The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright: book review
Overview: Nell is a writer adrift. She's captivated by her poet grandfather's legacy and unsure of her next steps in life. She moves out of her mom's house, but only across the town. It's hard to make big moves when there's no direction screaming out to you. Then there's her mother, Carmel, who had Nell alone and poured her life into the girl. She dated here and there, taught school. But she never quite found her roots. Her turbulent family life growing up greatly informed her approach to family, and her father, who Nell idolizes, has left Carmel much to sort through in adult life, long after he's gone. This multigenerational family story weaves together the impact we make on those close to us. Overall: 4.5
Characters: 4 The book begins in Nell's point of view. Each character gets a very distinct voice and style to accompany their sections of the book. Nell is very stream of consciousness, no quotation marks, thoughts jumping all around. It's a much looser feel than Sally Rooney's writing, but it's immediately clear why the book is blurbed by Rooney. Nell is a quintessential twenty-something struggling to figure it all out. I enjoyed her chapters and her random musings. She evolves from a point of stasis, not knowing what she wants to do with her life after university, to really jumping into things head first. It's her mother that points this out towards the end of the book, but Nell's journey is really about coming back to the person she was before life grabbed ahold of her.
I wasn't sure about Carmel's chapters at first, but I grew to really appreciate her more grounded feeling. Carmel provides the generational bridge between Nell and her grandfather, and she also gives the readers a reality check on their more wild storytelling whims. Carmel is the character we get the most expansive view of, starting in her childhood and then moving all the way forward through her fifties. In a major contrast to Nell, she does use quotation marks and a much more linear, direct storytelling style. She feels grounded and logical, and this is mostly communicated through the writing itself, which shows a strong grasp of craft on Enright's part. It's fascinating to get her higher level perspective on Nell.
Then there's Phil. To Carmel, he's the father that abandoned her, her sister, and her mother, who was battling cancer. To Nell, he's an inspiration, proof of someone who made a life off of words before her. We mainly see him through Carmel and Nell's lenses, but there is a single chapter from his perspective that dips into first person point of view and deeply colorful, poetic language, bringing him to life in his own words with a sliver of his childhood memories. Overall, these characters are compelling and multi-faceted having both their triumphs and flaws equally examined.
Plot: 4 In true literary fiction form, the plot is a long, winding road that sometimes feels more like an animal trail. The emotional backbone is there. Nell comes back into herself in a gratifying way that makes the book feel complete, but there's no clear driving direction in her chapters. Carmel's chapters fill in the backstory for the ideas and events Nell's chapters introduce in the present day. They have a much more traditional structure and development, but the way it's sandwiched into the other chapters disrupts this feeling in the book overall. What can I say? It's a literary novel to the bone.
Writing: 4 I largely liked Enright's writing. All of Nell's tangents and random thoughts felt apt, relatable, and thought-provoking. Her chapters were some of my favorites across the book, and it took me a while to warm to the idea of having different narrators. I can see why Enright chose to do this having finished the whole book, but alternating narrators is always a risk. My only other moment of hesitation with this book is how often I lost the thread of what was being discussed across the entire novel. The tangents were a bit confusing, making loops that didn't add much to the plot or characterization, and I had to keep zoning myself back into the scenes at times. Overall, though, I really did enjoy this book, and I can see why it's getting so much praise and awards buzz.
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