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Book Summary and Reviews of Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris

Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris

Songs in Ordinary Time

by Mary McGarry Morris

  • Readers' Rating (2):
  • Published:
  • Aug 1996, 752 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A novel set in a small town in Vermont in 1960 offers the story of Marie Fermoyle, a lonely and vulnerable divorceee, her three children, and dangerous con-man Omar Duvall.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A grand sweep of a novel: Morris, like a contemporary Dickens, creates a world teeming with incident and characters often foolish, even nasty, but always alive and in your face." - Kirkus Reviews.

"From this center that doesn't quite hold, Morris spins countless side plots involving illicit affairs, family scandals, and unrequited love. This is perfect for readers who like big, busy novels." - Booklist.

"This novel becomes more powerful as one reads, building to a heartstopping denouement, yet remaining strictly observant of the minutiae of daily life that give the book its honesty and pathos." - Publishers Weekly.

This information about Songs in Ordinary Time was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Mary McGarry Morris Author Biography

Photo: Author website

Mary McGarry Morris was born in Meriden, Connecticut in 1943 and raised in Rutland, Vermont with three younger brothers. She was educated at Mount Saint Joseph Academy in Rutland, the University of Vermont, and the University of Massachusetts.

Her first novel Vanished was published in 1988. It was nominated for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. A Dangerous Woman was published in 1991 and was chosen by Time magazine as one of the "Five Best Novels of the Year." It was made into a motion picture starring Debra Winger, Barbara Hershey, and Gabriel Byrne. Songs In Ordinary Time was published in 1995. Two years later, it was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection, which propelled it to the top of the New York Times bestsellers list for many weeks, as well as making ...

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