"The Forgotten Waltz," by Anne Enright

I thought Irish writer Anne Enright’s novel “The Gathering” was brilliant. I then read a couple of others of her books and liked them. Now I have read her newest novel, “The Forgotten Waltz” (Norton, 2011), and I am not quite sure what to think about it. First, it is a love story: a story about a love affair that breaks up two marriages. The narrator and main character, Gina, describes her feelings as the affair goes through its difficult stages as intense, painful, tortured, yet she often speaks in a flat, down to earth, almost unemotional tone. Still, there is also a richness, density, and complexity in the relationships portrayed: between Gina and her husband Conor, between Gina and her lover Sean, between Gina and her mother and sister and niece, and between Gina and her lover’s daughter Evie. Evie is an important character in the story, a child who is a bit different, a bit fragile, and whom both Sean and Gina want to protect. Their caring for her complicates their own relationship. The relationships in this novel are what make it most interesting. And yet, there is still that seeming lack of affect from the narrator that is confusing for the reader. Is it meant to suggest weariness on the part of the narrator? Or a sort of hard won but muted happiness?