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The Gathering

The Gathering

by Anne Enright

In the taut latest from Enright (What Are You Like?), middle-aged Veronica Hegarty, the middle child in an Irish-Catholic family of nine, traces the aftermath of a tragedy that has claimed the life of rebellious elder brother Liam. As Veronica travels to London to bring Liam's body back to Dublin, her deep-seated resentment toward her overly passive mother and her dissatisfaction with her... (more)

Top tags: fiction,  ireland,  booker prize,  contemporary fiction,  family (all tags)

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Most Helpful Reviews

Liked It

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Mia C
  • Rated 4 stars

“I think that this novel has been horribly mis-read by many readers; some of the reviews I have seen are outright hostile. The novel is, in a particular Irish tradition, filled with black humor (kind of in the vein of Flann O' Brien's The Poor Mouth, or Patrick McCabe's The Butcher Boy)--it often funny and it hurts at the same time). The Gathering is a very deeply moving and caustically-loving and frank look at family life, loss, disappointment, and survival. I love the narrator Veronica's...”

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Didn’t Like It

7 of 8 members found this review helpful.
Lord Manleigh
  • Rated 2 stars

“Yes, I know it won the most prestigious literary award in Britain, but I found it a disappointment. Enright is obviously a very good prose stylist who can summon up beautiful, even startling imagery and insights, and the book is laced with them. But I feel she would have created a much more powerful work had she shaped The Gathering as a long short story or a novella. What starts out with great promise deteriorates after four chapters into the sort of abject tedium one imagines a...”

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Community:
  • Rated 3.053488 stars
Amazon:
  • Rated 3 stars
  

Newest Comments

  • maria g

    maria g said:

    “I saw this book as both very Irish and truly unique. It explores themes that are familiar to anyone interested in Irish literature: family, alcoholism, the connection to the landscape and the burden of religion. But it does so in a very carefully balanced fashion, the writing blending heart-breaking intimacy with the cool academic observations of a Hegarty outsider. Very depressing at times, especially the lingering suggestion that the abuse is not an one-off, but rather symptomatic of that place at that time. It exposes a kind of social pathology the aftermath of which is still widely felt in the country. Despite everything, a joy to read.”

    posted Wednesday, June 4 2008 ( | view 1 reply )
  • agnes01

    agnes01 said:

    “I did not enjoy this book at all. Why did it win the booker? Maybe I am missing something. It bothered me we as the reader basically could not trust Veronica's memory (because she herself did not). Who knew what to believe? So why bother spending the time when half of it is not true? The style just did not work for me.”

    posted Thursday, May 15 2008 ( | view 1 reply )
  • agnes01

    agnes01 said:

    “I did not enjoy this book at all. Why did it win the booker? Maybe I am missing something. It bothered me we as the reader basically could not trust Veronica's memory (because she herself did not). Who knew what to believe? So why bother spending the time when half of it is not true? The style just did not work for me.”

    posted Thursday, May 15 2008
  • Katherine T

    katherine t said:

    “This novel is a slow read and requires the reader to just stick with it. The story revolves around a brother's funeral and is told from the point of view of the sister, Veronica. The stream-of-consciousness style makes the text difficult to follow while at the same time gives the novel an air of autheticity - the reader follows the inner thoughts (and familial discussions) of a sister struggling with the death of a once favorite brother and all the disjointed memories that are a part of their history. It is at times challenging to keep up with the book while at other times it is voyeuristic.”

    posted Monday, May 5 2008 ( | view 2 replies )
  • Dana

    dana said:

    “If you'd like to get into the mind of a grieving Irish woman....enjoy. Otherwise, move on to something else. Ironically, the narrator is Veronica which is the title of another book that I found equally puzzling.”

    posted Sunday, April 20 2008

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