The road of the title runs along the coastline in County Clare, Ireland. That tough and beautiful terrain comes into its own when the widowed Rosaleen determinedly takes her customary walk on the road into a darkening Christmas afternoon, leaving her gathered family behind.
Before long, everyone is concerned that the 76-year-old may have ventured along the green road for the last time.
The green road is littered with farmhouses left to ruin during hard times such as the potato famine. They are a constant reminder that life can take a sudden turn for the worse, and they feature here in part as a metaphor.
Chapter portraits of Rosaleen and her four adult offspring precede the account of her apparent recklessness, showing us their ambitions, relationships, doubts and failings. They allow us to see their concerns, where they have gone after leaving home, and how they live. It makes enticing reading.
The first part of the book is entitled Leaving and the second Coming Home, which gives a straightforward indication of an underlying plot movement. It is the complex dynamics of the five key characters that matter most, either individually or as interplay when they are collectively called back to their mother’s house.
They are an intriguing lot. Rosaleen takes to her bed for days when upset and feels her life has been one of “great harmlessness”; she needs to matter. Dan is caught between wanting to be a priest or get married and move overseas. Emmet is an aid worker troubled by his relationship with co-worker Alice. Hanna has stayed in Ireland and is depressed. Constance seems to be the most personally settled, but is that a mask?
The differences in the characters offer lots of potential for conflict which is driven both internally and by external events.
Enright is a marvel with imagery and has a brilliant turn of phrase to boot: “There was a little glass of parsley sitting on the tablecloth, and the shadow of the water trembled in the sunshine”, “a shriek of Sellotape”. When Hanna reflects on giving birth, it is described as: “A little opposite thing, that is what came out of her. A fight they wrapped in a cloth.” Constance visits a beauty salon: “She got her hair done in a place so posh it didn’t look done at all.”
Structure and signage also mean a great deal in this novel. As the children begin to gather, the chapters are named for places rather than character names, though mainly focussed on one person, anyway. No titles appear once Rosaleen has wandered into the winter darkness, but they are revived under a different system beyond that.
If the end of The Green Road is undramatic and thoughtful, it is difficult to see how else it could have been handled. Life goes on.
This is a book to savour.
The Green Road, by Anne Enright, is published by Jonathan Cape, $32.99.
