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The Gathering
The Gathering
Author: Anne Enright
Anne Enright is a dazzling writer of international stature and one of Ireland’s most singular voices. Now she delivers The Gathering, a moving, evocative portrait of a large Irish family and a shot of fresh blood into the Irish literary tradition, combining the lyricism of the old with the shock of the new. The nine surviving childr...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780802170392
ISBN-10: 0802170390
Publication Date: 9/10/2007
Pages: 272
Rating:
  • Currently 2.8/5 Stars.
 237

2.8 stars, based on 237 ratings
Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed The Gathering on + 3 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 16
The only reason I finished this book is because our book club was reviewing it. Nobody at the meeting liked it. It was rambling, took forever to get to the point (if it ever had one) and I was left with no sense of closure at all.
jlautner avatar reviewed The Gathering on + 105 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 11
One reviewer called this book "stunning". While such adjectives are overused this one certainly applies in this case. This unassuming book packs a surprising punch.

Veronica is one of several children, somewhere in the middle of the group, who grow up, with a mother who is almost invisible and a father who dispassionately hits when people are in his way, near Dublin. The story centers around the suicide death of her brother Liam when Veronica is 39 years old. Veronica tells the story in the first person, dipping into and out of memory, slipping backward and forward in time. Her memories, though, are not exact. She has to guess most of the time and in some cases she embroiders deliberately, creating images she would like to have happened but knows probably did not. It is this aspect of the story that rang especially true for me, given that I am not at all sure of my own memories and I have an idea how memory works.

Eventually, as Veronica explores her own thoughts and memories a picture comes to her, a real memory. Although the place may not be correct she knows the incident is, and it is only as an older adult that she recognizes what the incident really meant for her brother and her family. The memory shocks her and she continues to search her memories and even to search her mother's house for some verification of what she actually knows.

The death of Liam has a profound effect on Veronica and her family. Her conversations rarely make sense to others. She dwells on the peculiarities of her dysfunctional family. Her mind and her actions wander incessantly. Yet somehow, every strange twist and turn leads to an inevitable finish.

Although the format of the book seems, on the surface, almost chaotic, it makes sense while in it. It is complex yet consistent and utterly real.
reviewed The Gathering on
Helpful Score: 10
I don't usually take the time to read reviews, but this one was crying out for one. Frankly, I could not finish this book. The author's style is vague and you are constantly wondering what she is trying to tell you with the words she chooses. In fairness, my brother in law liked this book a lot. I was extremely disappointed. It makes me want to look for the "Man Booker Prize" designation on books, and then avoid those books.
reviewed The Gathering on + 5 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Made a mistake buying this. Do people really enjoy reading this stuff?
Read a third of it and could'nt go on. A dark,gloomy,rambling recall of
a depressed woman's childhood.
BrightGirl avatar reviewed The Gathering on + 4 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
This is the book that officially put me off Irish authors. To spend nearly 300 pages whining about having a family, nice house and two kids just because of something that may or may not have happened thirty years ago to someone else is the worst premise for a book I've seen.

You just want to shake her and say "THIS is why you're being such a self-indulgent asshole?! Get over it already."
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MKSbooklady avatar reviewed The Gathering on + 983 more book reviews
Sadly, this book was painfully difficult to get into, let alone actually read. I thought I had the gist of the story, but no, I didn't. I finally gave up and skimmed the last 100 pages. I still don't know what the point was.
reviewed The Gathering on
A lovely book, literally. Full of love, and frustration, for bountiful Irish family, told from the perspective of one of twelve siblings. A brother has just died, a somewhat prodigal son, and through the jumbled reflections of the sister's grieving mind we see into the dark past, which inevitably has maddening ramifications on today and tomorrow. Enright's prose reflects an epic internal landscape, mirrored by the rough North Sea beaches and contrasted by the tight corners and limiting houses of her Dublin childhood. Haunting.
reviewed The Gathering on + 42 more book reviews
I would tend to agree with most of the other reviews that I read, it was rambling and somewhat difficult to follow. I stuck with it and am glad I did as the last half was better.

This book shows how well the lead character's own mind has put up walls to block out things that happened during her childhood.
maura853 avatar reviewed The Gathering on + 542 more book reviews
Pretentious. Tedious.

Yep, that about covers it.


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