THE YOUNG MCDERMOTT

A continuation of Our Own Kind (1946) this follows young Willie's further career in Providence. Again it is his family and friends who make up the background -- his mother, Nell, in whose shadow her sister Nora lived, and to whose firm mom-ism her sons capitulated, -- and the constantly shifting relationships among them. Through such a friendship, Willie gets a job on the Herald and begins to live his own life, encountering a riff raff of people in the underworld of liquor and sex, landing himself in more trouble, but with the luck of the Irish, finding his way out. An extensive cast of characters and character-forming incidents, underscore this companion panel of Irish Catholics and extend the intimate knowledge of a community begun in the first novel. It has the same warmth, the same feeling for the high-pitched Irish emotionalism, the same understanding humor and is a worthwhile sequel to the previous book.