermott is a wonderful writer and the story here lives up to her reputation, but the reader is so bad that enjoyment of the story is compromised.

How could the performance have been better?

Find another reader.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The story was great.

Any additional comments?

I don't know how Audible finds its readers, but ruling out those with irritating voices, tics like ending every sentence on a rising note, etc. would improve the listener's enjoyment. Maybe the authors should be reviewing the performers before the book is released to the public.

Couldn't finish it, a little slow paced

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this novel and decided that life is too short to persist with a book when I did not enjoy the narrator, was not endeared to the main character and found the writing style too focused on the minutiae. I found the narration too slow and sing song, with many words finishing up.

A real snooze fest

Would you ever listen to anything by Alice McDermott again?

No

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Very few

Any additional comments?

There was nothing that sparked my interest or stirred my emotions......just flat and blah!

The narrator ruined it for me.

I have enjoyed all of Alice McDermott's previous books but I need to look out for this narrator...she really ruined it for me....her droning, sing-song voice grated on my nerves and I can't really evaluate the story as I am SO irritated with that voice! I will have to buy the physical novel because I can't tolerate hearing it....such a waste.

Robotic Voice Kills It For Me

What would have made Someone better?

Choosing a different narrator. Kate Reading did an abysmal job. Her voice was so robotic that it was all I could do to hold on until the end of the story.

Would you recommend Someone to your friends? Why or why not?

I might give the physical book as a gift. I would not recommend the audio recording to anyone.

What didn’t you like about Kate Reading’s performance?

Her voice. Her droning. Her flatness. Her mechanical voice was just awful.

What character would you cut from Someone?

No one.

Not for ME

McDermott's writing doesn’t work for ME, at least not here, not in this book! I didn't relate, and that is strange since this is a book about women, all women, what we share. Not the famous, not the outstanding but the ordinary, albeit ”Western" woman. I think it tries to say too much. It washes out; it becomes too general.

The jokes, the girl-talk, the first love, how we relate to our husbands, the birth of our children, religious contemplations. It is all here, but I didn't relate......and I don't think I am all that different from other ordinary women! There is a remove, a distance.

The storyline hops around in time. It isn’t hard to follow once you are into the book and know who is who, but this device doesn’t add to the book, so why is it used?

The lines have certainly NOT been destroyed by the audiobook's talented narrator, Kate Reading, who is of course Kathryn Ann Fleming. She died tragically in 2006. You simply cannot beat her narrations. For me at least, a good narrator cannot turn an empty book into a good one.