The Green Road (Enright novel)

The first half of the novel concerns each family member individually and goes chronologically from 1980 to 2005. Each of the four Madigan children and their mother Rosaleen receive a chapter of their own beginning with Hanna Madigan. Hanna's chapter is the only one that focuses on a family member as a child and deals with her relationship with her father. She is traumatised by viewing the culling of a chicken for dinner on her grandmother's farm. Dan Madigan's story jumps forward to 1991 during his time in New York with his fiancé as his repressed homosexuality comes to the fore during the AIDS epidemic. Constance Madigan's chapter is based in 1997 Limerick and focusses on the domestic roles of mother and wife. Constance must balance the concerns of her health that make her face her own mortality. Emmet's chapter takes place in Mali in 2002 as he works with impoverished children and is haunted by previous relief work he has been involved with. His relationship with a woman named Alice slowly unravels and deteriorates. Rosaleen ends the first half of the novel with a rumination on her life and her future as an older woman. She decides to sell the house and writes to all her children accordingly to gather together for Christmas for one last year at the old family home.

The second half of the novel concerns the family members coming home and for some of them meeting each other as new people. Coming Home begins by succinctly placing the Madigan children as they get ready to return and the hustle and bustle of Christmas travel. The novel humorously covers the chaos of Christmas shopping last minute and the vanity of Celtic Tiger Ireland. The Green Road culminates upon a scene of gothic imagery as Rosaleen goes missing on Christmas Night. A search party is called and struggles to find her before eventually securing her late into a particularly bad winter night. A few short chapters tie up everything ending with Rosaleen having run away yet again having arrived at Emmet's doorstep in Dublin. She claims to have been kicked out but a phone call reveals that Constance is sick again, and that Rosaleen flew away rather than deal with the reality of the situation.