A review by serendipitysbooks
The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright

emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 The Wren, The Wren looks at three generations of the McDaragh family. Phil was a famous poet who abandoned his first wife when she was diagnosed with cancer, but the focus of this book is more on his daughter Carmel and Carmel’s daughter Nell who only knows Phil through his poetry and an online interview. It’s about children trying, but failing, to fully understand their parents, women figuring out how to be in the world and what sort of life they want to live, and how actions and trauma can echo trough the generations. Enright’s writing was superb as expected. I enjoyed the contrast between Nell’s sections being told in the first person and Carmel’s in the third person. I thought the distinctive and unlikeable persona of Phil was really well drawn. He felt particularly real to me and I had a crystal clear image of him in my head as I read. Coincidentally the artist ignoring their family responsibilities in favour of their art was discussed in Monsters. A Fan’s Dilemma which I was reading at the same time - a nice case of bookish serendipity. Enright did a wonderful job crafting the poetry credited to Phil. Obviously the bird imagery particularly caught my attention. There was certainly lots to enjoy and admire about the book but it isn’t my favourite of Enright’s. Some of Nell’s behaviour placed her in the “messy 20 something” category which is a trope that rarely works for me these days. Still, any Enright, even if it’s not my personal favourite, is still a wonderful reading experience. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings