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phdoingmydamnbest 's review for:
The Green Road
by Anne Enright
One of my friends thoughtfully picked this book up for me as a Christmas gift and I read it over the Christmas and New Year period. There was something vaguely satisfying about reading a book about coming home to Ireland for Christmas while being at home in Ireland for Christmas.
I have to say, I thought this book was really very good. I can see why it was nominated for the Bailey's Prize for Women's Fiction (and I wouldn't mind reading some of the others, particularly the winner since this was only a runner-up). It's literary fiction at its most accessible. It tells the saga of one particular family in Ireland, mostly told in multiple narratives from the perspective of the four children, in both flashbacks and present-day narratives. At the centre of all is the elusive figure of the mother, and the children's complicated relationships to each other, but mostly to their mother, is the main exploration of the book.
This book is typical of Irish fiction in its mix of comedy and poignancy. It feels very authentic as someone who grew up in Derry/Donegal and I did have some laugh out loud and wry smile moments. The story of Dan, the eldest son who emigrates to America was probably the part I found most moving, but all of the children's lives are extremely interesting and touching.
The ending is somewhat typical of literary fiction in that there is no real conclusivity and there could easily be another book afterwards. But the book begins at an arbitrary moment in their lives and its fitting that it ends in a similar way. The book is very much a slice of life, a little intervention or window into the life of an Irish family- like the windows Hannah remembers peering into as a child, and you only see what is happening from the moment you begin to pass it by, to the moment you have fully passed it.
Five stars though, I thoroughly recommend!
I have to say, I thought this book was really very good. I can see why it was nominated for the Bailey's Prize for Women's Fiction (and I wouldn't mind reading some of the others, particularly the winner since this was only a runner-up). It's literary fiction at its most accessible. It tells the saga of one particular family in Ireland, mostly told in multiple narratives from the perspective of the four children, in both flashbacks and present-day narratives. At the centre of all is the elusive figure of the mother, and the children's complicated relationships to each other, but mostly to their mother, is the main exploration of the book.
This book is typical of Irish fiction in its mix of comedy and poignancy. It feels very authentic as someone who grew up in Derry/Donegal and I did have some laugh out loud and wry smile moments. The story of Dan, the eldest son who emigrates to America was probably the part I found most moving, but all of the children's lives are extremely interesting and touching.
The ending is somewhat typical of literary fiction in that there is no real conclusivity and there could easily be another book afterwards. But the book begins at an arbitrary moment in their lives and its fitting that it ends in a similar way. The book is very much a slice of life, a little intervention or window into the life of an Irish family- like the windows Hannah remembers peering into as a child, and you only see what is happening from the moment you begin to pass it by, to the moment you have fully passed it.
Five stars though, I thoroughly recommend!