This is a rarity for me. I didn't finish this book.

Enright's writing style is authentic enough. I do sense a real person narrating. But the narrative just wasn't that special, didn't take me by the hand to places I cared enough to keep up with her on. Whatever build up and impact to the various events seemed to fizzle out.

My feeling about it is perhaps the worse thing I can say about a book: it simply wasn't worth my time.

Terrible. Fragmented literature.....boring characters...and we were given no liberty to know more about them but for the main character who is self-absorbed about her own trivial life. Hard to finish. Synopsis is fooling...won't ever recommend this author for any book club read! What a waste of paper and ink.

There was some clever writing; a few sentences that made you put the book down and savour the sentence just read, but overall not worth the time. Read the book because of the awards. Took effort to finish. I won't read anything else from this author.

I am so surprised that this award winning novel is far from the expectation I had for it. The protagonist is distant and withdrawn, her ambigious and slightly sarcastic attitude towards the family members that she was supposed to care about just doesn't help. The incongruence of her actions and thoughts makes it hard for readers to relate to her. Agree with other reviewers, I had to admit that the writing might be a bit boring.

The Gathering is the fourth novel I have read written by Irish author Anne Enright. It won the 2007 Man Booker Prize.
The novel involves the "inner journey" of the main character, the narrator, Veronica- and dives quickly from the present to the past and back again and takes place in England and Ireland. The title "The Gathering" refers to the narrator and her siblings gathering for the wake of their brother Liam. Liam is an alcoholic who committed suicide in the ocean. His mother and his eight siblings gather in Dublin for his wake. Veronica is 39 years old, and was closest with Liam. As she tries to make sense of her brother's death, she uncovers her family's dark and secretive past.
A difficult and dark read, you have to work hard to read this novel and enjoy it. I don't believe that this is a novel for the average reader.

Very difficult to get through. I found the writing stilted and sometimes difficult to follow. The characters were not empathetic whatsoever, so you never really cared what would happen in the end. Very disappointing.

How did this win awards? Terrible, drawn out, boring work. Save yourself the trouble.

As others did, I too picked up this book because it was a best seller. I cannot describe it as anything but disappointing....DO NOT BOTHER WITH IT!!

I bought this book because it was on the bestseller list and because it sounded interesting. I read a few chapters and absolutely hated it!! The story kept going from past to present and the language was confusing. I usually donate the books I don't want to the library or friends/family but I did not feel that this book should be shared - I threw it in the garbage.

This book begins as very coarse and vulgar journey through grief and the family dynamics that the narrator feels lie at the cause of her brother's recent death. I was a bit put off to start but by the midpoint I could not put it down. Grief, mid-life crisis and the emotional pain family members inflict upon one another are very real and not always pretty or neatly resolved. This is not, in my mind, a book for readers who are not themselves in or nearing mid-life but I could be wrong. I did find it to be dark, haunting and powerful.

It is rare that I want to stop reading a book. I think it does the writer a disservice if I don't see it to the end. This book was tough to continue reading. I found that it skipped around too much with too many characters and that she often used vulgar language that was unnecessary. I am surprised that it was a top seller. I gave it 2 stars because I think it had potential.

This is one of the only books I have ever not been interested in finishing at all. I abandoned it half way through. The language was odd and choppy; it had no flow. I also did not actually find the story engaging, and it moved along at barely a crawl. I did not feel for the main character's loss and found the moving of the story between the past and present irritating.