The Forgotten Waltz

Anne Enright

2011 • Jonathan Cape/Vintage

There is an amount of mischief in The Forgotten Waltz. I found myself, after the success of my previous novel, The Gathering, in the surprising position of being able to tease, a little, the snobbery and sexism that exists in the literary world. I did this, and it gave me great pleasure, by writing a book set in an important historical moment (the collapse of the Irish banking system) but using an ‘unimportant’ subject (the foolishness of a woman in love). I was also mischievous, I have to admit, when I wrote the character of Gina. I wanted mixed feelings from the reader, not a sense of beautiful clarity, because although beautiful clarity may be what we seek in books, mixed feelings are what we actually have about people in real life.

— Anne Enright

Novel English Language

The Forgotten Waltz

Anne Enright

2011 • Jonathan Cape/Vintage

There is an amount of mischief in The Forgotten Waltz. I found myself, after the success of my previous novel, The Gathering, in the surprising position of being able to tease, a little, the snobbery and sexism that exists in the literary world. I did this, and it gave me great pleasure, by writing a book set in an important historical moment (the collapse of the Irish banking system) but using an ‘unimportant’ subject (the foolishness of a woman in love). I was also mischievous, I have to admit, when I wrote the character of Gina. I wanted mixed feelings from the reader, not a sense of beautiful clarity, because although beautiful clarity may be what we seek in books, mixed feelings are what we actually have about people in real life.