Anne Enright: The Gathering

by Ysabele
(Surrey UK)

I bought this novel from a small bookshop in Dunster, Somerset (UK) whilst visiting my partner's learning-disabled daughter who attends a special college there. I started reading this recently. It reminds me of an Alice Sebold and Frank McCourt (author of Tis) novel. I keep thinking that at some point abuse is going to come about. I kept looking back at the author's picture and wondered whether she could have been abused; I do that a lot. I googled her and found that she had written some quite judgmental comments about the missing girl's (Maddie McCann) parents. Quite a lengthy article, which I couldn't bear to read. I realised that she couldn't have been abused, otherwise she wouldn't have been so judgmental.

It saddens me that respected authors feel the need to comment on such sensitive issues. Who knows what is going on in those poor parents' minds. We should leave them to it and just pray for them and Maddie.