Booktagger

The Gathering is the Irish writer Anne Enright's 2007 Man Booker prize winner. The publicity surrounding the award referred to it as a 'bleak' or 'harrowing' tale of a family reunion. I'm not one for bleakness; nevertheless, I bought it.

The first chapter is short (little more than a page). It's perfect. The rest of the novel didn't disappoint. Enright hones every phrase, every sentence until it conveys exactly what she has in mind. This is a book to read for the quality of the writing alone.

Liam, the alcoholic brother of the main character, Veronica - thirty-nine and comfortably off - walks into the sea weighted down by pockets full of stones. Veronica travels to Brighton to collect the body before the family - as dysfunctional as most - gathers for his funeral from all points of the compass.

The narrative alternates between present and past as Veronica recreates events, some real, some wholly fanciful, that preoccupy her thoughts. In the process she develops her own narrative as an attempt to understand herself and her family.

She shared a dark secret with her dead brother. It wasn't clear to me if this was the sole reason for her feelings of alienation and anger and, if so, why it affected her to such a degree. In any event, I failed to empathise with her and so I finished the novel unsure of what I was supposed to feel or to have learnt. That, however, could reflect more on me than Enright.