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| The Gathering | 
 enlarge | Author: Anne Enright
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Category: Book
List Price: £12.99
Buy Used: £0.61
You Save: £12.38 (95%)
New (29) from £3.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  73 reviews
Sales Rank: 13226
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 260
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0224078739
EAN: 9780224078733
ASIN: 0224078739
Publication Date: May 3, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 68 more reviews...
 The gathering of dispersive thoughts November 14, 2008
`The Gathering' happens because Liam Hegarty dies suddenly. Through the words of his beloved sister Veronica who collects his body and organizes the funeral, we learn the tale of the Hegarty family and a terrible secret from the distant past which she shares with Liam. Collecting her thoughts, feelings and memories hopping through three generations I suppose reflects an intrinsic quality, a certain originality in this novel, but it still did not satisfy me.
The display of thoughts and situations that flow and scatter chasing each other in almost every page is often too disjointed for my liking. This probably conveys Veronica's pain and state of mind in an authentic way -facing the irreversible past and struggling with grief, seeking redemption- but I found that past and present interchanging swiftly, with juxtapositional vague memories and some mental images, rendered the whole story a bit knotty. Also, I really did not think that any of the characters were suitably portrayed. There are no standouts one way or the other, which could have added depth to the novel; perhaps this was the author's intention (i.e. a portrait of a very ordinary, numerous, imperfect family) but because most characters seem to just linger in the background, without much purpose, the result was that I soon found the whole thing quite dispersive, bordering boring.
I have finished the book because I always do, but I was expecting more by a Man Booker Prize Winner.
Sorry, sometimes that's the way it goes.
 Misunderstood October 20, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A lot of people reviewed this book and were negative about the character development. To me it was all about the main character. Not anyone else. Her grief was obvious from the start til the finish. I think this is a book for someone who has lost a sibling, I have. Being from Dublin I also associate with some of the places of "refuge" that she went to lament. In all, I think this book was a true and honest novel that covered a fragile and important facet of loss.
Hard to comprehend other reviews here October 19, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is easily the best book I have read this year. The prose is fantastic, beautiful and hallucinagenic (as the critics say). Quite how other reviews on here can find such wonderful writing boring is beyond me. I cannot recommend this book enough. Very few books truly waste a word but this is one. A very clever woman wrote this book.
Not for those who like detritus such as Jodi Picoult (now there is a BORING writer!)
 No idea how this ever won the Booker 2007 October 19, 2008
The Booker prize shortlist included some fine books. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones, and On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan all spring to mind - yet The Gathering won. It's the most boring, turgid novel I have had the displeasure to read in a number of years and I cannot begin to understand how it won such a prestigious award. Read this only if you suffer from insomnia.
Don`t waste your time and money September 28, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the most tedious book I have ever read.I read it together with other members of a book club and nobody liked it. It was full of self pity and unlikeable characters. How it won the Booker Prize I don`t understand. At the book club we even joked about having a ritual burning of it as we disliked it so much.
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