The Gathering by Anne Enright (a review)

2 out of 5: Winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize. The story unfolds as a dysfunctional family gathers together for the funeral of the dead brother Liam, who killed himself by swimming out into the ocean. Flashbacks abound and hidden secrets of the past are revealed. Enright's prose is unique: sparse, poetic, and evocative of deep mourning. Unless artful prose can keep you entertained for several hundred pages, however, this book is likely to be slow going for you. Although I appreciate Enright’s masterful writing, I struggled to finish this book.