Claire Keegan is the Irish author of Small Things Like These (my last review), which received overwhelming praise and has been filmed starring Cillian Murphy.
So Late In The Day - Stories of Women and Men is a collection of three previously published stories which had me completely divided. Definitely writing of quality that I will not forget.
So Late in The Day features Cathal, a Dublin man who can hardly get through the day, he is so out of sorts. Friends sympathize as we gradually understand his marriage to Sabine is not going to happen. We find clues throughout their courtship which answers why. This story was so subtle and natural, revealing a razor sharp undercurrent, an impressive feat. It's the perception of character, and her crisp writing that delivers an excellent story I began recommending.
The second, The Long And Painful Death has a female writer-in-residence settling into her new digs, the preserved cottage and studio of famed writer Henrich Boll, on a small Irish island. An older professor of German literature contacts her, in fact, he is outside the house and would like to come in. "Many people want to come here...I've seen the applications... many people want to work here...there are many applications", he says to let her know her place.
The third story, Antarctica, was well written in perception and dialogue, but made me so angry I almost vowed to never read Keegan again.
A happily married woman on a Christmas shopping weekend to the city ponders what it would be like to sleep with a man other than her husband. Meeting him in a bar, she gets the fantasy weekend of tenderness, conversation, and rejuvenation. Until things turn bad. I willed as I read it that it would not turn bad, that Keegan would not do this to her, but she did. It left me heartbroken, knowing how easily people are mistreated this way.
I give Keegan full credit for writing something that makes me want to never recommend this story to anyone. Perhaps a personal reaction, but this is my review.
This slim volume of only 119 pages holds one of the most accomplished short stories I've read, and another which makes me too sad to think about. There is a theme running throughout of women as property, a possession of men. I have read some criticism of Keegan for being misogynistic, but I think that is the point. Stories that illicit a strong reaction are why we write - and read.
Terrific stories I would read again, balanced with one I do not want to remember.
Claire Keegan is an exceptional writer and I will continue to read her.
Other Claire Keegan books I have reviewed:
2023 / Hardcover / 199 pages
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