Oswego graduate Alice McDermott ’75 was recognized in December for her new book, After This, which was named by Washington Post Book World as one of the 10 best books in 2006.

“Richly textured, intricately woven…A work not only of, but about, the imagination—an imagination that works through oblique reference and pattern and symbolism as much as through observed detail,” said Margaret Atwood in The New York Review of Books.

The book, published in September, is a vivid portrait of an American family caught at the crossroads of the tumultuous middle decades of the 20th century. Witty, compassionate, and wry, After This evokes the social, political, and spiritual upheavals of its time through the experiences of a working class couple, John and Mary Keane, their four children, and the changes radiating through their Catholic community on Long Island.

After This, McDermott’s sixth publication, is written with great attention to detail.

“Alice McDermott is someone who must always have been listening, waiting for a way to use her exquisite sensory recall of childhood, waiting to craft everything she knows into another beautiful and stirring novel,” said Jane Hamilton, writing in the Washington Post. “All her books are touched with the grace of her generous intelligence, her sly wit and her compassion for our longings, our griefs and the revelations that come only in the briefest of glimmers. The opportunities for revelation are greater because we have books such as this one, because of McDermott's quiet and sublime gift.”

McDermott is the author of five previous novels, including Child of My Heart; Charming Billy, winner of the 1998 National Book Award; At Weddings and Wakes; That Night and A Bigamist's Daughter. She has also been nominated for two Pulitzers and a second National Book Award.

“Alice McDermott is a genius of quiet observation…One of our finest novelists at work today, (she) is the master of a domain that in the hands of most writers would be limiting…Child of My Heart extends her artistic triumphs, and we should rejoice,” wrote David Ebershoff in the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

The Oswego Alumni Association will sponsor a reading and a booksigning by McDermott on May 10 in Washington, D.C., at an alumni reception hosted by Hal Morse ’61.

— Emily King ’05