Fiction – Kindle edition; Jonathan Cape; 288 pages; 2023. Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley.
The last time I read an Anne Enright novel — Actress, published in 2020 — I came away from it thinking, so what? Sadly, that’s the same reaction I had with her latest novel, The Wren, The Wren, an intergenerational tale revolving around a (fictional) famous poet whose poor behaviour has long-lasting impacts on the women in his life.
The poet is Phil McDaragh, best known for his poem about a wren (hence the novel’s title), who is celebrated for his literary talent. He’s a bit of a cad on the home front, though, and treats his wife abominably. He later moves abroad and marries a much younger woman. When the story opens he is long dead but his influence reverberates throughout the generations.
The tale is largely framed around Phil’s daughter, Carmel, and Carmel’s daughter, Nell, who take turns telling their stories in alternate chapters, Carmel’s in the third person and Nell’s in the first, and these jump around in time to cover the span of Carmel’s life from young girl to middle-aged woman.
Two narrative threads
When the book opens, Nell is 22 and in love with a country lad called Felim, who treats her badly and uses coercive control to keep her in her place, but she’s too young and inexperienced to recognise this as abuse. She has never met her poet grandfather except via his poems and an old TV interview she finds online.
Meanwhile, her mother, Carmel, remains single because she never wanted to be in the same position as her mother: discarded by the man she loves. But that’s not to say Carmel hasn’t had relationships: as a young single mother she is courted by a dull man who needs her more than she needs him and it feels like Carmel is settling for something that neither makes her happy nor fulfilled.
In this interleaved, intergenerational tale, Enright seems to suggest the idea that families are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over unless they are prepared to confront the past and deal with it. Carmel knows that her father treated her mother badly but she mirrors this in her own relationships, and even Nell can’t seem to escape Phil’s shadow nor understand when she is being played by her so-called boyfriend.
Kept at a distance
Unfortunately, I didn’t much care for these characters; I felt too distanced from them and found their lives and problems dull and uninspired.
Perhaps it didn’t help that the digital ARC (advanced readers copy) that I read had formatting problems, making it difficult to distinguish the poetry that is interspersed throughout from the prose.
But the writing is, of course, beautiful and witty and full of insights into families and patriarchy and domestic servitude. There are passages of prose that “sing” and there are many references to birds and metaphors related to flight and nesting, mirroring the abandonment experienced by these characters and their very human need for a safe and happy home, respectively.
But this wasn’t enough to save The Wren, The Wren, which was interesting in parts but as a whole didn’t really work for me…
Reading Matters 
The second review of this that I’ve read in two days: yesterday’s being from Susan Osborne (A Life in Books) which you’ve doubtless seen This seems to be a slightly flawed offering from a usually reliable author. I think I’d still like to give it a go. Maybe not having an advanced copy may save it for me.
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Ah, I haven’t seen Susan’s review. I will go and look it up. I actually don’t class Enright as “reliable” but I do find her work interesting.
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To be honest it’s ages since I’ve read anything of hers, so I probably need to reappraise…
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The only one I’ve truly loved is The Last Waltz. I also liked The Gathering. I thought The Green Road entertaining but not a must read. The Actress was not engaging. This one was dull. But maybe I am being harsh 🤷🏻♀️
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Oh gosh. It really is a long time since I’ve read anything by her and my memories are hazy. You’re not tempting me …
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I have a copy but will now approach with caution. I enjoyed the green road & the gathering but like you was bemused and confused by the actress.
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It’s quite similar to the Actress in that it’s about living in the shadow of a famous parent and also explores a fraught mother-daughter relationship.
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I am partial to a fraught mother-daughter relationship !
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This might work for you then.
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I can see that having Phil’s cheesy poetry integrated into the narrative wouldn’t aid enjoyment! I was left feeling I wouldn’t be jumping at the chance to read her next novel.
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I had high hopes for this one and have seen glowing reviews in the mainstream press but it fell rather flat for me. I won’t be in a rush to read the next one. In fact I think I wrote on GoodReads that I was done with Anne Enright. 🤷🏻♀️
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I think I’ll skip this one too.
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I was disappointed… and feel like I wasted too much precious time on it for little reward.
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Interesting kimbofo. I have only read The gathering of hers, but I do remember your posts on the previous one. I guess I’ll focus – when I can – on other Irish writers.
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Well, I’ve read the last five but I reckon the last two have been a bit mundane or too navel-gazing or something for me… I really loved The Last Waltz and The Gathering.
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Maybe I’ll try to read The last waltz if I get to read any more of hers.
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Oh dear, I was hoping she’d come out with something of the calibre of The Gathering which was the strongest of the 3 books I’ve read by her. I did enjoy Actress though it wasn’t a wow read. Now I’m wondering whether to bother getting The Wren when I have so many other books I could be reading
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If you enjoyed Actress you might like this; there’s a lot of shared themes.
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Maybe that will make it a bit too familiar feeling. I don’t know. It might end up being a book I request from the library, that way if i don’t like it I won’t feel guilty about wasting money on a DNF
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That’s what I tend to do too: if I’m unsure about a book I borrow it from the library.
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I haven’t read this yet but I saw Anne Enright speak about it at the State Library last night and she was fantastic (note: I’m a fan of her books).
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I’m a fan too … and I’d happily listen to her talk all day (pity I didn’t know she was at State Library; I was in Melbourne last night) … but I think I’m done with her books. The last two I read were dull and disappointing 🤷🏻♀️
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