Book Review of the wren, the wren by Anne Enright

 

Name of Book: the WREN, the WREN 

Author: Anne Enright 

ISBN: 978-1-324-07603-2 

Publisher: W.W. Norton 

Type of book: mother/daughter relationships, time, abandonment, poetry, travel, curiosity, practicality, birds, nature, modern times, Ireland, lovers 

Year it was published: 2023 

Summary:

Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by TIME , The Millions , and Literary Hub

An incandescent novel from one of our greatest living novelists ( The Times ) about the inheritance of trauma, wonder, and love across three generations of women. Nell McDaragh never knew her grandfather, the celebrated Irish poet Phil McDaragh. But his love poems seem to speak directly to her. Restless and wryly self-assured, at twenty-two Nell leaves her mother Carmel’s orderly home to find her own voice as a writer (mostly online, ghost-blogging for an influencer) and to live a poetical life. As she chases obsessive love, damage, and transcendence, in Dublin and beyond, her grandfather’s poetry seems to guide her home. Nell’s mother, Carmel McDaragh, knows the magic of her Daddo’s poetry too well―the kind of magic that makes women in their nighties slip outside for a kiss and then elope, as her mother Terry had done. In his poems to Carmel, Phil envisions his daughter as a bright-eyed wren ascending in escape from his hand. But it is Phil who departs, abandoning his wife and two young daughters. Carmel struggles to reconcile “the poet” with the father whose desertion scars her life, along with that of her fiercely dutiful sister and their gentle, cancer-ridden mother. To distance herself from this betrayal, Carmel turns inward, raising Nell, her daughter, and one trusted love, alone. The Wren, the Wren brings to life three generations of McDaragh women who must contend with inheritances―of poetic wonder and of abandonment by a man who is lauded in public and carelessly selfish at home. Their other, stronger inheritance is a sustaining love that is “more than a strand of DNA, but a rope thrown from the past, a fat twisted rope, full of blood.” In sharp prose studded with crystalline poetry, Anne Enright masterfully braids a family story of longing, betrayal, and hope.

Characters:

Main characters are Carmel and Nell. Carmel is Nells mother, an extremely practical woman who closed herself off to emotions. A lot of times she has trouble understanding about why certain things can be enjoyed by others. She is also attempting to discover her father's legacy and what impact that legacy has had on her. Nell is perhaps best described as her grandfather personified; she is extremely careless, emotional, travels everywhere and seems to be without roots. She also is unable to get along with her mother. 

Theme

What feeds into modern day you? 

Plot:

It definitely depends, but most of the novel is either from Nells or Carmels point of view. One chapter does have Phil's point of view. Nell is first person narrative without quotation marks while Carmels is third person narrative with quotation marks. Phil's is first person narrative.  The novel also explores with generational legacy that Phil has left the McDaraugh women and it focuses a lot on their attempts to live, love and travel. While there are some references to time, but for me it was hard to say when the story took place. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has published three volumes of stories, one book of nonfiction, and five novels. In 2015, she was named the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. Her novel The Gathering won the Man Booker Prize, and The Forgotten Waltz won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Opinion:

It's definitely one of the interesting books I have read: part literary tale part generational trauma part unresolved conflicts and part poetry, there is a lot to unpack in this slim 273 page novel. What I think was definitely the highlight for me was the use of poetry at almost every end of chapter which gives some context on what characters were discussing, and which also changed my perspective on Ireland. There is definitely an interesting juxtaposition between the use of birds and nature versus the daily life of the McDaragh women. Another unexpected highlight for me were unresolved conflicts between the women and the patriarch, Phil. With minor spoilers, Carmel and her mother were abandoned by Phil at a certain low point in their lives, and they must contend with that absence in various ways: namely Carmel shutting down the parts that would cause her to become like her father, her emotions, creativity and feminity. The conflict between Phil and the women went unresolved and it becomes up to the women to either resolve it or ignore it.  

This was given for review 

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)