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Loading... The Gathering (original 2007; edition 2007)by Anne Enright
Work detailsThe Gathering by Anne Enright (2007)
 LDVoorberg | Apr 7, 2013 |  More a 3.5 than a 3. Beautiful, complicated. I have realized that in general I like books where you know what happens, though I wouldn't say there are loose ends here, necessarily. Most Booker prize winners aren't straightforward, after all. (  ) JennyArch | Apr 3, 2013 | Beautifully crafted prose. I feel as if perhaps I didn't do the book justice, by not paying close enough attention to the level of detail and the striking word choices Enright was able to weave into each paragraph. This one might have to go into the re-read pile, but the first read was satisfying. (  ) cat-ballou | Apr 2, 2013 | Hard to quantify in stars. Totally breath-taking prose. Fascinating first chapter, and then all backwards in time from there. Basically this book has zero momentum -- worse, negative momentum. But the prose blew my mind. ( ) marsJ | Mar 31, 2013 | Hard to quantify in stars. Totally breath-taking prose. Fascinating first chapter, and then all backwards in time from there. Basically this book has zero momentum -- worse, negative momentum. But the prose blew my mind. ( ) marsJ | Mar 31, 2013 |
 At its best Enright's prose style is excitingly original, a blend of defensive social satire with extreme precision in evoking sounds, smells, and atmosphere and a great ability to make rapid and telling transitions from past to present, concrete to abstract, narrative to reflection. However, these qualities emerge for the most part in sections peripheral to the main story.... When, on the other hand, she slides into melodrama and literary formula, The Gathering does indeed sound like at least nine other writers and by no means the best.  Her prose often ravishes and sometimes repels: reading her can be like staring into the lustrous surface of a lake, trying to discern the dangers lurking beneath. . . Bringing together the skills she has honed along the way, Enright carries off her illusions without props or dei ex machina, bravely engaging with the carnival horrors of everyday life.
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0802170390, Paperback)Amazon Significant Seven, November 2007: Pretty early on in The Gathering you realize that in her lingering portrait of the Hegarty clan (and this isn't hyperbole--they are a family of 12), Irish novelist Anne Enright will wrestle with all the giant literary tropes that have come before her. Family, of course, is the big one, but with equal intensity she explores death and dying, the sea and its siren song, sex, shame, secrecy, unreliable memories, madness, "the drink," and--always in the shadows--England. That said, it's not like any other novel about the Irish that I've read. The story of the Hegartys is indeed bleak, and hard, but it surges with tenderness and eloquent thought which, in the end, are the very things that help this family (or at least her narrator Veronica) survive. Through her eyes, and in Enright's skillful imagination, those small turning-point moments of life that we all know in some form or another--a petty fight, a careless word, an event witnessed--come together in an unshakeable vision of how you become the person you are. --Anne Bartholomew(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:45:19 -0500) As nine members of the Hegarty clan gather for the wake of their drowned brother Liam, his sister Veronica remembers the secret he shared with her about what happened in their grandmother's house thirty years ago, a betrayal that spans three generations. "The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan are gathering in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother, Liam, drowned in the sea. His sister, Veronica, collects the body and keeps the dead man company, guarding the secret she shares with him - something that happened in their grandmother's house in the winter of 1968. As Enright traces the line of betrayal and redemption through three generations, she shows how memories warp and secrets fester."--BOOK JACKET.… (more) (summary from another edition) |
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It's not so much a family gathering as a gathering of the narrator's memories about her dead brother and a gathering of her grandmother's life. I usually like the eccentricity of Man Booker Prize winners, but this one did nothing for me. I liked none of the characters -- I didn't even dislike them strongly enough. There's some minor entertainment in contemplating a family as large as their's, but that's about it.
Take a pass on this. (