Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan - #BookReview

 

In October there were yellow trees. Then the clocks went back the hour and the long November winds came in and blew, and stripped the trees bare. In the town of New Ross, chimneys threw out smoke which fell away and drifted off in hairy, drawn-out strings before dispersing along the quays, and soon the River Barrow, dark as stout, swell up with rain.

The people, for the most part, unhappily endured the weather: shop-keepers and tradesmen, men and women in the post office and the dole queue, the mart, the coffee shop and supermarket, the bingo hall, the pubs and the chipper all commented, in their own ways, on the cold and what rain had fallen, asking what was in it - and could there be something in it - for who could believe that there, again, was another raw-cold day...

***

It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.

The long-awaited new work from the author of Foster, Small Things Like These is an unforgettable story of hope, quiet heroism and tenderness.

***

Bill Furlong is one of the most delightful main characters to grace the pages of a book. He imbues this slim volume with a sensitivity and tenderness which echoes throughout.

Set in a small town in Ireland we are introduced to the main character and see life very much through his eyes. He is a man who is content with his life. He has steady work, a wife and five daughters and he lives his life with humility and integrity.

On occasion, his work takes him to the infamous Magdalene laundries. With our fore-knowledge of these homes for unmarried mothers, it is possible that as readers we understand the significance of the events playing out there more than the main character does. However, through Ms. Keegan's perfect prose, we witness the scales fall from his eyes and his big-hearted generosity come into play.

I read this as it was my book group choice for October and, as always, there were varying opinions on it. Overall, people liked it. However, I adored it. It was 128 pages of pure loveliness, and it is one of those books that I could have happily gone straight back to the first page to read it all over again.

An outstanding novella which I highly recommend.

ISBN: 978 0571368686

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Formats: e-book, audio and hardback (paperback due for release in November 2022)

No. of Pages: 128 (hardback)

About the Author:

Claire Keegan grew up on a farm in Wicklow. Her first collection of short stories, Antarctica, was completed in 1998. It announced her as an exceptionally gifted and versatile writer of contemporary fiction, and she was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature. Her second short-story collection, Walk the Blue Fields, was published to enormous critical acclaim in 2007 and won her the 2008 Edge Hill Prize for Short Stories. Foster, a short novel, was published in 2010 and won the Davy Byrnes Award, judged by Richard Ford. Claire Keegan lives in County Wexford, Ireland.

(photo and bio info courtesy of the publisher)