[fantasyfan]

Unfortunately, I am very disappointed in this book. Yes, it has the occasionally sensitive insight but just as often the prose descends into a crass vulgarity that I intensely dislike. I lived through the period she describes and while we now realise some of the terrible things that happened, everyone wasn't stupidly insensitive and wound up on an obsession with genitalia. I knew plenty of large families and they were generally happy and emotionally balanced. As to the narrator, I couldn't relate to her at all.

On the other hand, consider Tirra Lirra by the River-- a book with some broad similarities to The Gathering. There is a woman meditating on her past and a community with a dark secret. Jessica Anderson's main character was no angel but she was subtle, had an inner dignity, and I did sympathise with her. The novel itself had a coherence of tone conveyed with great skill and I felt it was a far better work than The Gathering.