SOURCE: "Adolescent Angst," in Ms., Vol. XV, No. 11, May, 1987, pp. 17-18, 20.

Brown is an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. In the excerpt below, she admires the tight construction of That Night as well as McDermott's poignant insistence on the inevitability of loss.

An Excerpt from That Night

That night, as soon as I'd managed to break out of my mother's grip, I left our porch and went into the street. All the children were doing it, not even running but almost staggering, somewhat reluctantly, in our fathers' wakes, going only as far as what seemed to be the prescribed borders of the fight: about six feet or so from the cars and her lawn, which left us scattered across both sidewalks on either side and down the middle of the street. When the first police car approached, we merely turned our heads, stricken, I suppose, with...