The Gathering

Author: Anne Enright
Publisher: Black Cat 2007

I had intended to write this using the same style as Enright's. However, due to unforeseen reasons, I couldn't begin right after finishing the book. Not only do I lack her talents, but I also lost confidence after that long break. Besides, I've forgotten what I initially wanted to write. So, this is a crude attempt to convey something about this book, given that time is now a factor.

Veronica grew up in a large family, the Hegarty clan. She is the eighth child of Mammy Maureen and an unnamed father. The names of the twelve children are Midge, Bea, Ernest, Steve, Ita, Mossie, Liam, Veronica, Kitty, Alice, Ivor, and Jem.

Veronica's grandmother, Ada, and Maureen's mother, had three children: Maureen, Rose, and Brandon. Ada's husband was Charlie. Then there is Lambert Nugent who was in love with Ada since 1925.

Steve died at the age of two, and Midge passed away after having her own large family. By the mid-70s, the surviving members of the Hegarty clan had grown up and scattered around the world. Veronica, with a college degree, is married with two kids. Liam, just 11 months older than Veronica, was very close to her growing up. However, their relationship changed when Liam dropped out of college and moved to England. Nevertheless, the news of Liam's death hit Veronica hard.

English laws prevent the release of the body for ten days, providing the Hegarty clan time to come together for the funeral. This story is a reminiscence of the lives of the Hegarty clan written by Veronica. Her memories are suspect; she admits some are not true, leaving others for us to decipher.

It's an intriguing story, and Enright's writing style enhances the narrative. I'll quote selected passages from the book to give you an idea, and with that, I'll end this note.

“All the beds are dressed and ready.  The girls slept upstairs and the boys on the ground floors (we had a system, you see).  It is a warren.  The twins’ bunk-beds are in a little room on the left of the hall door — the one where baby Stevie died.  On the other side of the room is a doorway to the garage extension, with its three single beds.  Beyond that again in the garden passage, where Ernest slept on a mattress on the floor, then Mossie, when Ernest left, and Liam the last of all.” (Page 24)

“I stay up all night.  At half eleven, if he is home, Tom puts his head around the door of the small study and says, ‘Don’t stay up all night!’ as if he didn’t know that I will not sleep with him, not for a good while yet, and perhaps never again—which is how all this started, in a way, my refusal to climb in beside my husband a month or so after Liam died, my inability to sleep in any other bed than the one we used to share.  Because, I will not have the girls find me in the spare room.”  

What else can I do?  We could not afford a divorce.  Besides I do not want to leave him.  I cannot sleep with him, that is all.  So my husband is waiting for me to sleep with him again, and I am waiting for something else.  I am waiting for things to become clear.”  (Page 37)