The Homer of Sorrows: McDermott

Book group tonight takes up The Other Alice (McDermott) and her latest novel, Someone, so to get in the mood I'll catalog of the catastrophes and sorrows the narrator experiences in this short novel: as 7-year-old child has very bad vision, parents clearly favor brilliant older brother (Gabe) and she's made to listen to his endless recitations of poetry from memory, woman in neighborhood marries and it lasts only a day because it's rumored groom turned out to be another woman (nasty trick), boys in neighborhood tease relentlessly, particularly cruel to a blind man telling him his mother died, father dies young after presumably bout with alcoholism, mother very strict no sign of loving or care, neighborhood guy with leg deformity comes on to her (she's late teens now) and basically attacks her on first date, leads her on to believe they will marry (she has almost no opinion on this point) and then with utmost cruelty dumps her for another woman, leading to years of self-doubt about her attractiveness and worthiness, narrator (Marie) does get a job she likes that builds her self-esteem, but it's in a funeral parlor so she is still surrounded by sorrow and loss, brother Gabe leaves the seminary abruptly without clear explanation, after Marie marries, Gabe has nervous breakdown, is hospitalized, comes to live with Marie and Tom, putting family on edge and dying young (though McDermott never explains or explores this), Marie's vision deteriorates has eye surgery but doctor operates on wrong eye, husband Tom dies, also young, also unexamined or explained, in old age, the time of the narration, Marie goes completely blind. Did I leave anything out? McDremott is the Homer of sadness, but the novel could be more effective if it were focused on an event, a relationship, or a single period of time.