The Green Road
Ratings6
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings6
Average rating3.7
Shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Novel Award Longlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize Winner of the Irish Novel of the Year 2015 Hanna, Dan, Constance and Emmet return to the west coast of Ireland for a final family Christmas in the home their mother is about to sell. As the feast turns to near painful comedy, a last, desperate act from Rosaleen - a woman who doesn't quite know how to love her children - forces them to confront the weight of family ties and the road that brought them home.
Reviews with the most likes.
The book is structured in two parts–leaving and coming home. In the first part, we glimpse the 4 siblings spinning away from home and finding their own lives; in the second part their being reeled back in as the story builds toward a Christmas Day climax with their mother, Rosaleen. The five points of view, then, represent the family. The short sections toward the end of the book feel a bit like unravelling, but not in a good way. Perhaps the novel ends in the wrong place?
I quite liked the structure: introduce each character in their own chapters then bring them together for the main plotline ultimately separating again as we reach the end. The writing was fine, characters had depth etc...
I just didn't really care about any of the characters or their lives. I got a little bit more involved towards the end, with the vague threat, but that soon dissipated.
This family drama concerns the Madigans, an 21st centurt Irish family whose four children are coming home from far flung places to visit their mother, Rosaleen, for Christmas. Rosaleen has hinted that she is going to sell the house they all grew up in, so there is some consternation among the siblings, Dan, Emmet, Constance, and Hanna. We get to see the siblings as children together, and then individually as adults, before we see them back together as a family. We see their weaknesses and faults, their attempts to manage their relationships with their mother and siblings, and where the family rifts are. Rosaleen is a formidable character herself, with the power to raise storms within her family and then quiet them. If you like complex family relationships, this is a great book for you.
