Charming Billy Prompt #1

Engaging a reader early on in a novel is often one of authors' main priorities and their success in doing so greatly influences a readers investment and interest in a story. Speaking from personal experience, if the author does not engage me within the first couple chapters of the book there exists a high probability that I won't continue reading. Fortunately, with Alice McDermott's Charming Billy, this was not the case; within the first chapter I was hooked. Upon finishing the first chapter, it was quite obvious which passage would captivate the readers' attentions and draw them in: the juicy cliffhanger that concluded the chapter, informing the reader that the poor Eva who we thought had died young and taken Billy's heart and future happiness with her was in fact alive. However, to state that this was the passage that drew me in would be untrue, it did perhaps seal the deal of my investment in the story, but by no means was it the first instant in which my interest was peaked, for by that time the author already had me fully engaged and likewise invested in the characters and their futures. After the initial thrust into the heart of a story plot and working to make sense of the scene and the different characters and events being discussed, there was a span of pages in which the attendees of Billy's memorial meal were debating on his matter of substance and his frame of mind. After several descriptions and words spoken to Billy's character and ways of conduct the reader begins to develop some form of mental image for the character; and through this debate amongst his loved ones the complexity of Billy is fully revealed, and as a reader I could not help but be drawn in and become intrigued into further unveiling the layers to this enigma and discovering which opinions of the man are true. On page nineteen, after pouring himself and Mickey Quinn another drink, Dan Lynch begins, "'Well, let me tell you what he told me,' he said. 'Down at Quinlan's, maybe a year or two after the Irish girl died. He told me,' he said, lifting his glass, pointing around it, 'that every year was a weight on his shoulders. Every hour was, he said.' He pointed to Kate. 'Remember when you said he was like a man waiting for a bus, when he was waiting to get her back here? Well, when you said that i thought: It never changed. He was still waiting, years after she'd died. But he was waiting to go to her now. Ever since the night Dennis told him the news, he was waiting to die, I'm sure of it.'" (19,20). Contrasting to this portrayal of the man is Dan Lynch's continued monologue in response to earlier discussions regarding Billy's alcoholism as a disease to which he was completely subject to and powerless in it's grasp. He begins again, "'What's nonsense is all this disease business,' he said. 'Maybe for some people it's a disease. But maybe for some there are things that happen in their lives that they just cant live with. Things that take the sweetness out of everything. Maybe for some it's a sadness they can't get rid of or a disappointment that won't go away. And you know what I say to those people? I say good luck to those people.' He raised his glass, raised his chin. 'I say maybe they're not as smart and sensible and accepting as every one of us,' indicating every one of us with a sweep of his beer, 'but they're loyal. They're loyal to their own feelings. They're loyal to the first plans they made-just like Billy was loyal to Holtzman and the job he gave him. And like he would have been loyal to her if she had lived and come back here and they'd gotten married. Just like he was loyal to Maeve: Billy never breathed another word about that girl after he married Maeve. But the girl was first, and for Billy she would always be first. That's the kind of guy he was. Maeve couldn't change him.'" (20,21). The first description paints a picture of a man plagued with sadness that perhaps could have even been diagnosed with depression, who spent the remaining years of his life anxious to leave this life and join another. The second, which begins with a description similar to the first, depicting a man overpowered by emotion and driven to drink but then things take a turn to emphatically describe him as a man driven by his sense of loyalty, a great man, who unfortunately became too familiar with his drink, but with that as a minor note that is overshadowed by his great qualities. So instantly, as a reader, I am eager to learn more about this mystery man who was such an amazing friend who also contained immense sadness within and more importantly had great influence on the people around him. Establishing the character in such a precise way with such mystery and influence, and with such beautiful and poetic language that like a lyrical muse, it is impossible not to fall irreversibly under the spell of intrigue and subsequent investment in Billy's and the other influenced characters.