Benediction at the Savoia

O'Hagan's debut novel offers a suffocating view of life in an Irish Catholic neighborhood in 1963 Queens, New York City--where pictures of President Kennedy hang in the heavily patroned bars and young women aspire to emulate the First Lady. Weeks overdue with her third child, 32-year-old Delia Delaney recalls her God-fearing childhood in a dysfunctional family and the events leading up to her current predicament. Since her wedding a marriage at age 19, Delia's life has strongly mirrored her mother's: days spent caring for her daughters, furiously cleaning her apartment and praying for her alcoholic husband. Delia believes this latest pregnancy has the power to change things. But when the baby is stillborn, the accompanying grief and depression throw Delia into a tailspin that only a miracle could set right. The so-called benediction of the title takes place in an Italian restaurant, and is the first step of Delia's recovery. Despite the promising circumstances O'Hagan sets up, the plodding narrative never achieves momentum. For nearly the entire book Delia fails to muster enough passion to reject the life she has chosen and as derscribed, they seem like one and the same choice embrace a new start. Delia's overwhelming presence gives the potentially quirky cast of supporting characters little room to develop. The hard-drinking, abusive men and repressed women remain stereotypical and two-dimensional. Although this is an ambitious novel with an interesting setting and premise, O'Hagan's efforts fall flat. Delia's redemption comes too late. (June)