Small Things Like These (Oprah's Book Club)
Small Things Like These is award-winning author Claire Keegan’s landmark new novel, a tale of one man’s courage and a remarkable portrait of love and family
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Readers say *Small Things Like These* by Claire Keegan is a beautifully written, poignant novella set in early 20th-century Ireland that explores mora...
Well written short story about standing up for those that have no voice. It’s never too late to do the right thing.
Super book! Short but exquisite writing. The author packed so much into each sentence. The character development of the main character was so full particularly in contrast to Agent Josephine where you hardly had any sense of the main character at all.
thenextgoodbook.com
What’s it about?
Bill Furlong is a coal and timber merchant in a small town in Ireland. It is 1985 and the Catholic Church is a powerful presence in his community. As Christmas Day approaches Bill finds himself reminiscing about the past, as he struggles with questions of conscience versus faith.
What did it make me think about?
Does this story really take place in 1985?
Should I read it?
This is a beautifully written book. Claire Keegan joins a long list of Irish writers that should not be missed. She has written a revelatory character in Bill Furlong. How she manages to convey so much in 114 pages is astonishing. Even more powerful is the fact that it is loosely based on the Magdalen laundries that the Catholic Church ran in Ireland all the way up to 1996. How was that even possible? This is literary fiction at its best!
Quote-
“Always it was the same, Furlong thought; always they carried mechanically on without pause, to the next job at hand. What would life be like, he wondered, if they were given time to think and reflect over things? Might their lives be different or much the same- or would they just lose the run of themselves? Even while he’d been creaming the butter and sugar, his mind was not so much upon the here and now and on this Sunday nearing Christmas with his wife and daughters so much as on tomorrow and who owed what, and how and when he’d deliver what was ordered and what man he’d leave to which task, and how and where he’d collect what was owed- and before tomorrow was coming to an end, he knew his mind would already be working in much the same way, yet again, over the day that was to follow”.
What’s it about?
Bill Furlong is a coal and timber merchant in a small town in Ireland. It is 1985 and the Catholic Church is a powerful presence in his community. As Christmas Day approaches Bill finds himself reminiscing about the past, as he struggles with questions of conscience versus faith.
What did it make me think about?
Does this story really take place in 1985?
Should I read it?
This is a beautifully written book. Claire Keegan joins a long list of Irish writers that should not be missed. She has written a revelatory character in Bill Furlong. How she manages to convey so much in 114 pages is astonishing. Even more powerful is the fact that it is loosely based on the Magdalen laundries that the Catholic Church ran in Ireland all the way up to 1996. How was that even possible? This is literary fiction at its best!
Quote-
“Always it was the same, Furlong thought; always they carried mechanically on without pause, to the next job at hand. What would life be like, he wondered, if they were given time to think and reflect over things? Might their lives be different or much the same- or would they just lose the run of themselves? Even while he’d been creaming the butter and sugar, his mind was not so much upon the here and now and on this Sunday nearing Christmas with his wife and daughters so much as on tomorrow and who owed what, and how and when he’d deliver what was ordered and what man he’d leave to which task, and how and where he’d collect what was owed- and before tomorrow was coming to an end, he knew his mind would already be working in much the same way, yet again, over the day that was to follow”.
Good short story. I usually read thrillers and suspense so this was a nice change of pace. It highlights a man’s humanity and what he is willing and not willing to live with.
Excellent read
Lesa's recommendation.
Set in an Irish town. Connects to the Catholic laundries for single mothers. A quick read.
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