The Gathering

By: Anne Enright

Narrated by: Terry Donnelly

Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2007

Regarded as one of her country's foremost voices, Irish author Anne Enright makes a fresh mark on a rich literary tradition. The Gathering is a deeply insightful family saga, steeped in secrets and intrigue, unfolding over three generations.

©2007 Ann Enright (P)2008 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Enright's hypnotic prose turns...desperation into something fierce and beautiful." ( Booklist)
"A melancholic love and rage bubbles just beneath the surface of this Dublin clan, and Enright explores it unflinchingly." ( Publishers Weekly)

Dark side of large families

Not just fun & games. The insiders view to a grieving family with secrets within secrets

Beautiful, but hard to finish

Beautiful language, less than compelling story. I didn't feel engaged or care about the characters. Author is an exceedingly skilled writer, but I left this feeling less than satisfied.

Didn’t like this book

I found this book very disjointed and hard to follow.
I would like to return it. I did not finish it

The story began well, but then was about dull sex

I enjoyed the beginnimg of the story bery much, but then was disappointed by numerous descriptioms of dull sex. The male organ is mentioned exhaustively. A story of pedophilia is part of the last seberal chapters. I can't recommend this book.

Depressing and tedious

This is tediously written and the narrator is depressed and depressing. It seems to touch on all the stereotypes of the Irish: alcoholism, dysfunctional families, abuse. More than half way into it, I just couldn't take the narrative any more or the constant switching from present to past and the it-might-have-happened-this-way approach. Ugh!