Last night, the School of English welcomed the inaugural Laureate of Irish Fiction, Anne Enright, to the Robert Emmet theatre. The event sold out hours in advance and as the audience anxiously anticipated her arrival, a lively buzz pervaded the room.
As a student, Enright graduated from Trinity with a degree in English and philosophy, proceeding to win a scholarship for the creative writing course at East Anglia University. Since then she has been writing prolifically and her novel The Gathering earned the 2007 Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the Irish Novel of the Year. Later, The Forgotten Waltz achieved the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Enright’s other novels include The Wig My Father Wore, which was shortlisted for the Irish Times/Aer Lingus Irish Literature Prize, as well as What Are You Like? and The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch.
Upon her arrival, this eminent guest was introduced by Prof Nicholas Grene of the School of English. Grene opened by defining Enright as a student, describing her as, “quick, imaginative, witty [and] articulate”. For him, it was clear during her time at College that she was destined to be a writer. However, due to her love of theatre and her involvement with DU Players, many expected Enright to be a playwright.
Enright’s latest novel The Green Road is dedicated to Grene, who taught her Shakespeare when she was in College. His influence can be felt in this novel, as Enright explained that the character of Rosaleen sprang from a desire to create a “female King Lear”.
Enright’s first reading was taken from the beginning of the book and painted the Madigan family dinner on Palm Sunday. An engaging reader, Enright had the audience in hysterics as she acted out each character, clearing her throat like the father and performing Rosaleen’s dabbing of her forehead with a crumbled tissue.
The Green Road, set in the West of Ireland, contains imagery of “the boreen… the Aran Islands” but also references the Celtic Tiger and the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Following three readings from the novel, Enright opened the floor to questions.
With a question about the author’s creative practice, one audience member noted that in a previous interview, Enright had claimed not to “do plot” but rather “story”. Enright explained that “the story is about how things turn out and what you realise” whereas plot is all about revelation. She usually spends a year improvising and it is only following this that the novel takes shape. Responding to a later question, the Enright said she would have been an actress, but “I didn’t want to do auditions for men I didn’t respect”. In the wake of the revelations about Harvey Weinstein and Hollywood’s powerful men, this statement elicited a cheer and round of applause from the audience.
As Irish Laureate, the author has often felt obliged to “own things” as it is “half an honour, half a job”. There existed a pressure to be sure of her own ideas and statements. Enright also noted that, in the 1990s, there was diaspora of Irish writers and that those who stayed at home despised each other. Despite this, she felt that “Ireland is just the right size to develop a tradition” and through the new laureateship this is possible.
With the audience in awe of Enright’s wit and resolve, the evening closed with a book signing by the author and the opportunity for one-on-one chats with this inspiring writer.
