Alice McDermott has developed a reputation as the premier chronicler of the ordinary lives of Irish Catholic New Yorkers in the twentieth century. Though reluctant to be categorized as either an Irish American writer or a Catholic writer, McDermott explained in a 2002 interview with Teresa K. Weaver that she writes about what she knows: "In fiction you have to be fairly specific," she points out, "And I know how Irish-Americans in the New York area talk, what kind of couches they buy, and what kind of plastic slipcovers they put on the couches. . . . But you know, I'm more interested in what's going on in their heads than what's going on their couches. I don't want to be a social scientist." She adds, "The spirituality that is tied to Catholicism is much more important to me." McDermott probes this spirituality in each of her thoughtful and compelling novels. Sometimes...