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The Gathering

By Anne Enright

(41)

| Hardcover | 9780224078733

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Book Description

The nine surviving children of the Hegarty clan gather in Dublin for the wake of their wayward brother Liam. It wasn't the drink that killed him - although that certainly helped - it was what happened to him as a boy in his grandmother's house, in the winter of 1968. His sister, Veronica was there then, as she is now: keeping the dead man company, just for another little while. The "Gathering" is a family epic, condensed and clarified through the remarkable lens of Anne Enright's unblinking eye. It is also a sexual history: tracing the line of hurt and redemption through three generations - starting with the grandmother, Ada Merriman - showing how memories warp and family secrets fester. This is a novel about love and disappointment, about thwarted lust and limitless desire, and how our fate is written in the body, not in the stars. The "Gathering" sends fresh blood through the Irish literary tradition, combining the lyricism of the old with the shock of the new. As in all Anne Enright's work, fiction and non-fiction, this is a book of daring, wit and insight: her distinctive intelligence twisting the world a fraction, and giving it back to us in a new and unforgettable light.

About the Author:

Anne Enright was born in Dublin. She is the author of a collection of stories, The Portable Virgin, which won the Rooney Prize, and three novels, The Wig My Father Wore, What Are You Like? which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and won the Encore Award, and The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch. Her non-fiction book, Making Babies, was published in 2004.

擊敗大師、搶下本年度文學桂冠，2007年布克獎（Man Booker）得獎作品！

本書的長串推薦名單包括英美兩地的重要媒體。衛報The Guardian、紐約時報 New York Times書評、每日郵報 Daily Mail、愛爾蘭日報Irish Times、觀察家日報 The Observer、電訊報 Telegraph、星期日電訊報 Sunday Telegraph、每日電訊報Daily Telegraph等。

衛報The Guardian：「作者在乎的不只是說一個故事，而是『好好地』說一個故事。

即使最是傷痛的故事，也要用最美的方式陳述。本書的開始是一家人的聚會，因為他們一個酗酒的弟弟差點喪命；由此展開有關這個家族的故事，可以追溯到三代以前開始的家族史。特別是其中和祖母有關的故事，牽扯到性，也另含一段傷痛的過去，成為這個家族一段被扭曲過的記憶，和不可告人的暗癰。本書用字優美，被稱為歌一般優美，觀察家日報 The Observer讚譽作者為「一位極佳的文辭創作者」。

作者對國內讀者來說較為陌生，但是她對於寫作認真的態度充份展現在她的作品中，也因此能贏得這麼專業媒體的好評。她曾入圍惠特布萊德(Whitbread)獎、拿下Royal Society of Authors Encore Prize，並曾獲得Rooney短篇小說獎，她的作品包括評論散文、短篇故事，以及四本小說，她也曾為The New Yorker和 Granta 等雜誌撰文，被推為當今愛爾蘭最重要的作家之一。

「她的作品像黑玉一樣漆黑，但是閃閃發亮！」New York Times書評顯然和布克獎評審英雄所見略同。布克獎評審描述他們給獎的理由時表示：「《The Gathering》勇敢直敘一個遭遇哀慘的家庭故事，以故事女主人翁的陰鬱眼光，看待她家庭中的陰影、她的婚姻，以及她兄弟的死亡。……本書故事內容灰暗消沈，但是這部家庭故事十分具有可看性、且讓人滿意。……值得反覆閱讀。」

即使是作者自己也認為：「當讀者須要一些鼓舞人心的書本時，這本書一定會被排除在外，這個故事簡直和好萊塢用來賺人熱淚的東西一樣。」但也因此更突顯了作者寫作本書的特色，她活生生、赤裸裸地描述生命／家庭的黑暗和絕望處境，但是內容舖陳動人，又會讓讀者捨不得放下這本小說。

Critics

'The Gathering' by Anne Enright

Grim and disturbing are the first words that spring to mind when describing Anne Enright's Booker shortlisted The Gathering. But admid the dark, often depressing, subject matter there are chinks of light that make the novel surprisingly witty and, in ... (read full critics)

readingmatters published on Tue, 28 Sep 2010

Intimate relations

The Gathering by Anne Enright Jonathan Cape £12.99, pp263 Big families don't feature much in novels - I mean really big ones. It's hard to think of a larger fictional brood (Letters Editor, perhaps you'd better brace yourself) than HE Bates's seven L ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

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6 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

I was looking forward to reading this, as from the blurb plus the fact it was a Booker prize winner, it sounded like just the sort of novel I would enjoy. In fact it was a complete let down that I was glad to finish as it was so depressing. It was not difficult to read just for my taste the narrator ... (continue)

I was looking forward to reading this, as from the blurb plus the fact it was a Booker prize winner, it sounded like just the sort of novel I would enjoy. In fact it was a complete let down that I was glad to finish as it was so depressing. It was not difficult to read just for my taste the narrator Veronica's obsession with guilt over the death of her brother Liam just became somewhat boring and depressing.
The idea of reading the story of the Hegarty family, Midge, Bea, Ernest, Stevie, Ita, Mossie, Liam, Veronica, Kitty, Alice and the twins Ivor and Jem as the nine surviving children of the clan gathered in Dublin for the funeral of Liam was initially appealing as had been promised a novel about love and disappointment. A cast of potenially interesting characters that I never got to know at all, as none of them are given any personality by the narrator, Veronica.
Veronia is angry and finds fault in everything in her own life after the death of Liam the brother she was closest. Her childhood memories and imaginings of her grandparents and parents lives are all detailed, as her own sanity hangs in the balance as she tries to come to terms with the guilt and grief. Love and disappointment but certainly not from the angle I was expecting as the entire novel is a narration direct from Veronica's confused mind.
Technically a well written novel but I read for enjoyment not to get depressed. I am somewhat surprised that it won the 2007 Man Booker Prize , it is certainly not the title I would have voted for, my vote would have gone to On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, but then I am no expert.

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Lindyloumac said on Nov 4, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

I have edited the rating for this book a zillion times. Two stars, or three stars? Two seems a bit too harsh, but three doesn't seem to be quite fair for other three-starred books. I stuck with two in the end, because I didn't actually enjoy the book.
The book is actually very well written (no ... (continue)

I have edited the rating for this book a zillion times. Two stars, or three stars? Two seems a bit too harsh, but three doesn't seem to be quite fair for other three-starred books. I stuck with two in the end, because I didn't actually enjoy the book.
The book is actually very well written (not a surprise for a booker prize winner). I like her diction, her exquisite sentences that managed to create an almost real-life atmosphere, her drifting mind which is so accurate and true to a real distressed person. As I was reading the book, I felt as though there was a grey cloud hovering above me, and at times, I felt like I was experiencing hallucination (following the very depressed mind of the main character).
The thing is, this book is far too gloomy, sad and disturbing. If it is meant to be that way, then of course it's very successful.
But then it goes back to the purpose of reading. I read to be inspired. I read to be entertained. I read in the hopes of improving my language skills and mind. The problem with this book is I was substantially disturbed without being enlightened.
I don't know. I plan to reread this some other time. May be a few years later. I hope I would see another side to this book. But then I hope I shall never identify with the main character.

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Magdalene said on Apr 25, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

The death of her brother has brought lots of repercussions in Veronica's life, be them sad, or revealing. Numerous childhood memories flashed back from time to time in her bereavement, forcing her to face the undesirable in the past and the fear of unknowable in the future.

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Vicente Hong said on Dec 3, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

I've just read another review (by Magdalene) and I couldn't agree more with her. The book is very well written, but the tone of voice is too bitter, too rude and angry. Definitely too disturbing for me. Maybe that's what the author wanted to achieve but that's not what I look for in a novel. (At lea ... (continue)

I've just read another review (by Magdalene) and I couldn't agree more with her. The book is very well written, but the tone of voice is too bitter, too rude and angry. Definitely too disturbing for me. Maybe that's what the author wanted to achieve but that's not what I look for in a novel. (At least not at this particular time of my life).

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nuriape said on Jul 23, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

It took a while for me to get into this, the language is full of Irish terms .. and the main character is cold and very difficult to understand.

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guiltlessreader aka screamingbanshee said on Feb 22, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

This is a a real page-turner. Although there might be some flaws as regards the way the plot is developed, it is a book that has received positive reviews.

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gabriel2009 said on Feb 2, 2009 | Add your feedback