I just checked the MB archive and found I have read all of the shortlist from that year but this book and Darkmans at least twice. And I was just thinking last week about revisiting Darkmans.

If I was going to compare Park to anyone, I think it would be Sebastian Berry — definitely not Enright. In addition to what John says about him (and I agree with that assessment), he is particularly good at exploring how broader societal concerns and upheavals leave an impact on those who go through them. He does that in a most accessible way.

Candy, Park is nothing like Enright. His writing is not a struggle to comprehend and he has a much more generous tone, I think. Don’t be put off by comparisons with The Gathering (which, for me, would amount only to “this book is nothing like The Gathering“).

I didn’t like The Gathering much at all, Candy. I didn’t like the tone, I didn’t like the writing, I didn’t like the characters, etc. I respect Enright, but The Gathering, at the time, struck me wrong in so many ways (interestingly, it is the one book from that year’s shortlist that I’m tempted to try again, perhaps because I didn’t like it and feel like I missed something). I can happily report that Swallowing the Sun didn’t remind me of The Gathering in any way. Though the tone is one of repressed anger, it is not accompanied by abysmal despair. Where I found Enright’s book to be directed at depressing anyone who comes in contact with it, I didn’t find this book depressing at all, though it can be wrenching at times. It was very satisfying for its writing and its substance.