The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright – Book Review

Book three. Don’t expect much from this ‘review’ as I just did not know what was going on.

If you want a one-liner summary: it’s been a long whilst since I’ve got frustrated by a book but I just didn’t get it, nor enjoyed it.

Here, we have The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright*.

What is The Wren, The Wren about?

In short, I don’t know. I honestly cannot tell you what happened in this book. I read it and did not understand it.

My summary is equally as chaotic as the daughter’s narrative, compared to the mother’s calmer prose.

Clearly, the daughter’s approach to life is a bit messy. Her dialogue is all over the place, with spelling and grammatical mistakes at times, before breaking out into random poetry. She’s living away in London from her original Irish-native, where the mother’s father is meant to play a big part… honestly, I couldn’t see it.

Truly, I would be grateful if someone pointed out what I missed in this book. I just DID NOT understand.

I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t really understand or like poetry: I’ve never got to grips with it.

Common themes

• Poetry?
• Confusion 🙂

Similar books or genres

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood – for those who like books where I don’t seem to know what’s going on :’) 

I spoke to my boyfriend’s dad about this book and he did provide an alternative take on it when I mentioned it was a hybrid of prose and poetry. It’s not my favourite genre, although he pointed out that sometimes it’s about saying a much as you can with as few words as possible.

Hmm…

Yep, it didn’t work for me.

Would I recommend it?

😶

Will this win the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024?

The world is full of surprises.

In the words of Thumper’s mother from Bambi (a credible quote indeed), ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.’

And with that, I end this blog.

fin.

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