The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright

As long as Enright doesn't fumble the ending (I suspect she won't) this is surely a well-deserved inclusion. It is disappointing, however, to see yet another strong books missing out on last year's Booker Prize for weaker works. (Though if this were longlisted, there's a chance that the number of Irish authors might've been too many.)

I didn't love Actress, so I was somewhat hesitant to read The Wren, The Wren, but I'm glad I took the plunge.

I did not really hit it off with this one - it’s well written but left me cold. I think the poetry did not help.

Just won The Writers Prize Fiction Award.

I also felt it was well written but that I wasn’t emotionally invested in it. I listened to it on Audible where there were multiple narrators. Phil’s poetry was always read by the male narrator, which gave a sense of his intrusive overshadowing to Nel and Carmel’s lives.

I am an Enright fan and I appreciated the quality of the writing here (although I confess that I skimmed the poems). But I found the characters mostly quite unlikeable, and that detracted from my reading experience. To me this is not anywhere near as good as some of her other novels, but I did like it more than Actress.

I've just finished this. I enjoyed it, but not as much as her other novels like The Green Road, which has the most brilliant and funny description of Constance doing the 'big Christmas shop'!

Also, a minor niggle - why have mother and daughter with similar-sounding and rhyming names - Carmel/ Nell? I listened to part of this on audiobook and my brain was confusing them (but that may just be me!)

Enjoyed her lovely descriptive writing though, as usual. Anne Enright narrates the audiobook herself, which is an added bonus in this case.

Beautiful writing but I wasn’t moved by it at all, and I can barely tell you what happened.

I'd love to throw some contrary opinions into the mix, but my thoughts are pretty much the same.

I enjoyed this without being knocked out by it. It's well written but I can't now remember many of the details. I skimmed the poems.

This one I read on Kindle. I did not enjoy the first narrative piece by Nell, thinking that I was so tired of toxic relationships. I liked the Carmel POV much better. The poems did not add anything for me. I did not find it a compelling read in any sense of the word.

I agree with this. I am about 70% of the way though and enjoying the Carmel chapters a lot more than Nell. The Nell chapters remind me of The Idiot (Elif Batuman), with the toxic relationship without any particular explanation for the self sabotage

I know you all said the Carmel chapters are better, but I can't get past Nell. I feel like I'm stuck in a bad Girls episode. I'm going to put this aside. I may or may not come back to it.

I preferred Nell to be honest.

This was ok, I enjoyed the earlier chapters much more than the later and didn’t feel particularly connected to any of it.