ABSOLUTION, by Alice McDermottAlice 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. McDermott’s contextual leap is not as great as it might seem. A bossy insider and mother of three, Charlene masterminds a “cabal” of charitable military-industrial wives bent on helping poor and ailing Vietnamese. Their work consists of channeling black-market profits into buying trinkets and candy to distribute to hospitalized children (some of whom may be recovering from war wounds) and their impoverished families.

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Persons: Alice McDermott Alice McDermott, ” Patricia Kelly, Peter, Billy Lynch, “ Charming Billy ”, Marie, Peter Kelly’s, Kennedy, Ngo Dinh Diem, ” Graham Greene’s, McDermott, ”, Patricia, Charlene, Charlene masterminds Organizations: Americans, Catholic, Central Intelligence Agency, “ Catholic Intelligence Agency, WASP Locations: Saigon, American, McDermott’s, “, Vietnam, South Vietnam