The Forgotten Waltz [Paperback]

Set in modern day Dublin, Gina recalls the events that led to an affair that wrecks two marriages. Anne Enright's 2007 Booker prize winning "The Gathering" addressed the gloomy subjects of the three D's; death, depression and dysfunctional families. Her latest book, "The Forgotten Waltz", set in Dublin in 2009, sees her turning her attentions to a love affair. A more uplifting subject you might think. Well only up to a point. The affair in question you see is that of her narrator, Gina, who is already married to the generally good, if undynamic, Connor, while on the other end, the subject of the affair is the older, Seán, also married and neighbour of Gina's sister. In case your moral compass isn't stretched quite enough by this, Seán and his wife Aileen, also have a young daughter who suffers from epilepsy.

What Enright does so well is identify the little gestures. The story is told by Gina as a recollection of what happened and the narrator acknowledges that this memory is not always infallible. There's a very self-aware sense to Gina's voice and there's also plenty of wry humour about family and about what we might call the middle age crisis. Gina, we sense, knows she's in the wrong in both thought and deed, but her justification of her actions are endearing and it's hard not to sympathise with her, not least as we only get her view of things. But while Gina has her flaws, she acknowledges at least most of them and recognizes when she's being unfair or unreasonable, which makes it a more enjoyable read.

Another nice touch is that each relatively short chapter has a "love song" title, ranging from "Paper Roses" and "In These Shoes?" to "Money (That's What I Want)". Fittingly the final chapter is entitled "The Things We Do for Love".

Enright has a clear writing style and the book gallops along at a brisk pace. Although hints of the outcome are apparent from the start, you still want to find out how the relationship between Gina and Seán develops. Will they get caught? If so, what will be the reaction of friends, family and work colleagues? It's not a long book and for at least two thirds of the book, this is the main focus of events. Seán's daughter, Evie, who ages from about four to twelve during the story, is largely a side issue.

Illness and death again feature in this book. At the start it is clear that Gina's mother is unwell, and her father died when Gina was a teenager. Once the relationship between Gina and Seán reaches a certain point (he said trying not to give anything away!) the pace of the narration slows down and specifically there is a chapter devoted largely to Gina's recollection of her father. Then in the final part, Evie starts to play more of a role as Gina tries to explain Seán's character and actions. Although I liked the ending very much, the final third of the book seemed to change tack slightly too much for me. I was, by then, caught up in the relationship developing but once it reached its destination, the story too seemed to lose its punch.

The characters are all nicely sketched rather than being deeply explored, but all are recognizable and have a realistic mix of flaws and strengths. Ultimately, no matter who each sees as the villains of the piece, all are victims in these situations. It's an enjoyable read. Then again, maybe I just like gossip!

A minority view I know, but I just don't get Anne Enright. This was my second attempt at one of her novels and I found this as depressing as the last. Fair enough, she has a good turn of phrase and handles language well, but there is no plot to be bothered with here, and I found the characters unsympathetic and/or unbelievable. But more than that, she paints a picture of a grubby, charmless world devoid of anything to provide a bright counterpoint to her sad and unattractive characters. In some ways Enright's world reminds me of Ian McEwan's works - Cement Garden etc, (though without his added twist of psycho). I suppose I found Gina and Sean's affair so hard to care about because they didn't seem to care about each other. They certainly don't love each other and he's hardly attractive - even seen through Gina's eyes. He's a paunchy, gauche, middle-aged salesman. And as for the fat and precocious child Evie, she struck me as something rather slimy and horrid. The relationship between Gina and her sister starts to warm up, but dies away just as quickly when Gina's affair is discovered and her sister takes the moral high ground. The one and only character I thought seemed sympathetic in any way was Gina's jilted husband Conor. Basically, this seems to be the story of a girl who's a bit of an idiot, surrounds herself with horrible people and lives a very lonely life.

This book was reviewed in the Guardian so I picked it up from Amazon and once I started reading I couldn't stop. It's a page-turner and you could find yourself on holiday devouring its economic prose and exquisitely drawn characterisation. I recommend this to anyone who loved Enright's Gathering Light which was as equally enthralling.