McDermott is rightly celebrated for her granular, nuanced portraits of mid-20th-century life, with a particular focus on Irish Americans. Her fans may be startled, then, to find themselves plunged into 1963 Saigon at the start of her enveloping new novel, Absolution, whose lofty title belies its sensory, gritty humanity ... Leaves the reader in its provocative shadow.
Crystalline, searching ... McDermott spins gold from sensuous details ... She probes the intricacies of parenting, its tender pleasures and primal instincts ... Beautifully conceived and executed.
It's futile to predict where a great writer's boundless imagination will take us and, as Absolution affirms, McDermott is a great writer ... Deft ... What draws out McDermott's most incisive, compassionate writing is the expat world of 'the wives' ... McDermott possesses the rare ability to evoke and enter bygone worlds...without condescending to them.
