The Gathering by Anne Enright

'People do not change, they are merely revealed.' 





The Gathering is written in the perspective of Veronica, and she explains her family's stories and secrets. Her brother, Liam, died, and his funeral brings her large family together (Veronica is one of nine living children! I'm not sure how many there were originally). She talks about three different generations, starting with her grandma. 

It was written in an interesting way and I enjoyed reading it. It has a pessimistic tone, which left me feeling downhearted as I was reading it. To be frank, I was disappointed in the story. Since there were a few deaths, I was expecting a murder/detective novel. But alas, I was completely wrong. After finishing the book, I thought 'oh, is that all?'. It left me feeling that something was missing from the story. The idea of the story was interesting, but there could be more twists and surprises. It won the Man Booker Prize in 2007, so I might be the only one feeling this way. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad book. But I think it wasn't my style. It was wonderfully written, but I was looking for a bit more action. 

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

'The more I found, the less I understood'. 


This is our first book review of 2016 yippee!!! Happy New Year! I'm glad this is the first review because I really liked the book. I feel as though this book has made an impact on me- most of the time after I finish reading, I write a review, forget about the story soon after and move on to the next book. I actually finished reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close a couple of weeks ago, but decided to watch the movie before writing the review (and also because I lacked the motivation to write it as soon as I finished reading it). A picture of the book's cover is on the left, and the movie's cover is below.I hope you all have a good day and have very light boots :) 


Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is about a young boy, called Oskar, who lost his dad in the 9/11 attack. The story takes place about a year after his father's death, when Oskar finds a key in a vase in his dad's closet. They used to do scavenger hunts, and Oskar thinks the key is part of a scavenger hunt. So he goes looking for the lock that it opens, thinking that it will open something important and meaningful. He meets many people along the way and hears their stories.... until he finds the lock (or does he?).

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

“He smiled the most exquisite smile, veiled by memory, tinged by dreams.” 

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf is one of the most well known modernist books. The novel was written in a stream-of-consciousness style and it was set in three parts and the plot can be really quickly summed up with:

The Window: Mrs. and Mr. Ramsay with their children and guests spending time in their Scottish holiday home. Six-year-old James wants to go the lighthouse, his mother agrees but Mr. Ramsay states that the weather is not good enough for the boat journey. One of the guests, Lily Briscoe is painting. Paul Rayley and Minta Doyle (two guests) get engaged.

Time Passes: World War 1 breaks out and the house is left abandoned. Everyone dies... Jokes – it just felt like that. Mrs. Ramsay died suddenly, Andrew Ramsay (oldest son) dies in battle and Prue (daughter) dies after giving birth. (Note: the deaths are all told in brackets)

The Lighthouse: Mr. Ramsay with his children (those that are still alive) and two of his guests decide to go back to the house. Mr. Ramsay makes his children go with him to the Lighthouse. Lily goes back to painting and this time manages to achieve her vision.

Personally, the summary that I just gave was exactly what a whole 227 page novel spent describing. But, if you’ve read my review on Mrs. Dalloway, my lack of enthusiasm for Virginia Woolf wouldn’t be surprising. For me, I need a plot that I can invest myself in. However, one thing that I must give to Woolf is her sense of rhythm, like the repetitive and familiar lives of the Ramsays as the waves come and go in their island. Only when I went back to the introduction written by Hermione Lee in 1991 (it was included in the version I borrowed) that I realised how much of a difference her editing and style really made. Read the manuscript version to see for yourself: