Anne Enright's "the wren, the wren"-Famous Irish Poet; Bad Dad and Family left Behind

The plot of Anne Enright's novel, "the wren, the wren" can be easily outlined as a three generational story stemming from a famous Irish poet, who leaves his wife and two daughters to fend for themselves. What follows in the wake of an all too common scenario though, leaves much to marvel written with verve and artistry by an uncommonly gifted writer.  Enright (b. Ireland, 1962) is the first Irish Laureate of Fiction and Man Booker Prize winner. In the wren, Enright gives us glimpses of patriarchal poet, Phil McDaragh, whose ascertain of his own consummate talent is above that of all the critics who extol his poems. Phil's self-absorption gives him license to rewrite history and absolve himself of any wrong doing or fallout to his wife Terry, and his two daughters. His admittedly favored daughter, Carmel. Nonetheless he abandons Carmel, her sister and mother without regret after marrying a young, American ingenue except to send a few brief letters. Carmel has a daughter Nell, from a short, loveless relationship. It is mainly through Nell's eyes, the granddaughter whom he never knew, that we get a picture of the man, his poetry and chicanery. As an inspiring writer, Nell finds herself drawn to uncovering Phil's poems and persona. The disparity between the beauty of the Phil's love poems comes in stark contrast to the coldhearted detachment he had for his wife and girls when Terry became terminally ill. Phil's writing has a penchant for restating events to best suit him. However, the collateral damage left behind by Phil is manifested in Carmel who chooses single motherhood rather than experience her mother's abandonment and later dismisses a boyfriend who becomes too needy. Yet, growing up under Phil was overshadowing to his offsprings. "Her father was bigger than the world and a lot less wonderful." Nell is diametrically different in her relationships from her mother. She completely gives herself over to her lovers. First, to the fickle Felim. And then to a man she meets on her travels and brings home to mother. "Everything speaks to me of his safety, his proximity-time is a mechanism to measure how long we are apart. It's not that I think about him constantly, he is my way of thinking. His mind is my compass, his eye my only mirror."  The expanding generations branch off into their differing and despairing life choices but find an inherent connection that circuitously unites them. Considering her grandfather's poems and interviews Nell concedes, "more than a strand of DNA, it is a rope thrown from the past, a far twisted rope, full of blood. Intertwining the lives in the novel are poems, an errant letter, a single childhood memory of Phils and all these elements add deeper meaning and melancholia to the vividly drawn characters. "The wren, the wren"' is a work to return to and admire again, and again.