That Night

by Alice McDermott

On a warm suburban night, the sound of lawn sprinklers is drowned out by the rumble of hot rods. Suddenly a car careens onto a family’s neat front yard, teenage boys spill out brandishing chains and leather, and a young man cries out for the girl he loves. Tonight fathers will pick up snow shovels and rakes to defend their turf, and children will witness a battle fueled by fierce, true love. This is the night they will talk about and remember as the moment everything changed forever.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Literary Fiction, Coming Of Age, Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Alice McDermott (born June 27, 1953) is Johns Hopkins University's Writer-in-Residence. Born in Brooklyn, New York, McDermott attended St. Boniface School in Elmont, Long Island, NY [1967], Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead NY [1971], the State University of New York at Oswego, receiving her BA in 1975, and later received her MA from the University of New Hampshire in 1978.

She has taught at the UCSD and American University, has been a writer-in-residence at Lynchburg and Hollins Colleges in Virginia, and was lecturer in English at the University of New Hampshire. Her short stories have appeared in Ms., Redbook, Mademoiselle, and Seventeen.

The 1987 recipient of a Whiting Writers Award, and three-time Pulitzer Prize for Fiction nominee, lives outside Washington, with her husband, a neuroscientist, and three children.

Reviews

[Delfi]

Me encantó este relato de un recuerdo. Lo recomiendo especialmente para aquellos que busquen leer sobre duelo y coming of age.

[Andrea Milano]

Todo empieza una noche en la que un muchacho, desesperado porque no sabe nada de su novia, irrumpe en su casa. Un barrio bucólico de Estados Unidos, los años 60, las prohibiciones de la época, un grupo de vecinos curiosos, la violencia, el temor al qué dirán, el punto de vista de una niña que empieza a vivir y es testigo de lo que sucede a su alrededor. Lectura agradable, aunque no lo que esperaba.

[Angeles]

Me gusta como de un suceso simple (un chico, Rick, que va a buscar a su novia, Sheryl, una adolescente cuya madre la obligó días antes a que șe fuera con su familia en Ohio, tras enterarse de que estaba embarazada) arma una novela en la que todas las piezas encajan perfectamente.

[Cristina]

Entretenido pero prescindible. Sin más.