The Gathering (Paperback) by Anne Enright - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

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Jason rated it:

(review of isbn 0224078739)

04/29/08

Read in April, 2008

(My full review of this book is larger than Goodreads' word-count limit. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

As a book critic, I of course try to steer clear of any information I can about a book I'm about to review, until I'm done with the book myself and have already made up my mind about what I thought; so imagine my su...more

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Trevor rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

10/29/07

Read in October, 2007

This was the only book on the Booker short list that I did not want to read. When it won, I was disappointed because I thought it looked too much like Banville's The Sea, and I did not enjoy my time with that book. However, I thought I needed to give The Gathering a shot. No, I was not pleasantly surprised.
Enright's The Gathering may have a some inciteful, well written sentences, and it may be well structured both in sequence and theme, but for what purpose? I did no...more This was the only book on the Booker short list that I did not want to read. When it won, I was disappointed because I thought it looked too much like Banville's The Sea, and I did not enjoy my time with that book. However, I thought I needed to give The Gathering a shot. No, I was not pleasantly surprised.
Enright's The Gathering may have a some inciteful, well written sentences, and it may be well structured both in sequence and theme, but for what purpose? I did not feel that the structure was unique and, frankly, I'm getting tired of all of these books that are praised because of how many different ways the author can write a depressing sentence (Enright usually generates hers by showing the human being and its body at its basest). Those poetic depictions lose their impact (and really make me question the skill of the author--does she not know how to write another type of sentence?) when they are repeated line after line, page after page. There was no balance.
I know that Enright was not attempting to balance this book. She admits that anyone not wanting to feel depressed should not read it. But just because she executed her intent does not make me appreciate it. I don't shy away from depressing novels, but I at least hope feel somewhat what the narrator is feeling--but in this case I did not care at all about the narrator. Her depression did not affect me, at least, not frequently enough.
Though they are similar as both deal with present grief and a tragic past, this Booker is worse that Banville's The Sea. At least The Sea was written in beautiful prose. It flowed smoothly. Enright's is downright base and choppy. The only poetry is in how basely she describes sex and death with her disconnected, stiff prose. And even that runs dry after a few chapters.
The Booker judges say that they did not think this book would win when they first read it but that it is better with subsequent reads. Well, they had to read it more than once. I'm not willing to give it another try, and I would advise others to forgo it altogether....less

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Philip rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

09/19/08

Anne Enright’s The Gathering deserves every ounce of praise it has received, and perhaps a bit more. It’s a family history of the Hegartys, told by Veronica after the death of her brother, Liam. So, and therefore, it is a wake, a stream of consciousness response to bereavement. There are more than shades of Molly Bloom here, as Veronica recounts intimate details of her own and her relatives’ ultimately inconsequential lives. And despite its obvious – and necessary – preoccupation with ...more Anne Enright’s The Gathering deserves every ounce of praise it has received, and perhaps a bit more. It’s a family history of the Hegartys, told by Veronica after the death of her brother, Liam. So, and therefore, it is a wake, a stream of consciousness response to bereavement. There are more than shades of Molly Bloom here, as Veronica recounts intimate details of her own and her relatives’ ultimately inconsequential lives. And despite its obvious – and necessary – preoccupation with death and mourning, it is eventually an optimistic work, as optimistic as it can be when we are all revealed as rather inconsequential, temporal additions to the grand scheme of things, a grand scheme which, itself, is neither grand nor, indeed, a scheme. In such a void, we need blame to compensate grief. And after that is duly apportioned, at least we can just get on with it.

What The gathering is not, by the way, is the kind of book that would appeal to anyone wanting instant gratification, a murder on every page, celebrity, wealth, empty melodrama, character that can be worn, or even axe-grinding. It is not snobbish to say that The Gathering runs kilometres above such pulp. That it deals with the lives of ordinary people in a less than successful family is stated at the outset by the author. Of the Hegarty family experience, Veronica writes, “the great thing about being dragged up is that there is no-one to blame. We are entirely free range. We are human beings in the raw. Some survive it better than others, that’s all.” Now this is fascinating, because a little later she asserts that when individual Hegartys feel aggrieved with their lot, there is always someone to blame, “because with the Hegartys a declaration of unhappiness is always a declaration of blame.” So within the family, blame is impossible to apportion, but always applied. Given my own assertion that we often need blame to compensate grief, this leads us to an understanding of Veronica’s diatribe, her frustration at being unable to find someone to blame, but needing to do so in order to cope with the loss. The book, then, is her personal catharsis.

The beauty of The Gathering is its ability to remind us, fairly constantly, of the dysfunctional nature of the Hegarty family, whilst at the same time recording that most of those involved, in one way or other, find some kind of fulfilment in their lives. Liam, the brother who committed suicide by jumping off Brighton pier, was undoubtedly one of the casualties. And eventually the whole family shares his tragedy and, at the very end, ride through and past it.

One aspect of the Hegartys is particularly enigmatic, however, and that is their relation to religion. There’s a priest, now an ex-priest, if that is possible, in the family and, at least nominally, they are Catholics. But the religiosity in Veronica’s narrative is less than convincing and hints at the grudging, though perhaps she cannot admit this, even to herself. If she were still practising, she would be more deferential. If she had rejected her faith, she would be more cynical. And if she were a sceptic, her attacks would be more vehement. The next time I read The Gathering, I will be careful to note references to religion, since it remains an enigmatic aspect of Veronica’s character.

As Veronica’s narration progresses, it feels like she is getting things off her chest, a prosaic enough reaction to bereavement. By the end, we are confident that she has achieved her goal and that she will approach at least the next few days of her life with renewed vigour. Until, perhaps, she is plunged again into the miry uniqueness of who she is, its unacceptability, and its inevitability. For that is who we are. Choice is not ours. ...less

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Brian rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

06/24/08

This book actually angered me, and I think this paragraph sums up why:

"I know, as I write these... that they require me to deal in facts. It is time to call an end to romance and just say what happened in Ada's house, the year that I was eight and Liam was barely nine."

That passage occurs about halfway through the book. The preceding pages are an endless series of shapeless ponderings on what may or may not have happened. The narrator leaps from one era to the next, with the...more

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Sammy rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

04/20/08

bookshelves: the-bad

Read in February, 2008

Please excuse me as I make a noise of annoyance, disgust, boredom and all around dissatisfaction... UGHARGHHHHUHHH. Don't even know how to spell that or if it makes any sense. Hey, that makes a nice segue into my review.

Let me start with the one perk I can honestly give this book. Anne Enright has a beautiful grasp of words but she doesn't know how to use them. She also had a wonderful gem of an idea for a story, but she didn't know how to develop it. Combine those two together you get ...more Please excuse me as I make a noise of annoyance, disgust, boredom and all around dissatisfaction... UGHARGHHHHUHHH. Don't even know how to spell that or if it makes any sense. Hey, that makes a nice segue into my review.

Let me start with the one perk I can honestly give this book. Anne Enright has a beautiful grasp of words but she doesn't know how to use them. She also had a wonderful gem of an idea for a story, but she didn't know how to develop it. Combine those two together you get a reader thinking, "I want to like this, but I don't know how." The Gathering could have easily been a beautiful, deep and touching novel, but unfortunately Enright fails at delivering that.

I found the story as a whole much too disconnected and disjointed. I constantly felt like I was being bounced around. By the time I got relatively comfortable in one scene I suddenly found myself in a completely different time and place with unfamiliar characters. It wasn't just the line of the story that was disjointed, but the actual writing itself. Actually, that might not be the best way to describe writing that is mostly run-on sentences and rambling thoughts, that's pretty much the opposite of disjointed, even so, it somehow still managed to feel that way.

The story wasn't even saved by it's characters. There wasn't a single fully developed, or even half developed character throughout the whole book. Even our main character, Veronica, remained two-demensional at best, despite having moments where I felt I should be feeling a connection with her. Rather it felt like I was standing awkwardly by someone I barely knew while they had an emotional breakdown, glancing occasionally over my shoulder wondering if I should leave them alone or dumbly pat them on the back. I think I was expected to be attatched to most of the characters, but I wasn't. I didn't feel sympathy for them, nor did I even like any of them. It made the book even more boring and uncomfortable.

It's a great disappointment to read a book you think has so much potential to only have it fall flat. If Enright has written any poetry I might be interested in reading that, I have an inkling she would make a fairly good poet, but I'm going to be staying away from any other novels she's written. Especially if they're anything like this....less

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Alice rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

03/14/08

bookshelves: read-in-2008

Read in March, 2008

I bought this book because I once again fell for Borders' Buy-1-Get-1-50%-Off deal. I needed a 2nd book, and this one won the Man Booker Prize in 2007. Hell, I thought, it can't be that bad.

Well, it wasn't terrible, but once again, I was deathly bored. More and more, I find myself very annoyed at authors who use the carrot-on-a-stick opening shtick (e.g. "OMG, you guys! Something HORRIBLE happened at my grandmother's house in 1968!! Now you've got to read this to find out what it w...more

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Fiona rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

02/26/08

bookshelves: books-i-loved

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: the bereaved

This is the best novel about grief and bereavement that I have read.

Enright captures the peculiar relationship of close siblings perfectly. It is not about love - you don't "love" a close sibling just as you don't "love" your arm. They are a part of you. When they die, you are broken. It is a hard, bitter, angry book because the grief you feel when a close sibling dies is a hard, bitter anger. An anger that is as close to madness as makes no difference. Grief colours ever...more This is the best novel about grief and bereavement that I have read.

Enright captures the peculiar relationship of close siblings perfectly. It is not about love - you don't "love" a close sibling just as you don't "love" your arm. They are a part of you. When they die, you are broken. It is a hard, bitter, angry book because the grief you feel when a close sibling dies is a hard, bitter anger. An anger that is as close to madness as makes no difference. Grief colours everything, and makes everything - the past, the present, present loved-ones - unknowable and unreachable, for a time.

Veronica tells the story of her grandmother, acknowledging that the story she tells is imagined, unreal. I see this as a metaphor for the veil of unreality that bereavement places between the bereaved and external reality. Because you can't tear down the veil, you live in a capsule in a state akin to madness, unable to reach out to those who you love[d:]. Unable to connect with their attempts to love you and bring you back. And resenting their efforts to do so.

This novel is not "about" the revelation of what happened to her brother. What may or may not have actually happened is ultimately not important. Rather, it is a novel that describes the symptoms of Veronica's grief. One of these symptoms is her attempt to understand the past and to "see" (reveal) what happened to her brother. (Veronica's disconnection from her husband and children is another symptom. Her bitterness towards her surviving family is another.)

Veronica attempts to make sense of her grandmother's history is symptomatic of how the bereaved - lost in their capsule of unreality - struggle to make sense of their experience. That struggle can lead us to misinterpret both what we see and the meaning of what we do. We do irrational things but think they are significant and rational choices. We misunderstand events in the past and present, yet think we are being clear-sighted and insightful. Or we remember things in the past that were true then, and think that they are the key to the present. We grasp at straws in our attempts to find something tangible to hold on to. Meanwhile our sense of the reality going on around us seems heightened and intense, yet we at the same time disconnect from it.

Above all, we get very, very lost in the whole experience. Lost, desperate, confused, angry and alone. And so very sad.

We, we we. Clearly I mean me. This was my experience of bereavement and I had never read it as I experienced it, until I read The Gathering. No other author past or present has so accurately represented what I lived through. Because it captures the state of grief so succinctly, with such subtlety, I consider Enright's book to be a work of genius.

And by the way, her writing is at times breath-taking.
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Lisa rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

05/27/08

Read in April, 2008

When I see that some people have given this book five stars, I start to question my own sanity. For me, the book had wonderful potential when I took it off the shelf and the Booker Award sticker only reinforced my impression that this would be a great read: WRONG. Wonderful words strung together does not a good story make. The narrator is completely two-dimensional as written and I was unable to connect with her or her perspective in any way. Yes, I understand the woman's "beloved" ...more

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Gin rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

04/17/08

bookshelves: best

Outstanding. The Gathering is an early (and strong) contender for my favorite book of 2008. I'm tempted to add it to the "best" shelf but I want to wait a bit just to be sure that I'm not over-zealous in my surprise and affection. Give me a couple of months to make up my mind as it matters more than a little. I'll be honest; I'll use semi-colons. Hyphens too. And fragments. Anyway, I was prepared to like this book but I did not expect to seize it as fiercely as I have. It's abo...more Outstanding. The Gathering is an early (and strong) contender for my favorite book of 2008. I'm tempted to add it to the "best" shelf but I want to wait a bit just to be sure that I'm not over-zealous in my surprise and affection. Give me a couple of months to make up my mind as it matters more than a little. I'll be honest; I'll use semi-colons. Hyphens too. And fragments. Anyway, I was prepared to like this book but I did not expect to seize it as fiercely as I have. It's about grief and revision--and grief and revision--about failed lumps of passion that become these tar-pits of evil, horror, memory and love love love. The characters who are already dead have clamped down and clamped hard upon the living (though some do not live so long after all, there are wrenching ends and also brightly colored ones), the living nearly choke on the knowledge that they are little more than entertainment for the rest of the world, and all of them willingly abbreviate their, well, souls, for the sake of...appearances? Convenience? The Roman Catholic church? I don't know, and my sense is that I will fall down all over this question for quite some time.

Another thing about Enright's book is how precisely tricky it is. There are blunt moments of almost happy endings, tender little lures and sweet ones at that which the reader knows--knows just well enough so that it hurts--will not come to be. It's Enright's sharp blow that puts out the world, the shudder that makes all the sea (you'll know it when you see it) of sickness that everyone involved will have to swim through, the awful thing that when it ripens (and does it ever) is dispatched in measured bites of custard pie. No, really. Those moments when the novel stumbles into hope only do so when everything else has been wiped out or boxed up or joined some muddy plain of ghosts. Or plane. The various understandings of the words are applicable. Look them up. While you're at it, look up the word "catholic". Interesting, no?

It is also tempting to draw quotes from the book, but I think that to do so would be an insult to the text. I have similar (though stronger...sorry, Ms. Enright) feelings about Coetzee's work. Like Coetzee, Enright has managed to find the barest parts of life, her work is sharp, observant, and bruising. Let's leave the comparison at that for now, eh? Hopefully she'll keep true to her gifts and continue to produce works of almost perfect exposure...and in a way, those things that are *almost* perfect are also the loveliest. The Gathering--for all of its darkness-- touches upon all of those things that are beautiful because they will never be close enough. Don't believe me? Fine. Read it for yourself, then stare and wonder.

Update: this book has compelled me to re-examine (calibrate?) how I read everything...which for me is both harsh and exhilarating. Accordingly, I have given it the "Best" designation.

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Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

05/30/08

Read in May, 2008

In The Gathering (winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2007), Anne Enright tells the story of a bitter and bruised family in bitter and bruised prose. I was sucked in for the ride - even though I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to go.

Veronica Hagerty narrates the story about her Irish Catholic family of twelve children. She is particularly concerned with a disturbing event that occurred one summer when she and two of her siblings, Liam and Kitty, are sent to live with their grandmother....more

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mali rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

04/16/08

bookshelves: ireland, literature, memory, uk

Read in April, 2008

In terms of writing, characterization, and the exploration of memory - this is among the best books I have read, period.

I am not a grieving middle-aged woman with a large family who has lost her brother to suicide. But the strong and accurate portrayal of alienation, loss, and grief - and the way people deal with these things in ways that are erratic, self-destructive, confusing, and unpredictable and illogical even to themselves - had me finding myself identifying with the narrator much mo...more

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Kevin rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

12/23/07

Read in December, 2007

It's been said that Sigmund Freud said of the Irish "This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever."
After reading the Gathering you can begin to understand why. The Irish seem to be haunted not only by guilt and shame, but by the ghosts of their dead relatives as well. Here's a particularly telling passage from the novel :

" I know I sound bitter, and Christ I wish I wasn't such a hard bitch sometimes, but my brother blamed me for twenty years or ...more

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Yulia rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

05/09/08

bookshelves: repelled-by

Read in January, 2007

Another Booker Prize winner that is so besotted with its ambiguity and ephemeral nature that it is entirely forgettable and endlessly frustrating. Please, no more showing off how one can see without seeing, live without living, or know without knowing. Tell a story! Don't give me a magic show.

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Khaya rated it:

07/09/08

bookshelves: couldntfinish, ireland

recommended to Khaya by: margueya

Another one for the growing life-is-just-too-short pile. This book was draggy and depressing, and I didn't get a whole lot out of it. What were those Booker judges thinking?

First of all, while I would be the last person to minimize molestation, its prevalence, and its traumatic effects, it has really become a literary cliche: young child of a dysfunctional family living in a less enlightened place and/or time is molested, no one ever finds out/addresses it properly, young child is psychol...more Another one for the growing life-is-just-too-short pile. This book was draggy and depressing, and I didn't get a whole lot out of it. What were those Booker judges thinking?

First of all, while I would be the last person to minimize molestation, its prevalence, and its traumatic effects, it has really become a literary cliche: young child of a dysfunctional family living in a less enlightened place and/or time is molested, no one ever finds out/addresses it properly, young child is psychologically damaged and grows up to live a dissolute life with a tragic end. I can't tell you how many depressing books I've read like this. The way the author built up to the Big Secret that may (or may not) explain Liam's suicide, I was expecting something a little more original. Maybe if I had found the characters more sympathetic and relatable, I would have responded differently, but here, I was so tired of the annoying jumpy stream-of-consciousness and flat characters that my reaction was cynical rather than appropriately moved.

As I read the main character's various musings, I came up with two themes, neither of which particularly resonated with me:

1. Woe is me. My selfish, careless parents went and had this huge family without considering their children's needs. How could they do this to me. I may be an adult, but I'm still not over it and probably never will be.

2. I'm really into sex (except with my husband, for some unexplained reason). Most of my fantasies about my grandmother's imagined past are sexually charged. I'm particularly obsessed with male genitalia, and frequently imagine/describe them in various states with florid detail.

Maybe I'm just not sufficiently intellectual to appreciate this book, but despite some interesting prose, I just couldn't find the tragedy or either of these themes sympathetic, and really couldn't relate to the main character nor to anyone else in the book. As I plodded through, I found myself alternating between depression and apathy and finally decided to just put the book down.

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Kelly rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

11/21/07

bookshelves: irish

Read in November, 2007

Enright’s The Gathering is a bleak, often brutal, and sometimes viciously humorous, gem of a novel. Veronica Hegarty is on her way to London to collect the body of her dead brother, Liam, who committed suicide by drowning himself. In her grieving, Veronica navigates her past, and Liam’s, and the entire large Irish Catholic family she belongs to. What unfolds is a tapestry of recollections, atmospheric and unreliable. Veronica, being only 11 months younger than Liam, shared a close re...more

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Paula rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

04/29/08

Read in October, 2007

I was given a signed copy of this book a few days after Enright won the Booker Prize. She had signed it at a conference on Irish women writers, at the University of Leuven in Belgium, where my daughter had presented a paper. I had tagged along as a tourist, and the gray skies and gray buildings of Leuven perfectly suited the gray mood produced by the book.

Don't read "The Gathering" if you're already in a grim mood. Yes, there is some humor, of a very bitter, sardonic kind, but the na...more

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Julie rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

06/13/08

bookshelves: book-club

Read in June, 2008

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to those readers who are willing to live in an on-the-verge character's head who knows that she is unreliable and who may or may not be uncovering a repressed memory. If you can tolerate this ambiguity and like a dark -- although I would argue that the ending is optimistic -- lyrical, Irish tale, then this is the book for you. I found its title to be a bit of a misnomer, setting up the expectation that the protagonist's siblings would play a more prom...more

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Collin Shea rated it:

(review of isbn 0802170390)

01/21/08

Read in January, 2008

This is a very Irish story, written in a very Irish way. At times, I was not thrilled with Enright's particular style, and it did take some effort for me to really immerse myself in this book, but upon finishing it, I see that there are quite a few marked pages. In my world of reading, marked pages are a very good sign. There were sentences, or paragraphs, or entire pages that I want to go back to, that intrigued or moved me in some way, that will continue on in my psyche long after I've moved ...more <

The Gathering

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