Anne Enright
The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright alternates between the first-person voice of Nell, a young woman in Dublin, and the third-person voice of her mother, Carmel. Interspersed throughout the narrative are original poems as well as translations of centuries old Irish poetry by Phil McDaragh, Carmel’s father. Phil is a fictional Irish poet who achieves fame and becomes a source of pride for his community. A short piece in which Phil speaks in first-person voice is included as a brief interlude.
Little happens in the novel. Both the Carmel and Nell sections are non-linear, leaping backwards and forward in time from their respective childhoods to the present. Carmel describes the rocky relationship of her parents, her father’s abandonment of the family when her mother becomes ill, and the fame and new wife he acquires while living in America. She struggles to come to terms with the father she loved, her resentment at his desertion, his death in America and burial in Ireland, and the fact he is hailed by the Irish as a highly successful, home-grown poet. She seeks to understand him and his relationships through his poems.
Nell never knew her grandfather but seems to have inherited his love for words. Like her mother, she tries to connect with him through the language in his poems. Her section primarily focuses on her complicated relationship with her mother and her tangled relationship with her abusive boyfriend, Felim. Her narrative is fragmented; her communication style is stream of consciousness. Being raised by a single mother, Nell feels untethered and is constantly seeking to connect and be understood. She travels to exotic locations, eventually ending up in New Zealand, after which she returns to Ireland with her new boyfriend.
A major theme of the novel is how language and silences can serve to connect us or distance us over time. Carmel and Nell care deeply for each other, but their ability to communicate with one another is fraught with tension. Theirs is a stuttering communication, with one or the other constantly holding something back. One of the most powerful scenes in the novel is when Carmel and her sister, Imelda, come to physical blows over inheritance issues after their mother’s death. They communicate physically by flinging one another against furniture, slapping and punching one another. But the whole debacle takes place in silence.
And then there is the language of Phil’s poetry and the old Irish poetry he translates. The language of the dead poet reaches out to touch his daughter and granddaughter. In some ways, his words are an attempt to show connection with and seek redemption from the family he abandoned. Available on the internet is an old interview with Phil which has both Carmel and Nell scrutinizing his words and observing his movements. Rather than connecting mother and daughter through their interest in the one man they share, they each watch the interview separately and remain silent about its contents.
Enright doesn’t simply describe relationships and patterns of communication and silences. She allows the reader to experience them through her characters. Her women are vividly drawn and authentic, each with a distinctive voice, each silencing her voice at different times, and with each voice capturing shades of loss, longing, and the fragility of connection.