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Yesterday's Weather (2008)

by Anne Enright(Favorite Author)

3.31 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0771030738 (ISBN13: 9780771030734)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

McClelland & Stewart

review 1: I'd probably give this book 3.5 stars if I could.The first half, or so, of the book's stories are written in Enright's mature, sophisticated, painfully sharp, sarcastic, rare style. The women in her stories are never simple-minded or sentimental. But, they are always filled with feeling. I appreciate, as in, I understand, the view she gives of the underside of intimacy. She writes about the things we don't admit, to ourselves, partners, friends, family. I think most people are more or less oblivious to the repulsions, fears, jealousies, neediness, shame that move about in their intimate relationships, and I think this is especially true in our American culture. This is what Enright seems to do best. She writes these stories with what might be called a cold but tender compa... moression.I think it's possible many do not like Enright's writing because she brings up uncomfortable, dark or complex subjects, many revolving around sex and marriage, infidelity and compromise in the face of shame and betrayal. What I don't believe is that her tone is negative, as I read in some reviews on GR. The negative feelings in some readers may be brought on because women, at least in the U.S., cannot afford to admit to these types of very personal and deep insecurities; to the weaknesses, the meanness, perhaps, of very strong, but feeling and feminine women. The combining of these seemingly conflicting forces cannot be tolerated. Enright's women are too strong, too honest and perhaps too crude in their sexual honesty. They are very sexual and intelligent. What they are not is innocent or saintly. Yet, they suffer. And they continue. They live on with their pain or loneliness. They start over again. What I find in her writing, her stories, is that she has a deep compassion for these suffering women. Most of whom seem to be some reflection of this writer's own deeper self. I most admire her honesty.Of course, I get that perhaps many don't like her writing because, bottom line, her subjects are not "happy". Finally, I have to say that the final half of the book's stories are, for the most part well-written, with a few exceptions, but I found myself going into her younger writing with some impatience (the book is arranged chronologically reversed, her newer stories come first). Her voice and style change; the subjects are less personal, and her lines are a bit cloudy. At the end, I felt grateful to be finished. Her mature writing deserves its accolades. Gratefully, we do grow up.
review 2: Some of the stories in this collection simply appealed to me on a shallow level: the funny quips and the beautiful prose. Most of them, however, made me stop reading and think; and after I had gotten lost in my thoughts, and had looped around back to the story, I realized that there was so much more. I cannot do it justice in this little review blurb, but here is a brief impression: Enright is unsentimental, but very emotional, she is witty, clever and cruel, she is kind and giving. Her characters feel very, very connected to her, but they seem also to veer away into their own lives and their own mistakes. What is striking is not the funny things a character says or the heartbreaking things that they do, but rather, what is striking is the fierce intellect that drives everything so that when you have finished the story and begin rereading you realize that there is an entire submerged narrative, a philosophy, a critique, an amazement, that has been hiding in there the whole time, waiting for you to uncover it. I read Enright and I feel stupid, but I keep reading and I realize that she is simply so clever and that if I give myself a little time, she has planted the seeds for my own understanding and I feel, if not elated (there are some depressing stories here), then at least illuminated. less

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