Actress

January 1, 2020
A daughter reveals the intertwined tales of her mother--a theatrical legend--and herself, a mature retrospective of sharing life with a towering but troubled figure. Katherine O'Dell, star of stage and screen, blessed with beauty, red hair, and a gorgeous voice, "the most Irish actress in the world," was not Irish at all. She was born in London, and the apostrophe in her name crept in by error via a review following one of her appearances on Broadway. However, the fact that Katherine is "a great fake" doesn't cloud the love her daughter, Norah, has for her, a bond which exists alongside the unanswered question of Norah's father's identity, "the ghost in my blood." The complexities of this mother/daughter relationship and its context in Ireland, the men it includes, and the turns both women's lives take through the decades are the meat of this tender, possessive, searching new novel from Man Booker Prize-winning Irish novelist Enright (The Green Road, 2015, etc.). Saga-esque, it traces Katherine back to her parents, strolling players from another era who invited her on stage at age 10, scarcely imagining the luminous, internationally recognized figure this "useful girl" would become. But the novel is no fairy tale. Katherine's life was marked with loneliness; disappointing, sometimes exploitative, and abusive men; the pressure of trying to remain successful; a desperate act of violence; and a breakdown. Norah narrates both her mother's life and her own--she's the author of five novels, a mother, a sexual being, and also the sole offspring of a parent she both adored and observed at a distance. Fame, sexuality, and the Irish influence suffuse the story, which ranges from glamour to tragedy, a portrait of "anguish, madness, and sorrow" haunted by a late, explanatory glimpse of horror which nevertheless concludes in a place of profound love and peace. Another triumph for Enright: a confluence of lyrical prose, immediacy, warmth, and emotional insight.

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February 28, 2020

Dublin-based novelist Norah O'Dell is the only child of the magnetic Irish actress Katherine O'Dell, who passed away with her reputation somewhat tarnished by scandal. An interview with a young scholar researching Katherine's career calls up memories for Norah that reveal how both women shaped each other's lives. Norah addresses her comments and conclusions sometimes to the young scholar and sometimes to her husband, and sometimes she writes to herself, which encourages Norah to consider the many and complicated dimensions of her mother's life. Her memories also lead to new discoveries about her mother, which speak to questions Norah has about her own existence, including the identity of her father. Through her explorations, Norah begins to appreciate and celebrate the fragile but enduring love of family. VERDICT Enright's sixth novel (The Gathering) presents a subtle, nuanced portrait of a complicated relationship. Norah's voice is credibly pitched to transmit yearning, resignation, and understanding in varying intensities, always amplifying her compassion for Katherine and the people pulled into her orbit.--John G. Matthews, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 30, 2020
This evocative, incisive tale from Man Booker–winner Enright (The Gathering) turns a gimlet eye on the complicated relationship between a famous mother and her only daughter. Actor Katherine O’Dell is known throughout Ireland in the 1970s and ’80s; she is also a loving—if distracted and sometimes absent—single mother to Norah, who’s often left in the care of her nanny. Norah, who narrates, recounts mainly through flashback Katherine’s star rising from humble beginnings in a traveling Irish theater troupe to her peak in Hollywood, where she increasingly struggles with alcoholism and depression. As Katherine enters her 50s, it largely falls to Norah to care for her mother, but when Katherine is committed to a mental hospital after shooting a movie producer in the foot, Norah finds professional help to care for her mother, as Norah marries, has children, and pursues her writing career. Enright portrays her characters with tenderness and grace (“It took me no time to adjust after she came home from hospital. And I don’t know what I loved, as I tended her fragile bones, but I thought I loved my mother. Because she was always the same person for me”), depicting a fraught mother-daughter relationship without cliché or condescension. Enright’s fans will love this
sharp, moving work.