The Obsession of Henry Enright
Historical Literary Fiction
by J.I. Lorden
Poignant and heart wrenching yet replete with hope, The Obsession of Henry Enright captures the mood of an era through the eyes of a misguided soul seeking to know and be known. A stranger in a strange town, Henry Enright is thirteen when he moves with his Irish Catholic family from Boston to Union in 1954. The simple country life and relief from the oppression of his strict Catholic upbringing was at first freedom and joy but it turned to tragedy when he was forced to identify the bodies of his friends killed in a car wreck. In a time when rock and roll has just started to play from the jukeboxes and the sexual revolution is on the rise, Henry, determined to remake his image and be accepted by his peers, begins to make a dramatic transformation. With only his wits to guide him in his rebellion against authority and religious hypocrisy, Henry has no idea how devastating the consequences of his revolt against the world around him will be. Presented as fiction but reading like a memoir the reminisces of Henry Enright reveal with candor what life was like in the rural town of Union, Massachusetts in the 1950’s.
REVIEW
4 out of 5
This was an emotional rollercoaster through another time. Life was much different in the 50s, but one thing that hasn’t changed is it isn’t easy being a teenager, especially when your entire life is uprooted, and you move to a place quite different from what you’re used to. Henry lives in the middle of a whirlwind – new experiences, pressures of home, and tragedies. Lorden did a great job of painting a picture for the reader, and it felt like we were following Henry as his life unfolded before him. I won’t give any spoilers, but I do wish the ending had gone slightly differently, even if it meant making the book slightly longer to explore more possibilities. Overall a good historical coming of age.
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