Charming Billy

My book club read Charming Billy by Alice McDermott this month.  As I indicated a few days ago, the author does some really good writing.  But the whole was less impressive than the parts.  Some paragraphs were outstanding but sometimes I wondered where this story was going.  Some characters were developed a little bit, enough to get me interested, and then we never heard of them again.  You'd think that Billy would be a main character because the book was named after him but he turned out to be a minor player.  Dennis, Billy's cousin and good friend, was the main character.  And Dennis did Billy a very big disservice when he lied to Billy about the love of his life.  Dennis meant to be kind to his cousin but all their lives may have turned out differently if Dennis had done Billy the honor in having enough faith in him to handle the truth.  One of the members in our group was sure that the book was named after the old song, "Oh where have you been?  Billy Boy? Billy Boy?  Where have you been Charming Billy?"  I don't really understand the connection between the song and the plot of the book but maybe I'm missing something.  Overall the book was equally liked and disliked by the members in our group.  The story takes place at Billy's funeral where his friends and family sit back and reminisce about his life, his work, his first love, his marriage, his alcoholism, and his death.