The Gathering by Anne Enright
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Book Reviews of The Gathering
Book Review: Insights into Women, Family and Memory
Summary: 5 Stars
There have any number of books about dysfunctional Irish and irish American families (some maudlin, some very good). There are a few things that set this one apart in my mind.
First, as a man reading this novel, I think I gained some new insights into the way women think (although it is not clear how any of these insights will necessarily help any man).
Second, the importance of the role of birth order and family dynamics is striking - particularly to those who are part of or are familiar with jumbo size families. How is Veronica's role different than her sisters'? How lost is Veronica in the middle of this super-sized clan?
Third, the role of memory in our lives is an important part of this novel. Enright explores the questions (without attempting to resolve the unresolvable) of how precise are our memories? which of them are real? what part do memories real or created have in directing our present selves? Is memory fate? In my view, these issues are brillantly set out in "The Gathering".
In this particular aspect, Enright's novel reminds me of both Banville's "The Sea" (another Booker award winner) and McEwan's "Atonement" - two other books I strongly recommend.
Kudos to Anne Enright on her well deserved Booker prize.
Thomas J. Rice
Book Review: POETIC IMAGES FROM DISTURBING CHILDHOOD
Summary: 5 Stars
In THE GATHERING Anne Enright has created characters that are 3-dimensional studies in the literary tradition, with haunting and disturbing family dynamics.. The book contains beautiful imagery as it explores the passions and histories of Veronica and her family. Two of my favorites:
"There was something about the smell of us growing up that drove (our parents) completely insane." and "The ground is boiling with corpses, the ground is knit out of their tangled bones.")
I give this book five stars because the author deals with the meaty issues of the inner self... was able to get the inside information.
We can fail to digest the full implication of what child abuse contributes to the adult behavior... but who could grasp that fully? Dr. Thomas Moore does as he exploes the history of an abused girl through her carer as a prostitute to become a friend of Hillary Clinton, in his new book, [[AISN: 0978602404 HILLARY]]... a rare and gifted literary effort which reveals much of the conflict and resolution possible. Try [[AISN: 0978602420 UPLAND ROAD]] for further reading regarding the nature of the denied issue of today.
Book Review: Raw but riveting...
Summary: 5 Stars
This story gives the reader an up close and personal view of one woman's grieving process. It is raw, because grief is raw. The story is disjointed and at times erratic, because grief can be disjointed and erratic. I think this book is brilliant. The author takes you through the hurricane of grieving, takes a few momnets of respite in the eye, and then catapults the reader back into the storm. The author makes it very clear at the end that the reader has been given nothing more than the narrator's grief. If at times it is jolting to accept the rawness of the descriptions or reconcile the narrator's hostile take on the world, it is because the reader is not experienceing the narrator's entire life expereice, only the grief. To be able to spotlight this emotion, so often trivialized or alternatively aggrandized, Enright gets it just right. Like I said, brilliant.Book Review: Hauntingly behind closed doors
Summary: 5 Stars
Anne Enright has created characters that resonate long after the book has been closed. Since I had the privilege of reading it in one sitting on a cross-country flight, I was able to absorb the beauty of its images, the 3-dimensional character studies, the haunting and enraging family dynamics without interruption, totally immersed in the passions and histories of Veronica and her family. This book is written in a meaty, organic style, rare to find (e.g., "There was something about the smell of us growing up that drove (our parents) completely insane." and "The ground is boiling with corpses, the ground is knit out of their tangled bones.")
The plot should not be revealed in a review but allowed to unfold in the reader's imagination. It is a complete, masterful work.
Book Review: A Booker well deserved
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a Booker prize well deserved... I had heard the book was bleak, and didn't know what to expect, but it is so well written, the introspection so well-handled and real, that despite the sadness and rawness of much of it, the utter humanity of the narrator and her world came across as very believable, even uplifting. If other readers have not been sensitive to this, it is their loss. The shifting pages of time, memory, dream, imagination are what our own lives are like. Not a conventional story, but a very true one, poetically told.