Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
"I am sorry. I can not invite you home for Christmas because I am Irish and my family is mad."
Parts of this story rang very true for me...having my very own mad Irish family!
Parts of this story rang very true for me...having my very own mad Irish family!
60: by Anne Enright...yet another pre-Ireland read. This was somewhat similar to her earlier The Gathering, which I'd previously read, similar in that they both involve families made up of individuals who work to find themselves and appropriately love family, with the complexities involved in that. Here Rosaleen Madigan, mother of all characters, brings them all back home one Christmas--though we have gotten to know them individually and away from her for years--and forces them to briefly get along again. The richness of their development as individuals is one of the book's greatest assets. And like so many great books as well as real life, they aren't all neatly "fixed" by its end. I also enjoyed the places and people of the book for the possibilities of going there and seeing them, hearing them, in person, soon, myself.
A very difficult book.
A dysfunctional family. An Irish one.
It didn’t feel like there was anything original, and the different children’s lives seemed to try and represent a generation.
I felt bad for everyone, but didn’t like any of them.
A dysfunctional family. An Irish one.
It didn’t feel like there was anything original, and the different children’s lives seemed to try and represent a generation.
I felt bad for everyone, but didn’t like any of them.
I received this as a galley from the publisher. The novel follows Rosaleen and her family through various shards of life. This was well written and witty. Perhaps I was just not in the mood for a family saga at the moment, but this failed to hold on to me. It was good but not great. I feel like it won't stay with me for very long.
I loved this book. They story, the writing all great. Very rarely for me I had to pause after each chapter to take it all in rather than ploughing through as fast as I can.
Enright has a surprisingly simple writing style but it was really effective for pulling me immersively into the lives of each of the characters; spending time with each one in different chapters. The feeling of loss for your ageing parents and your childhood home was something that really resonated with me.
As befits a Booker winner, it ended quite openly but with a strong overtone of bleakness.
As befits a Booker winner, it ended quite openly but with a strong overtone of bleakness.
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
I put this on my to-read list from one of those "50 Best Books" type of lists. Sadly, it didn't engage me in anybody's lives.
Beautiful prose, the imagry made me long for Ireland. The siblings were all so different, but they made me sad for them. thoughtful novel.