A deeply Irish novel that explores the lives of three generations of women affected by the legacy of grandfather/father/husband Phil McDaragh, a renowned poet who abandoned his family.

This was my first Anne Enright and I will definitely be picking up more from this author. I really enjoyed this book but it was emotionally draining at times due to the mother/daughter dynamics explored. Enright was able to so accurately depict the complicated relationships that children have with their parents and how a parents actions sometimes haunt their children more than themselves. Irish authors definitely had their moment in 2023 and Enright's writing style is something that I will always gravitate toward. Not too fancy, blunt and brutal when needed, and oozing with human emotion and experience.

Poetry was hard for me to absorb at times but it’s so beautiful. I don’t feel smart enough for it! Authors note was needed!

Three generations of women and their past traumas are brought to life in The Wren, The Wren. Nell McDaragh never knew her grandmother, famous Irish poet Phil McDaragh. But she knows the know affect he had on her mother, who Phil left. She feels a pull towards her grandfather’s wild spirit. She doesn’t want to stay in one spot and wait for life to happen. Her mother may want a quiet life be she surely doesnt. Carmel, who was left by Phil, feels differently. Her takers wandering spirit only made her want to settle in place and have a home. A place to call her own. A place that brings her the peace she didn’t get from her childhood. She knows the feelings her Daddo’s poetry but she won’t be fooled by it. She has protected her mother, Terry, who was riddled with cancer and her sister. She will raise her daughter in the same way she protected her mom and sister. She does her best to work out her issues with her dad and a life that didn’t go as planned. This was a good enough read, but I have to say it wasn’t my favorite. It got long winded at points and I felt there were points that felt disjointed from the main storyline. I did continue to read because I wanted to see how these ladies settled their lives.. but it wasn’t the ending I thought it would be. I want to thank Netgalley and Anne Enright for my copy for an honest review. It is aways a pleasure to read and review new authors/books. And even though this wasn’t a home run for me, I would like to hear others opinions on it.

I loved the Wren, the Wren and would certainly read more from Anne Enright. I liked the dynamics between the women as well.

For Sally Rooney readers looking to change things up. A moving story about family legacy and how to reconcile with a man in your life who's loved and revered by all but who isn't that great to you or to your family.

3.75⭐

As the novel begins, we meet twenty-two-year-old Nell, who seeks to carve out a life for herself as a writer. Her need to be independent prompts her to move out of her mother’s home despite the financial struggles and loneliness it might entail. Nell’s relationship with her mother is complicated. Carmel, the daughter of Irish poet Phil McDaragh, carries the scars of a troubled childhood. Her father abandoned his family – Carmel, her sister and their terminally ill mother for greener pastures but left them with a legacy of debt and emotional trauma. Nell never met her grandfather but has been exposed to his work and is curious to know more about him. As the narrative progresses, we follow Nell as embarks on a deeply personal journey of self-awareness and healing, dealing with her frustration with her work and her relationship with Felim, who is controlling and abusive. We also follow Carmel’s story and are given a glimpse into how her experiences have taken a toll on her personal relationships and contributed to her inability to connect with her daughter, whom she loves dearly.

The Wren The Wren by Anne Enright is an intense novel that explores the impact of trauma and the deep scars that are passed down through generations of a family. Anne Enright does a remarkable job of portraying the complex mother-daughter dynamic between Nell and Carmen. Multiple perspectives (Nell, Carmel and one chapter from the PoV of Phil), allow us to explore the motivations, expectations and trauma experienced by the main characters which not only impacts their relationships but also influences their worldview and life choices. Personally, I found Carmel's perspective the most compelling. The narrative is a tad disjointed and the structure is non-linear, which renders the story somewhat difficult to follow. I loved the poetry interspersed throughout the narrative and thought the sentiments conveyed through those verses beautifully carried the story forward. Despite the lack of cohesiveness throughout the course of the narrative, the author has done a commendable job of weaving the three main threads of the story together into a satisfying ending. I should mention that I did find one particularly descriptive scene of animal cruelty disturbing.

Many thanks to W.W. Norton and Company and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This novel was published on September 19, 2023.

This book is a thoughtful examination of family and legacy through three generations—a long-deceased lauded poet, his daughter, and granddaughter—from multiple points of view . At first I struggled to get into it but ultimately found the prose and multiple points of view to add to such a compelling portrait of this family that is struggling generations later to come out from under the shadow of the man who shaped their lives and outlook on life,

This was a good read. The Wren, the Wren traces three generations of Irish women and their connections to a poet, Phil McDaragh. Nell, his granddaughter; Carmel, his daughter; and his wife. Phil mistreats his wife even as she is sick with cancer and abandons the family thereafter, the trauma of which echos through all their relationships. I enjoyed the lyrical writing and the exploration of generational trauma and relationships, but something bugged me about a book ostensibly about women somehow centering around a man.

Thanks to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This week’s headline? Fucking birds
Why this book? Idek anymore
Which book format? ARC
Primary reading environment? w3rk
Any preconceived notions? No
Identify most with? No one
Three little words? “oozing, inner self”
Goes well with? Birds
Recommend this to? Bird watchers and people who like family dramas
Other cultural accompaniments: https://www.npr.org/2023/09/07/1195623543/the-wren-the-wren-book-review-anne-enright
I leave you with this: “I look up ‘love at first sight’ in the movies but apart from The Little Mermaid, it only happens to guys.”
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Okay so, this book was so boring I ended up not finishing it. There seemed like endless passages about birds. And I should’ve figured that out beforehand because the freaking title is a type of bird! 🤦‍♀️ At times, there were beautiful musings on wanting to feel connected with others - but then there were birds. I don’t care about birds. I don’t care if the birds are metaphors or whatever the fuck literary device the author wants to employ.

Also, I couldn’t relate to any of the characters either. I despised the male main character; he’s a piece of shit poet who abandons his dying wife and daughters. Do yourself a favor and do what I did not immediately do - skip this book.

The Wren, the Wren is now available.

Unfortunately this just wasn't for me. I do really enjoy Enright's sharp, witty writing, but the narrative of this book was just not strong enough to sustain my interest. It was more a series of thoughts and vignettes, whereas I prefer a more substantial narrative or story arc.

Thank you for sharing this title with me!

Wow, what an incredibly beautiful, tender and immersive book that takes you deeply into the minds and lives of mother and daughter and the legacy of the men who have been a part of those lives.

Anne Enright's writing felt like the same ilk as so many of my other favorites such as Caleb Azumah Nelson, Ocean Vuong, and Carmen Maria Machado-- carries you like a narrative, lifts you like poetry.

Absolutely beautiful.

The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright is very highly recommended literary fiction following the legacy of trauma in an Irish family.

Celebrated Irish poet Phil McDaragh is the grandfather of Nell, father of Carmel, and was the husband of Terry. Each of them experiences the legacy of his poems differently. Nell was raised by her single mother, Carmel. She is a recent university graduate who never knew her grandfather, but his love poems speak to her. She's involved in a toxic relationship that she struggles to leave. Carmel is a hard, practical realist who knows the spells her father's poetry can spin, but also knows he abandoned his wife who had breast cancer and left his two daughters to care for her as he went off to charm women and had affairs. She is fiercely the mother to Nell while viewing her father realistically. She has heard how he charmed Terry and witnessed his later actions.

The novel is filled with lyrical poems featuring birds, but also very real episodes of cruelty and violence. There is a strong juxtaposition of the expressive beauty of the poetry with the realistic violence and betrayal. The narrative switches between the point-of-view of Nell, Carmel, and Phil. The complicated feeling Carmel feels for her father while also knowing the worse of his behavior illustrates the sharp contrasts between his poetry and behavior. Nell's entanglements also seem to mimic this same disparity.

Both Nell and Carmel are portrayed as realistic, fully realized characters, with flaws, struggles, and strengths. You will hope for the best for both of them and their relationship as daughter and mother while they deal with their issues and the complications from their family name.

What sets this literary family drama apart from other novels is the impeccable writing that soulfully captures the yearning, betrayal, and longing of the characters as they must each journey to their own conclusions. They have inherited the ties to Phil's poetic accomplishes, but must determine what inheritance this will mean for their lives. That Enright successfully tackles this quandary in the narrative and accomplishes this, seemingly with ease, is part of what made this an exceptional novel.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of W.W. Norton & Company via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, BookBrowse, X, and Amazon.

Three generations of women-all affected by Irish poet Phil McDaragh-the women being wife Terry, daughter Carmen and grandfather Nell.
Character driven, very beautifully written, with the main character in my mind being Nell. They are all, directly or indirectly, abused either mentally and/or physically by him.
I much prefer plot driven rather than character driven works,and that holds true for this novel.
So-in short-for me a good but not great read. Others I’m sure will love it

Thank you to the publisher for this eARC. One of the difficulties in reading eARCs has to do with formatting and in the case of this text, being unable to see the formatting of the poetry within the text reduced some of the meaning. My hope is to eventually see a print version of this text to reexamine some of the line lengths.

The lyricality is the central focus of this book. And while I find that beautifully written books are engaging, they don't necessarily interest my students (high school). In searching for a new text, I want the style to highlight either a character or a plot point. This novel doesn't necessarily do that. I really wanted to love this text based on the premise, but I found myself struggling with the likeability of the characters. Nell's perspective begins the novel, but I was much more compelled by Carmel's story and I wanted more of the background centering on her father's abandonment. The seeds were planted to discuss intergenerational trauma, especially given the setting in Ireland, but it wasn't fully fleshed out.

For me, it was good, not great.

I had a difficult time getting into The Wren, The Wren, but the beautiful language would not let me walk away. The more I read, the more I wanted to keep reading. Once into it, the story engaged me, and while I wouldn't say I was hooked, I will say that in the end it was well worth the read. This book will appeal to readers who appreciate language and literary fiction,

This book was a nice surprise; alternating between three generations of an Irish family (Phil, the grandfather; Carmel, the mother; and Nell, the daughter), Enright unravels a quiet story about how closely one can come to know and understand their own loved ones.

From the first chapter, which is from Nell’s perspective, I was expecting a different kind of story—a sort of millennial malaise narrative in the vein of Sally Rooney maybe (which I would have also enjoyed!). But the introduction of Carmel and Phil’s POVs adds a lot of depth and tenderness to the novel. Each section has a distinct voice and lovely writing (particularly in Phil’s—the poet, naturally). The way Enright structures these sections is so clever; in my reading, the central tension of the book is the distance between the characters, and in particular, the distance Carmel feels between her father and her daughter. Nell and Phil’s sections are in 1st person, and they seem to be the center of their own universes. But Carmel’s are in 3rd—almost replicating this distance Carmel feels with her family, between her and the reader.

I felt for each of these characters, even at their worst moments. Enright’s sympathy for them, the careful nuances of their personalities, and the meandering nonlinear structure gives the book a very forgiving, human feeling. It’s a sentimental and personal book, but never feels bogged down by this; Enright’s wit and clever prose keeps it perfectly balanced. Would recommend for fans of Lorrie Moore or Alice Munro. I’ll definitely be picking up more of her books in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley and W. W. Norton for the e-arc 🐦‍⬛

3.5 stars. The McDaragh family name carries renown thanks to Phil McDaragh's poetry, but this is little comfort to his daughter Carmel and her daughter Nell as they struggle through life in the wake of his death. That's pretty much all I want to give for "synopsis" of this book, as it's definitely a character-driven narrative.

This book is quintessentially Irish to me, with its poetic prose and mournful tone. It does that "thing" where it keeps you slightly, unrelentingly depressed throughout the entire story, but doesn't drag you under completely. I will admit that I struggled with the first section from Nell's perspective — it's straight stream-of-consciousness with no quotation marks to delineate the spoken bits, which are deceptively difficult to pick out. My advice is to just roll with it, because her sections do get easier to read throughout the course of the book, mirroring her growth (I assume). Phil only has a small POV section in the story, which surprised me, though he is more or less present throughout the entire book.

Overall I did enjoy this story, but it's not going to be for every reader. The writing is lyrical and beautiful, but there is minimal plot action, which may be a deterrent for some. The focus is entirely on the characters themselves and the impact of generational experiences upon them. Thank you to Anne Enright, W.W. Norton, and NetGalley for my advance digital copy.

The opening pages of this novel were stunning and I haven't been able to keep thinking about them since reading it last month. Enright has structured the novel brilliantly to give readers a sense of the generational trauma, angst, passion, and purpose surging between mother and daughter. The questions posed about the purpose of art and the legacy of the artist as a real human being were important and profound. I loved this book and it will absolutely be on my Fall Reading Guide. Public review to come on @fictionmatters and fictionmatters.substack.com

Although difficult to follow at times due to the meandering style, I recommend THE WREN, THE WREN to fans of literary fiction. As always, Anne Enright's writing is wonderful and thought provoking. There's just enough plot here to keep the reader turning the pages, especially because the characters are complex and multi-layered. I especially enjoyed Nell and Carmel, the touches of poetry, and the philosophical world view.

I received a complimentary e-galley from NetGalley and the publisher; all opinions are completely my own.