Little Birds

After recently enjoying Anne Enright's The Wren, The Wren, I couldn't get Enright's voice out of my head. I wanted more of her prose. I realised I had never completely read The Gathering (2007) despite it having been on my book shelf for 15 years, so decided it had waited long enough! I plucked the book off my shelf, downloaded the audiobook (read by the author) and immersed myself in Enright's world.

Veronica Hegarty is mourning the death of her alcoholic brother Liam, age 40, from suicide. Veronica's mother and eight surviving siblings are coming together in Dublin to farewell Liam. But first, Veronica has to travel to England to collect Liam's body and bring him home. Bureaucratic delays in processing his remains gives Veronica time to reflect on the past and what might have driven poor Liam to take his life.

Told in the first person, Veronica's memories are opaque glimpses of scenes that may or may not have taken place. She remembers a picnic with her grandmother which included a side trip to an asylum, past lovers, and a terrible event when Liam was nine and she was eight which likely set his life on this trajectory. But she questions her memory of this incident and cannot make sense of what happened.

Veronica tells of her grandmother Ada Merriman, who married the philandering Charlie and was wooed by another man, Lambert Nugent. Veronica allows her imagination to run wild inventing scenes between this trio as she tries to make sense of her own life and where she came from. Her own Mammy is a vague shell of a woman, hollowed out by decades of pregnancy, child birth and loss. Hailing from these women, Veronica is uneasy about her own role as wife and mother.

Her grief causes Veronica to distance herself from her husband and two young daughters, taking late night drives to escape. Her future is intertwined with a past she cannot escape and a present she is discontented with. Despite being surrounded by her family for the gathering, Veronica feels utterly alone without her beloved brother. 

I have mixed feelings about The Gathering and can see now why I didn't finish it the first time. Enright is a gifted writer and there were moments where I was awed by her masterful word choice and sentence composition. On the flip side, I was frustrated by Veronica's obsession with sex and the meandering narrative that led to an anti-climatic gathering of the clan. It felt as though I was waiting for something to happen and I was left with many unanswered questions. But I did love Enright's reading of this novel on audiobook, as she perfectly portrayed Veronica.

The Gathering was awarded the Booker Prize in 2007. I met Anne Enright at the All About Women event in Sydney in March 2024 where she signed a copy of the book for me. Despite not loving The Gathering, I adored The Wren, The Wren, and I am keen to read The Green Road, Actress and other books by this wonderful writer.