From what I can tell from glancing at other reviews, this book seems to split readers. Either they love the first half and the second half falls short, or vice versa. I'm no exception apparently. For me, Part One of The Green Road is a lot stronger than Part Two, but overall it is still an engaging family drama which I'd recommend to fans of that genre.

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In the first half, we see invididual snippets from the lives of the four Madigan children and their mother, Rosaleen. Dan has moved away to New York, trying to deny his sexuality, Emmet is doing aid work in Africa, Hanna is a failed actress with a drinking problem (although randomly we get a childhood perspective from her in the beginning), and Constance is still tied to her mother more than any of them. Rosaleen is not one of the most likeable mothers I've ever come across in books; she can be cold at best, cruel and manipulative at worst. When, for the first time in years, all four Madigan children come home for Christmas, tensions reach boiling point as Rosaleen seeks a rise from her kids with shocking news.

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Although Enright's writing is intensely readable, conversational almost, without being too casual, I didn't find myself as gripped by the family's lives as I should have been. I found Hanna and Emmet very lukewarm, and although Dan's storyline was compelling, incorporating the AIDs crisis in America in the 90s, it didn't hold a candle to John Boyne's depiction of it in The Heart's Invisible Furies. I was the most invested in Constance's storyline, which involved a medical scare, one that Enright depicted thoughtfully and compassionately.

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She does also have a knack for family dynamics, even in a family as dysfunctional as this one. Reading it during a global pandemic made me miss my family even more - what I wouldn't give for a massive Christmas dinner, yeah there might be a few arguments but whose family doesn't argue over silly things? And it definitely made me appreciate how loving my family is, ha!

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I will definitely be trying some more of Enright's work in the future, and I would say if you like family dramas then you'll probably find this one an enjoyable read too!