Posts by Ursula Murphy

Welcome to The Reader's Den!

This month's selection is the literary thriller, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, a book that kept me up reading at night from the start.   Written in Spanish then later translated to English by Lucia Graves, it is a bestseller worldwide.

After reading, I passed it on to no less than five people as gifts and 

Thank you for joining this month's Reader's Den. I hope everyone enjoyed The Gathering, or at least got something out of the discussion. Please stay tuned for next month's book, The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga.

If you did in fact enjoy Anne Enright's book, here are some other similar authors for you to check out.

Joan Didion - especially The Year of Magical Thinking. James Joyce - Irish literature at its best. Flannery O'Connor Ian McEwan - try the lesser known On Chesil Beach, beautiful writing in this sad novel. John Banville - The Sea is another 

Bloomingdale Library Event, Local History Lecture

150 W 100th St New York, NY 10025 (212) 222-8030

Thursday, October 8, 2009 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

Robert Holzmaier Chief, Eleventh Battalion Covering Manhattan's Upper West Side 36 Years in the Fire Department

Topics of lecture include: Fire Extinguishing from 1609; First Controversial Fire Tax; Hooks & Ladders; Horses and Dogs; Connection to the Water Supply; Great Conflagrations; Attempts to Burn Down the City; Company Feuds; Uses of Volunteers; 130 Years in this Neighborhood.  

Come swap books, and cookie recipes, listen to music, enter raffles, and chat at the Bloomingdale Library. Kids come in costume for stories and crafts!

For all ages.

Tue, Oct 27 @ 6:30 PM 150 W 100th St New York, NY 10025 (212) 222-8030

More discussion questions about Anne Enright's The Gathering.

Liam’s suicide seems to be a sort of catalyst for Veronica to explore her childhood memories of him and search for the point in their family life that set him off course. Was the guilt she has about Liam’s abuse present throughout her life, or do you believe the memories have only resurfaced after his death?

Liam's child Rowan was previously unknown to the Hegartys but he is met with love and happiness. What is his role within the family?

What does the future hold for Veronica in regard to 

Book Swap Social at Bloomingdale Library! Tuesday September 15th, 6:30 - 7:30 pm

Bring one or more books to swap with other book lovers. Whole Foods snacks provided as well as music and raffle prizes. Price of admission is one book to swap. Please bring clean books, no ripped pages, and in working condition! Limit to one bag or box of books to trade at a time. All genres accepted.

Bloomingdale Branch Library 150 West 100th Street (btw Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues) NY, NY 10025 212-222-8030

Continuing on with our discussion of Enright's novel, consider this quote from page 164. "There was great privacy in a big family... no one ever pitied you or loved you a little."

Coming from a large Irish American family myself, I focused a lot on Enright's Irish family dynamics. I found a lot of the writing rang true, although The Gathering is a novel, not autobiographical. Hegarty family events are remembered differently depending on who is relating the tale, certain subjects are off limits and not talked about for reasons that are not easily articulated, emotions 

The first words of Anne Enright's book, The Gathering are as follows:

"I would like to write down what happened in my grandmother's house the summer I was eight or nine, but I am not sure if it really did happen. I need to bear witness to an uncertain event. I feel it roaring inside me--this thing that may not have taken place. I don't even know what name to put on it. I think you might call it a crime of the flesh, but the flesh is long fallen away and I am not sure what hurt may linger in the 

Welcome to the Reader's Den! This month we will be reading and discussing The Gathering by Anne Enright. You can reserve your copy through the catalog link above, or visit your local branch to see if they have one available.

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions or reviews for others to read and respond to. Check back often!

About the Author

Anne Enright at Literaturhaus Köln/Cologne (Germany) 18th November