“It’s not an as-it-happens narration. So I suppose what I’m hoping is that there’s at least a sheen of not just nostalgia but manipulation. Memory is not pure. Memories told are not pure memories; memories told are stories. The storyteller will change them. I’ve always been interested in that. Even if the storyteller seems to be more up-front, telling the story all in one breath — ‘this is what happened’ — it seems to me that the distance, the fact that the narrator is looking back over time, changes how the story should be perceived.”

McDermott’s own characterization of her narrator, 15-year-old Theresa, perhaps best explains the conflict this coming-of-age novel inspires in readers.

The Monday Book Club’s September selection takes place over the course of a Hamptons summer, where teenage Theresa takes care of her cousin Daisy; Flora, the toddler daughter of a local womanizing artist in his 70s; and various other neighborhood children and pets. Theresa’s parents are largely absent. Having moved to the area and encouraged their daughter to mingle with the wealthy summer residents by sitting for their children, their pets and their homes, they now mostly leave her to her own devices.

McDermott

Theresa’s family situation is part of a darker undercurrent that runs through the novel and is the source of conflict for readers. On the one hand, Theresa seems too good to be true: She’s beautiful, smart, ambitious, caring, responsible, etc. On the other, she is a young girl with no guidance, other than her parents’ wish that she marry into a wealthy family she has met through her summer jobs. Similarly, the other children in the novel seem to be largely abandoned by their parents also. Deeper family tragedies are often hinted at, and the reader is left to guess the extent of their influence.

McDermott’s interviewer on Powells.com astutely pointed out that McDermott “does more with less. It’s often what isn’t on the page that tells you what you need to know about the characters and their stories.”

On the plus side, McDermott’s prose is spare and lyrical, but not sickly sweet. It’s sad and wistful and warm all at the same time, and points to her admitted focus on the power of language itself.

McDermott’s six novels have all been well received by critics. She won the prestigious National Book Award in 1998 for her fourth novel, “Charming Billy,” and was nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes and another National Book Award. She is a native of Brooklyn and a writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

For the Monday Book Talk discussion of McDermott’s novel at Taylor Books on Sept. 26, discussion leader Carol Campbell is interested in hearing readers’ thoughts on whether Theresa is a believable character and the idea that she is “better equipped” to deal with others.

Campbell also plans to discuss what she terms as “something darker lurking behind that breezy façade of Theresa’s life” and the cracks in her perfection. Another likely discussion theme is a comparison of Theresa to the narrator of the Book Club’s August coming-of-age novel, Holden Caulfield.

To contact Regina C. Davis, use e-mail or call 348-7936.