Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2248 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

London Review of Books
'...remarkable...for the unblinking attention it pays to the inner lives of its characters'

Irish Independent
At a time when everyone is mirroring everyone else, Enright's style of writing remains singular and instantly identifiable

Daily Mail
She beautifully describes the way hurt can be inherited... Enright is a daring writer - witty, original and inventive... Utterly compelling

Customer Reviews

Don`t waste your time and money
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.

A definite no-no!
Oh dear ... what can one say about this book (that hasn't already been said by other reviewers certainly). I read this book for my book group and after the first 15 pages or so found myself thinking - right, let's get this book over and done with and get on to something interesting! The central premise was obviously the gathering of the relatives for Liam's funeral but Veronica (the narrator of the story) meandered from thought to thought and appeared to be obsessed with sex which become very tedious and boring after a while. The chapters and asides about Ada the grandmother seemed totally unnecessary and very odd and apart from the abuse part with Lambert Nugent could easily have been left out - except that would have made the book thinner than it was and was presumably just padding.

There was no real story to this book I found and although I could empathise with some of Veronica's feelings concerning her children and her siblings the whole thing was just a bit too odd and strange to make it a worthwhile read.

Can't think how it did win the Booker prize - who nobbled the judges!

don't buy this book (no star)
This book was one I couldn't wait to finish so I could chuck it away and not have to remember that I wasted any time on it.It was the worst I have read for as long as I can remember.The story chopped and changed and I did not understand many of her discriptions and had to go back and re-read them to see if they made anymore sense (they didn't).
Save your money, wish I'd saved mine.