The Gathering by Anne Enright

Usually, while reading a book, in my head I gather things I want to mention in the review, why I liked the book (or why not), or I make notes while or immediately after reading the book. By the time I sit down to write the review, I have composed a rough version of it in my mind or I have my notes to go on. Not this time. To be honest, I have no idea what to write about The Gathering. I don’t even know whether I liked the book or not. There are certain things I appreciated about the book, mostly I think Enright’s writing, less so the storyline or the characters.

It wasn’t until about page 200 of the 260 page book, that I was really comfortable with the story and with Enright’s writing. It took me six days, actually to read The Gathering, simply because I couldn’t read much in one sitting, after a couple of chapters, some twenty-thirty pages I had to put the book away. There is something about Enright’s writing which I ended up appreciating: it is very concise, not a word too much, very to the point, and distant. I needed to get used to the style, but eventually settled in, though the distance stayed.

There are books that suck you in to such an extent that you forget that you are actually reading a book. The Gathering is not like that. Despite feeling more comfortable reading the book later on, until the very end I remained extremely conscious of the fact that I was reading a book, letters printed on sheets of paper. Again the distance.

The narrator is Veronica, one of the nine Hegarty children. I didn’t her think very likable and couldn’t connect with her, nor with any of the other characters really. I have a feeling that Enright’s writing style had a lot to do with that. From the very beginning it was clear to me that Veronica was an angry woman. Though what exactly she was angry about, initially remained unclear. Yes, she was generally unhappy with her life, with her “high-maintenance husband” Tom, as she called him, with being a stay-at-home mom. But I sensed that that was not everything, there was something else.

The story starts when Veronica’s closest brother, Liam who was only eleven months older than she was, has committed suicide in Brighton, England. Veronica is the one who has to go get the body and bring it back to Dublin. Liam’s death makes her remember and think about their childhood. Early on, I realized that Veronica is not a trustworthy narrator: almost all her memories are accompanied by “I think…”, “It must have been…”, “I suppose…”, “I believe…” and similar phrases, casting doubt on almost everything she remembers. Were Veronica’s memories what they really are? Were they what really happened? By the end of the book, I still wasn’t sure who it was that had been sexually abused, she, her brother Liam or maybe neither of them.

After rereading this review, there is one word that stands out because I used it so much: distant. I didn’t plan on using it so often, but whenever I was looking for the right word to describe something, this same word kept popping up. I think it actually does convey rather well how I feel about The Gathering. The writing, the characters, the story, it all remained distant. Which for me does not necessarily have a negative connotation in this case.

Do you sense how much on the fence I am about this one?

You can read an excerpt from The Gathering here.

For other opinions about The Gathering follow these links (and I know that this is a book that most people either love or hate, so do check some of these other reviews out):

Laura at Musings
Jill at The Magic Lasso
Michelle at 1 More Chapter
Wendy at Caribousmom
51Stories
Pages Turned
Jessica at The Bluestocking Society

I know lots of people read this book, so if you have also reviewed this book, but your link is not in the list, either leave a comment with the link to your review or send me an email with the link. I will then add them to the list.