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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Good book by a good author. Opens Christmas of 1980 in Ireland and continues through 2005. Chapters alternate with each of the four children and their demanding mother. Has a bit of a short story collection feel. 3.75 rating, rounding up to 4.0.
Another masterful depiction of Irish life from Enright. All these people and places were familiar to me, rendered beautifully and fully formed. Some of the books sections would work just as well in short story form, especially those in New York and Mali.
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book just felt like a lot of people complaining about their mediocre lives. The structure really bogged down the narrative and kept me at a distance from the characters. The first 5 chapters are all told from different perspectives--a mother and her 4 children--and then after that it alternates between all of them as they reunite one Christmas when the mother decides she is selling the old family home.
Nothing stands out to me about this story; it's all quite forgettable unfortunately. That's all I can really say about it because it was rather dull. I wish I had liked this more than I did, but it didn't do much for me.
Nothing stands out to me about this story; it's all quite forgettable unfortunately. That's all I can really say about it because it was rather dull. I wish I had liked this more than I did, but it didn't do much for me.
I liked this quite a lot -- I'm not always crazy about Anne Enright's work, but The Green Road really worked for me. The characters were all fully fleshed-out--I thought Dan and Constance were particularly well handled--and the second half of the book manages to have both an elegiac quality and a shot of sly humor. And as always with Enright, the writing is beautifully elegant.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I can't believe that this is the first time I have ever read anything by Anne Enright. She is a glorious writer...a little sneaky....and definitely masterful of her craft. Noone is this book is particularly likable. Rosaleen, the matriarch of a brood of four, is difficult, to say the least. I sort of wondered if she ever wanted to be a mother or whether she just followed the role of women of the day. She feels a type of love for her children but its mired in a whole lot of other thorny feelings and is rarely brought to anything but a harsh and unforgiving light. The four children, Dan (the golden child), Emmet, Constance, and Hanna, all have mile-wide issues that they willingly lay at the feet of their mother. It's really a mess of a family. Yet, there is something in the writing that continually drew me in. It's not sentimental writing in the least, and there is a subtle and heartbreaking honesty to it all that makes it difficult yet fascinating to read. Some families simply don't work.
For a few minutes there I thought this felt a whole lot like [b:A Spool of Blue Thread|22501028|A Spool of Blue Thread|Anne Tyler|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421710381s/22501028.jpg|41711673] by Anne Tyler, except without the humor. Which is funny since they are both on the long list for the Booker in 2015.
I thought this was a lot of whining and the reason behind all the angst and unhappiness unclear. I mean the mother didn't seem particularly pleasant but there wasn't a history. Also, at one point she changes to first person and completely threw me. Nobody learned anything, nothing changed really. Meh.
I thought this was a lot of whining and the reason behind all the angst and unhappiness unclear. I mean the mother didn't seem particularly pleasant but there wasn't a history. Also, at one point she changes to first person and completely threw me. Nobody learned anything, nothing changed really. Meh.