The Portable Virgin

by Anne Enright

A collection of short stories that combines the formal with the miraculous, such as the film editor who edits his life. It includes various betrayed and traitorous women whose struggles are reinterpreted using a repertoire of fancy and metaphor.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Family, Contemporary

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 1992

About the author

Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has published three volumes of stories, one book of nonfiction, and five novels. In 2015, she was named the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. Her novel The Gathering won the Man Booker Prize, and The Forgotten Waltz won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did I fail to understand this book of short stories, or are they just quite terrible? I usually assume that the auther knows what they are doing and that the incomprehension is mine. However, over the course of 18 months i've read and re-read these short stories (I may have been a bit stubborn), in the hope of reaching the moment of revelation that would allow me to see the message/significance/emotion of each story. But no, my ability to apply meaning onto these seemingly meaningless episodes totally failed me, and so my review is biased towards the terrible. I hope you have a better experience.

[gorecki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve said it before: Anne Enright is a force of nature. Pure literary power unleashed. She hits strong, she dives deep in raw emotion, she is complicated and crude and rude. Most of the times, I have no idea what she means, what she’s talking about. I finish a story or a book and don’t understand a thing - it leaves me blank. But I feel an immense need for more. The non-understanding blankness she’s left me with turns into a magnet for inspiration, my heart opens wide for something around me I can turn into a sign or a symbol or a religion. She inspires me to want to understand her more and to want to read her better next time. To be more like the force of nature she is.

I think it’s her language. It’s her rhythm and melody, the way her words rise and fall, how her sentences create the sound of a train speeding towards a tunnel. It’s the way her mind ticks and her associations. Things like:

“His parents called him Paul because they were the kind of people who couldn’t decide on the right wallpaper.”

“She made her husband laugh once a day, on principle, and her sons were either virgins or had the excuse of a good job.”

Or one that made me hold my breath:

“In my childhood book of saints there were pictures of people standing with ploughshares at their feet, cathedrals in their hands. This is the church that St. Catherine built. If I painted myself now there would be a round hazy space where my stomach is, and a cathedral inside. This baby is a gothic masterpiece. I can feel the arches rising up under my ribs, the glorious and complicated space.”

I don’t recommend Enright to everyone, because she’s raw and crude and because mostly you don’t know what she’s on about. I don’t know who I’d recommend her to, but I know she’s MY author, she speaks to me, and even if I have no idea what she’s saying (like in half of this tiny story collection), I am here to listen to her and adore her. She pours all the confusion I feel inside on a page in front of me and says:

“I used to drink to bring the house down, just because I saw a few cracks in the wall. But Truth is not an earthquake, it is only a crack in the wall and the house might stand for another hundred years.”

[Marina SouKouz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Παρατραβηγμένοι οι "ύμνοι" στο οπισθόφυλλο περί "remarkable debut" και "a new literary maturity" εκτός κι αν δεν κατάλαβα ούτε τα μισά απ' όσα ήθελε να πει η συγγραφέας. Τα διηγήματα δεν έβγαζαν πολύ νόημα ούτε έμοιαζε να κατευθύνονται από ή προς κάποιο σκοπό. Όσο το διάβαζα με έκανε να πιστεύω όλο και πιο πολύ ότι η συγγραφέας προσπαθούσε να γράψει όσο πιο παράξενα μπορούσε με σκοπό τον εντυπωσιασμό του αναγνώστη παρά για να καταθέσει κάτι ουσιαστικό και αυτό ηταν εμφανές σε κάθε σελίδα. Θα μπορούσα να φέρω δεκάδες παραδείγματα αλλά θα αρκεστώ σε δύο. Στο Historical letters για παράδειγμα στο οποίο περιγράφεται ένας χωρισμός πετάει ένα άκυρο του στυλ όταν ήμουν δέκα χρονών είδα ένα άλογο να πεθαίνει δίπλα στο σχολικό λεωφορείο και να βγαίνει από το ρουθούνι του μια φουσκάλα αίμα. Λίγο πιο κάτω ολόκληρο το Eckhardt's dream στο οποίο ο Έκχαρτ ονειρεύεται ότι κάνει εγκατάσταση οθονών στους τοίχους του δωματίου και η ιστορία καταλήγει στο εξής "And the moral of the dream is Eckhardt lived with his girlfriend and his dog and sometimes he loved the dog more."
Θα βάλω δύο επειδή ήταν επιτηδευμένα παράξενο σε κάθε σελίδα και αυτό δείχνει μία συνοχή που πρέπει να επιβραβευτεί.

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Anne Enright's novels but perhaps I'm just not clever enough for her short stories. Too occluded with codified talk and allusions barely linked together as if I've somehow missed the key to the conversation. They have been published to rave reviews so it's obviously me, although I can't help sense a whiff of emperor's new clothes. I did pick up one reference where a character says, I was born in 1962 and you know what that means (hoorah! a reference to Larkin's famous poem where sex was discovered in 1963) so clearly it IS me and these stories must be brilliant. Ho hum, but I do like a little bit of the old beginning-middle-and-end, don't you?

[Michela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am so sad I didn't love this collection of short stories by Irish writer Anne Enright.
Her writing is so beautiful and poignant, I found myself highlighting and re-reading many sentences, but unfortunately the majority of the stories included in this book fell flat for me.
Truly a shame, but I will for sure read something else written by this author, possibly a novel. I'm confident it will work better for me.

[Neelakshi Chakraborty · Rating 2 out of 5]

The new voice in Irish fiction,Anne Enright, is definitely original and striking. 'A Portable Virgin' consists of short stories, each story elegantly crafted, each with a slightly absurdest soul of its own. However, if only that was all it took to write great fiction!

Here is one excerpt from the book which best explains Anne Enright's craft :

"I started off with mackarel pete, mackarel being a scavenger fish, and good for the heart.I followed with veal osso bucco, for reaons I need not elaborate, and finished with a spiced fig pudding with rum butter. Both the eggs I cracked had double yolks, which I found poignant."

This sense of the sublime in ordinary life, sharpened by a dry wit, makes this book worth a read. However at times, the stories fall flat. The absurdist strain doesn't always work; sometimes the reader longs for a kinship with the characters who are all too self-sufficient in their out-of-the-world worldliness.

Anne Enright leaves a mark in some short stories like 'The House of the Architect's Love Story', 'Men and Angels'(a watchman's love story) and a few others; but the stories are like diary-creamers which form the charming layer over our coffee: nice to look at, but difficult to savour. There isnt something here that can tease us out of ourselves: nothing mildly enduring or endearing, just another form of post-post-modernist fiction which reminds us, yet again, of the redundancy of meaning.

[Preema Priyambada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a single sentence go waste and each of them sting. It was a short story collection and pleasantly shocking. As if you get something more out of every successive reading.

At some point we stop looking for a definite answer, and in those stories we feel she has at least acknowledged them,the themes aren't simple, they are those nameless things which bother you behind your head(ok, if not everyone's heads, us misfits) and you cannot name them.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne Enright's writing style washes over the reader with honest meaning and poignant moments of clarity that define parts of us we haven't known how to articulate.

[Kevin Tole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1991 0r 2 this is the first published book of short stories by Anne Enright. It's skinny and a quick read. Since winning the Booker in 2007 for The Gathering , Enright has become part of the luvvie set somewhat marred by her article on Kate and Gerry McCann in the LRB which drew down the wrath of liberals everywhere on her head. Since this anthology came out she has devoted herself to full time writing rather than, as she describes 'rocking the pram with one hand and typing with the other' when not engaged as a television producer for the Irish broadcaster RTE.

A good short story is, well, a complete novel in itself. Poor short stories merely pander to something else, commonly self-flattery. Reading the opening few trials in this book tends towards the latter than the former. And yes, I suppose we do need to show a degree of laxity towards the author as it was her first published anthology of stuff probably written to order or as part of her MA studies in Creative Writing from that hotbed at the University of East Anglia under Angela Carter. However, the taste left by the flavour of the first few stories leaves one tainted when reading the rest. The first couple or more are not the best. It smacks of someone searching for the slick phrase, the junction of words and subjects that will get you noticed. It seems self-possessed and self-promoting and half-embarrassed like a 40 year old trying to be a teenager on social media. At the same time it feels contrived and trendy. Take

"These were all things I dreamed about before I met the architect, which makes this story dishonest in it's way. Under excuses for sitting on library steps I could also list: simple fatigue, not winning the lottery, not liking the colour blue. Under excuses for killing babies I could list: not liking babies, not liking myself, or not liking the architect. Take your pick."

See what I mean? Or maybe you don't. Maybe you do think it's cool and trendy, an expression of the new hep-cat really, really free, post-modernist, post-feminist rad fiction. I just don't think its good enough. And the characters and situations are all so off-the-wall as to be totally unbelievable! It's like wanting to touch the sublime whilst remaining ever so, ever so respectable; like standing on the edge of a cliff with a safety harness on. It seems trite, flippant, teenage (not inherently but DESIGNED to be) and therefore entirely superficial. It is EXACTLY the Booker fodder she went on to produce in novel form.

I'm not going to bother commenting on each of the short stories in the collection but they are all like members of the same subsets, all with a faint tang of prurience running through them like the twitch of a curtain or the over-elaborate schnidey question. As to allegedly being influenced by the Irish master Flann O'Brien, I do sincerely hope that those that stuck this label on go out and re-read At Swim-Two-Birds and The Third Policeman again.

In the end it seems more like the Irish in her trying to outdo the cod-Oirish at Irishness..... and failing. And to think that I came to her from an afterword on a Thomas Bernhard novel! If you want stuff like this but done better try Postcards from Surfers by Helen Garner.

[Alan Alderson-Smith]

I read Enright's The Gathering and wondered if her first book - The Portable Virgin - contained the amazing gift of her prose right from the start. It did but coming from an entirely different and completely unexpected direction. A lot of often very short pieces more like prose poems than straightforward fiction, closer to James Joyce, than I expected.

[Ruth Brumby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the story about the man who invented the kaleidoscope, but it was in three sections and I could not understand at all how the other two sections related to that part.
Most of the stories left me similarly baffled in one way or another.
There is some beautiful writing but the point mostly eluded me.

[Fiza Pirani · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a fascinating, quirky collection. Enright's voice is the most unique I've read yet, each sentence a strange but welcome surprise. There are stories I enjoyed thoroughly, some I had to reread a few times to really understand and some I'm still confused about. But I'm intrigued.

[Taylor Allgeier-Follett · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few standout stories, but in general, very much an early collection. I’m a big Enright fan and I saw a lot of what I love about her later books in this, but not quite as put together as in the books!

[Cormac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her first short-story collection showed enormous ingenuity and wit.

[Alannah Glynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a nice surprise and my first book by Enright. Funny, really insightful and just telling it how it is. So good.

[Shriya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb and succinct. It took effort to tear myself away from the pages. Yet I wish to re-read the stories immediately. I have seldom felt like that about literature.

Enright conveys so much with her beautifully constructed sentences. The enflamed sublimation that lay beneath the the sentences of each story reminded me of J.D Salinger's style in Nine Stories. Anyone who loved 9 Stories/From Esme with Love and Squalor will hopefully find similar joy in reading this book.

[Paul Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Angela Carter's quote on the cover describes the stories as original; not wishing to contradict so eminent a critic I would use the adjectives surreal and impenetrable. The catholic angst that characterises Enright's work is much in evidence but I put the book down with the sense that I must have missed something.

[courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read "the house of the architect's love story" in college and was astounded at the power of words to make you root for and hate a character. enright has an odd, somewhat uneven body of work, but i love her. and this collection especially.

[sisterimapoet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not really a fan of short stories - but I still try them from time to time to see if I can change my mind. This collection was ok - not the best but not the worst I have read. Enright has an unusual eye and a lively imagination - I'm keen to try another of her novels.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Anne Enright and think she is one of the best authors alive, however, I am not sure this book is worth the effort. Most of the best stories are collected in her latest book, Yesterday's Weather.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging writing style and personal voice but the author has a spaghetti brain. Most of the stories are a mess - had literally no idea what was going on sometimes - so you have got to filter hard for the gems...but when you get there, it's worth it:)

[Lari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect from it, other than it was meant to be good. And it was. The stories are adorable and quirky and I enjoyed Anne's writing style and humour very much. An enjoyable, light read. I read it all in one day, it was a really good day :)

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interested in other works by this author
Enjoyed the Gathering. Could not get into thos one

[Sigridur Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aðeins of hástemmd.

[Paultaylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

An eclectic mixture. Some impenetrable some wry but all with their own momentum. If you don't understand the Irish condition you won't get the most out of it.

[James M · Rating 3 out of 5]

A modern Irish short story masters collection.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection confused me - if I'm honest. I felt as if I'd entirely missed the point

[Brooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just didn't get these. Dis-jointed, weird, no story. No idea what most were about?

[Jacqueline Worboys · Rating 1 out of 5]

Certainly is original.