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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
emotional
sad
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Well, I was reminded that I don’t like novels written as interconnected short stories. It is hard to relate to the characters and there is no real plot per se.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Boring. Dull self satisfied characters
Life is too short to read crap like this
Life is too short to read crap like this
Anne Enright knows a lot about typical Irish Families and families in general. It’s food for thought, how we all grow up together but when adult we really know so very little about our siblings’, parents’ and childrens’ inner lives. In the case of the Madigans they know absolutely nothing about each other until they forced to pull together one fateful Christmas in 2005.
To be honest at first I did not like this book. The first chapter left me somewhat underwhelmed, I care little for Irish rural life. Then it picked up in the second chapter, by the third I was hooked. The book is really five peoples’ stories; there’s the Mammy (she hates it when she’s called that) Rosaleen and the children Dan, Constance, Emmett and Hanna. All five characters eventually meet up one very eventful Christmas but before that their stories, as their lives, are separate from each other.
Dan’s story is sad as he only begins to find love and acceptance at middle age (basically he is one cruel B until he reaches this stage). Dan’s story is also remarkable as it’s the telling the story of those he met in America and Canada (told in their voices, that is in the fourth person) and documents an important piece of recent history that is being forgotten.
Emmett and Hanna are both searching outside of themselves for happiness one as a Charity Aid worker and the other as an actress/artist. This has dire consequences for both of them and manifests itself as an inability to form relationships and alcoholism.
Constance is my favourite, she is stronger than all of them, especially her mother, and in the middle of a health scare cares more for the other woman than herself. She is the only reason the family is holding together and the only one attempting to be happy with her life. Like all such people though, Constance is going to have to learn to put Constance first.
And then there is our dark Rosaleen, who has married below herself, but for love, and somehow has driven her children away. She hate’s being called a Mammy and does not think of herself as one. She is best summed up in one line from the book. “But he recognised, in the silence the power Rosaleen had over her children, none of whom had grown up to match her.”
The book also tells the story of Ireland form the 1980’s to 2005. Told in the food bought and eaten (the grocery shopping bill in 2005 which was the height of Ireland’s boom is something to remark upon) and also in the attitudes towards homosexuality (which was much better in 2005 than the 1980’s but was still a long way from the Marriage Equality vote of 2015).
This book is beautifully written story of family and relationships. I look forward to reading more of Anne Enright.
To be honest at first I did not like this book. The first chapter left me somewhat underwhelmed, I care little for Irish rural life. Then it picked up in the second chapter, by the third I was hooked. The book is really five peoples’ stories; there’s the Mammy (she hates it when she’s called that) Rosaleen and the children Dan, Constance, Emmett and Hanna. All five characters eventually meet up one very eventful Christmas but before that their stories, as their lives, are separate from each other.
Dan’s story is sad as he only begins to find love and acceptance at middle age (basically he is one cruel B until he reaches this stage). Dan’s story is also remarkable as it’s the telling the story of those he met in America and Canada (told in their voices, that is in the fourth person) and documents an important piece of recent history that is being forgotten.
Emmett and Hanna are both searching outside of themselves for happiness one as a Charity Aid worker and the other as an actress/artist. This has dire consequences for both of them and manifests itself as an inability to form relationships and alcoholism.
Constance is my favourite, she is stronger than all of them, especially her mother, and in the middle of a health scare cares more for the other woman than herself. She is the only reason the family is holding together and the only one attempting to be happy with her life. Like all such people though, Constance is going to have to learn to put Constance first.
And then there is our dark Rosaleen, who has married below herself, but for love, and somehow has driven her children away. She hate’s being called a Mammy and does not think of herself as one. She is best summed up in one line from the book. “But he recognised, in the silence the power Rosaleen had over her children, none of whom had grown up to match her.”
The book also tells the story of Ireland form the 1980’s to 2005. Told in the food bought and eaten (the grocery shopping bill in 2005 which was the height of Ireland’s boom is something to remark upon) and also in the attitudes towards homosexuality (which was much better in 2005 than the 1980’s but was still a long way from the Marriage Equality vote of 2015).
This book is beautifully written story of family and relationships. I look forward to reading more of Anne Enright.
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Drug use
Four Irish siblings come back to their mother when she’s dying. Heartbreaking and raw.