Prompt #3: Charming Billy

Prompt: One of an author’s goals at the beginning of a novel is to fully engage her reader. Select a passage from the first half of “Charming Billy” that you found particularly interesting and explain how you think it contributes to engaging the reader in the novel.

            After a loved one passes away, relatives and friends search amidst the grief, looking for memories to hold on to. When Billy in the novel Charming Billy, by Alice McDermott, passes away, the attendees of his funeral grasp at the few things that leave a positive memory of Billy, before his alcohol addiction consumed him. Billy was always writing letters, his friends recall, sending quick notes scratched on scraps of paper. At the funeral reception, Bridie, one of Billy’s friends, passes around a letter from Billy, written on an airline napkin. The vignette of the family sharing the letter works to engage the audience and to convince them to like Billy, whom they barely know. The narrator says:

The napkin was circulated, held as delicately as a fledgling, some even reaching into a purse or breast pocket for reading glasses so as not to miss a word. All the way up the table to Maeve, who read it with a smile and a nod, and all the way back down again. Bridie took it back and read it once more before placing it into its envelope and back into a side, zippered compartment of her Sunday pocketbook.

Other letters from Billy were being mentioned: a note scribbled on a Playbill page, on a business card. The long missives he’d sent home during the war, whole lines blacked out by the censors but the homesickness coming through. He was so homesick. The postcards from the Irish trip, the placemats and napkins from various Long Island restaurants and diners, that summer he and Dennis were out there, fixing up Mr. Holtzman’s little house. You remember Mr. Holtzman. Dennis’s mother’s second husband. The shoe-store man.” (McDermott 6)

This passage draws readers in by juxtaposing the idea of someone who died from an alcohol addiction with the image of a charismatic and romantic well-loved man. The development of this complicated character, along with the conversational syntax of the passage works to make the reader feel emotionally connected to Billy.

            The way Billy is indirectly characterized in this account makes the reader sympathize with Billy and his struggle with alcohol. Instead of revealing more about Billy’s disease, the author’s description creates a romantic image. The reader does not connect the action of letter-writing with an alcoholic, but rather a popular, loving man. Also, the places Billy has been are revealed: airports, plays, restaurants, and various travel destinations. These places intrigue the reader with the image of a worldly, educated man, not a drunk. Furthermore, the way the other characters react to Billy’s letters makes the reader like Billy. The characters have saved the notes for years, indicating that Billy was a special person. When they read the letter, they linger on the words, though it is only a short note. They pull out eyeglasses, as if not to miss any detail. The way the author indirectly characterizes Billy as a kind of man that readers identify with works to immediately engage the reader.

            The author also appeals to pathos, or emotion, to engage the reader. The reader feels sentimental while reading the passage, reminiscing about Billy along with his friends and relatives. The book was published in 1998, when people were transitioning from mailing handwritten letters to sending emails and making phone calls. Letter-writing seems old-fashioned to the reader, making the idea resonate with them more. Also, the emotion described in Billy’s war letters connects with the reader. The way Billy was able to communicate his homesickness despite censorship makes the emotional connection more genuine. The audience identifies with this feeling of being separated from a loved one, whether it is from war, or just living far away. By displaying Billy as a sentimental, passionate man, the author strengthens the contrast between the alcoholic Billy and the emotional, letter-writing Billy. The depth created by this juxtaposition further intrigues the audience, indirectly lending insight to the story.

            The author’s use of figurative language also furthers the goal of engaging the readers, making them feel fondly towards Billy. A simile is created as Billy’s friends and family hold his note “as delicately as a fledgling.” A fledgling, or a little bird, is essentially harmless and vulnerable. Maybe this simile is an intentional symbol for Billy; he was viewed as a disturbed alcoholic, but he was truly a fragile, emotional man who needed more protection than he received. The letter is also symbolic of his friends and family refusing to let go of the Billy they loved, before his alcohol addiction. The note is almost a piece of the old Billy, explaining why Bridie has kept it for all of these years. The deeper connection between the letter and the characters’ perception of Billy engages the reader in not only a literal, but figurative way.

            One of the author’s most engaging decisions is the intentional use of conversational syntax. Many of the sentences are long, periodic sentences, separated into multiple clauses by commas. This makes it seem as if the narrator is actively thinking or telling the story to the reader, elaborating on each detail. Amongst these descriptive sentences are shorter sentences, like “He was so homesick,” and “You remember Mr. Holtzman.” These short, explanatory phrases draw the audience in, making them feel as if they are being spoken to by someone at the table. The combination of these longer and shorter sentences makes the reader feel as if he is part of the intimate conversation, reinforcing a tangible connection to Billy, the others at the table, and the novel.

            With the combination of these elements, this scene from the funeral reception becomes especially effective in interesting and engaging the reader. The reader becomes more loyal to and familiar with Billy as his story unfolds, through a combination of emotional, indirect characterization, figurative language, and conversational syntax. Billy is almost recreated by the author as a good man who lived a beautiful life, not the alcoholic he truly became. This passage successfully attracts the reader, committing him to Billy and the rest of the story.