Centre County Reads is going on a charm offensive in 2020. ‘Charming Billy,’ winner of the National Book Award for fiction in 1998, has been selected as the Centre County Reads book for 2020.
Written by Alice McDermott, the novel “is a study of the lies that bind and the weight of familial love, of the way good intentions can be as destructive as the truth they were meant to hide. … Billy Lynch’s family and friends have gathered to comfort his widow, and to pay their respects to one of the last great romantics. As they trade tales of his famous humor, immense charm, and consuming sorrow, a complex portrait emerges of an enigmatic man, a loyal friend, a beloved husband, an incurable alcoholic.”
“Charming Billy is a novel driven by its characters, who they are as second-generation Irish-Americans, and how they express their regard for one another,” says Maria Burchill, Schlow Centre Region Library’s head of adult services. “Central to the plot is Billy, a wonderfully humane man with a terrible addiction. This book is important because it examines how we express our concern and love for our family, friends, and neighbors.”
McDermott has published eight novels, including her latest, ‘The Ninth Hour,’ in 2017. Three of her novels were finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In 2013, she was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame.
She will give a presentation and hold a talk and book signing from 7:30 to 9 p.m. on April 16 in the HUB-Robeson Center’s Freeman Auditorium.
In the weeks and months prior to McDermott’s visit, Centre County Reads will hold several book discussions and corresponding events, including a kickoff event in February and a writing contest sponsored by the Center for American Literary Studies.
For more information on Alice McDermott’s visit and other events, visit centrecountyreads.org.
Centre County Reads started in 2003 with the book To Kill a Mockingbird. The project encourages county residents of all ages to explore the human condition and community issues by reading and discussing the same book.
Past selections include ‘A Walk in the Woods,’ ‘The Book Thief,’ ‘Beautiful Ruins,’ and last year’s ‘Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird,’ by Penn State alum Katie Fallon.
Centre County Reads coordinators are the Center for American Literary Studies, the Center for Global Studies, Centre County Library & Historical Museum, Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Schlow Centre Region, Library, the State College, Philipsburg-Osceola, Penns Valley, and Bellefonte area school districts, and Schlow Library Foundation. Partners for Centre County Reads 2020 include Penn State’s Creative Writing Program’s Mary E. Rolling Reading Series.
