The Gathering

Thank you for joining this month's Reader's Den. I hope everyone enjoyed The Gathering, or at least got something out of the discussion. Please stay tuned for next month's book, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga.
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More discussion questions about Anne Enright's The Gathering.

Liam’s suicide seems to be a sort of catalyst for Veronica to explore her childhood memories of him and search for the point in their family life that set him off course. Was the guilt she has about Liam’s abuse present throughout her life, or do you believe the memories have only resurfaced after his death?

Liam's child Rowan was previously unknown to the Hegartys but he is met with love and happiness. What is his role within the family?

What does the future hold for Veronica in regard to her husband and family? Has her character grown throughout the novel, and, if so, how? Did you find her empathetic?

Continuing on with our discussion of Enright's novel, consider this quote from page 164. "There was great privacy in a big family . . . no one ever pitied you or loved you a little."  read more »

The first words of Anne Enright's book, The Gathering are as follows:

"I would like to write down what happened in my grandmother's house the summer I was eight or nine, but I am not sure if it really did happen. I need to bear witness to an uncertain event. I feel it roaring inside me--this thing that may not have taken place. I don't even know what name to put on it. I think you might call it a crime of the flesh, but the flesh is long fallen away and I am not sure what hurt may linger in the bones."

This quote is from the narrator, Veronica Hegarty, about an event that may or may not have occurred to her recently deceased brother, Liam in their childhood. As she tries to piece together her memories from childhood in the wake of Liam's suicide and funeral, she confronts the possible sexual abuse of her brother by her grandmother's friend and landlord.

The Gathering switches back and force from the present to Veronica's childhood and back even further to her grandmother Ada's youth. Her memories of childhood events are contributed to and sometimes changed by her siblings while they gather for the wake of their brother. This event is something Veronica feels a tremendous amount of guilt for, but in the beginning she's not even sure if it happened. How does this change over the course of the novel?

Welcome to the Reader's Den! This month we will be reading and discussing The Gathering by Anne Enright. You can reserve your copy through the catalog link above, or visit your local branch to see if they have one available.

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or reviews for others to read and respond to. Check back often!

About the Author

Anne Enright at Literaturhaus Köln/Cologne (Germany) 18th November 2008, via Wikimedia Commons

Anne Enright was born in Dublin in 1962. She has written eight books and is a frequent contributer to The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Granta and The Guardian among other publications. The Gathering won the Man Booker prize in 2007. To read more about her and the Booker prize award, check out this interview of her in The Guardian.