The Wren, The Wren Review
“Beautifully written, with a great balance between being serious and very funny.”
★★★★☆
The Wren, The Wren tackles the complexity of family relationships and trauma through a single contemporary Irish family across three generations.
The story follows Nell, a woman in her early twenties on a journey of discovery, narrating her independence, relationships, love, and eventual travel, while also jumping back in time to tell the story of her mother, Carmel. In the present day and through flashbacks, we learn of Carmel's relationship with her daughter, and the more complicated one with her father -- a (fictional) well-known Irish poet, who despite not being super involved in her life, has a lasting presence that is difficult to leave behind. Anne Enright alternates perspectives in each chapter, switching between mother and daughter to reveal different sides of their characters, and to loosely continue the plot. Character development takes precedence over plot in this stunning read.
Chapters are interspersed with poems representing the legacy of Carmel's father and Nell's grandfather, the aforementioned poet. These poetic interludes lend to both the unique voice and pacing of the author and Nell's own budding search for creativity. While the poetry might be better appreciated by other readers (it's not exactly my forte), I enjoyed the breaks it introduced to the novel's rhythm, preceding switches between characters and encouraging the reader to pause and soak in each chapter.
The pacing of the writing is similarly contemplative; beautifully written, with a great balance between being serious and very funny, this book is definitely not a beach read or something to fly through. With an almost after-thought plot, it isn’t a typical page turner– this one is easy to pause, put down, and come back to another time, but every time I picked it up again, I was pulled right back into Nell and Carmel's world. Anne Enright manages to make the reader feel as though they are growing and learning with the characters, and somehow makes their odd dynamic feel incredibly relatable.
