Anne Enright

I relished this book. In one way, it's a story in two halves - the earlier lives of four siblings and their mother: and then later, when this dispersed family returns for a family Christmas.

I loved the different voices in which this story is told. In part one, each chapter could stand as a self-contained novella. And each of the five characters is revealed not in a simple narrative, but through vignettes in which they may not even stand centre stage - the story of Dan is a particular triumph.

I loved the change of pace too. Those 'novellas' were rich explorations of five very different lives . But in the second part, the chapters become briefer, fractured, as the drama of unfolding events gathers pace.

We're left with a portrait of a disfunctional family unwittingly revealed with great clarity by the characters themselves.… (mais)

I must admit there was something about this book that propelled me to complete it. Perhaps that something was Nell's restlessness and her search for romantic love and her grandfather, Phil, she only knows by his poetry.
The story is told from the perspectives of Nell and her mother, Carmel. Little by little Phil is revealed to reader and also to Nell.
We discover The Wren, The Wren was a poem penned by her deceased grandfather for her mother when she was just a child. We discover her grandfather believed in fairies and loved the Irish landscape. We discover another side to Phil, he deserted his first wife when she lost a breast to cancer and simultaneously his two young daughters then marries again.
I suppose this novel explores the means to which these women reconcile to the fact that Phil although a lover of nature and birds and fairies could also be a cold hearted sob.… (mais)

A thinly plotted , non-linear story. I do enjoy character driven novels, but these characters were not well realized, nor interesting, nor sympathetic. I did not find much to like about this book, and I was glad to finish the last page.

The story is narrated by Nell, a young woman, and her mother, Carmel , and briefly by Phil McDaragh, Carmel's now dead father, who was a somewhat famous poet in Ireland. A quote from Nell regarding her grandfather Phil , p.241 " My grandfather loved my grandmother so much you could not be in the same room with them, as they flamed in the presence of others"... " they both knew it could not last". This quote is taken from a poet named Harvey in a letter of condolence following Phil's death. This is a kind of love I don't understand. A love that flames, yet must die. I guess this explains why Phil was a philanderer and left his wife Terry while she was suffering with breast cancer.

When the novel opens, Nell is in an abusive relationship with a man named Felim. Felim likes to flip through images of porn while he has sex with Nell, and he snaps pictures with his phone of Nell having sex with him , and uploads this to the net. Nell thinks of this relationship, p129, " I was just a throwaway thing, not just for him, but for the people that paid me" etc. She wonders if she had a proper job, a proper place to live , would she have a proper relationship? But I ask myself , why are you in this relationship.

Nell's mother Carmel, wanted a child, but not a husband or any sort of long term relationship as a result of her father leaving her mother. There is some poetry peppered throughout the book, which I was unable to appreciate. I know for many this is a great read, but not for me.

2.5 stars.… (mais)