Actress by Anne Enright
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've only read one other of Anne Enright's books (The Gathering) which I know is a sad state of affairs, but there it is. I've been crook lately so this was the perfect size read to dip in and out of when one was feeling wan.

It is essentially a story about a mother-daughter relationship and fits in well with my genre of reading this year which seems to be about memoirs. Written as a memoir, it is of course fiction first and foremost. Unless I am particularly unobservant (which is possible) we actually don't get to know the narrator's first name until halfway through the book.

The narrator is the daughter of a famous actress, currently pursued by a journalist/PhD student who wants to get to the bottom of her mother's sexuality. And so we meander down many a bewitching memory lane until we're pretty confident that none of us knows anything about anyone. Well, maybe a little bit.

There are many achingly good passages in this book but I was too busy reading them and enjoying them to flag them with stickies for easy retrieval later. I marvel at Enright's ability to fold us into the storytelling very lightly, making us feel that we are at the very centre of these people's lives, that we know them intimately and yet moves us along How do writers do that? They're just so clever. Honest to goodness they are.

Anyway, I enjoyed it. Don't ask me what it meant or was about. I just loved it. Much of it seemed authentic to me probably due to amateur theatrics in my youth and a spot of work in broadcasting and film.

I wish Anne well in the Women's Prize for Fiction for which this has been longlisted. We'll know the shortlist on 22nd April. Can I read the other 15 books before then? Not a chance? Glad I read this one? You bet!

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