Small Things Like These

Were you familiar with Magdalene laundries before reading this book? How did your level of knowledge impact your experience of reading the story?

Do you wish this novella was longer, or was the length right for you?  If you wished it were longer, what would you have liked to have had more of?

Bill and the girl Sarah pass many people as they walk home, but none ask any questions.  Do you think this forebodes good or bad things for Bill and his family? What are the likely consequences of Bill’s actions?

How do you think Eileen will react when Bill gets home with the girl?   

Both Bill’s wife, Eileen, and Mrs. Kehoe, the cafe owner, seem to know what’s going on at the laundry but advise Bill to let things lie.  Why do they give this advice?  Does this make them (and others in the village) complicit?  What would you have done if you were in their situation?

Why does Bill Furlong act where others remain silent and passive?  What makes him different? 

Even before he discovers Sarah locked in the convent, Bill is restless and feels as though there must be more to life.  “He was touching forty but didn’t feel himself to be getting anywhere or making any kind of headway and could not but sometimes wonder what the days were for.”  Why do you think Bill felt this way?  How do these early ruminations lead to him making the momentous choice he makes later in the novel?

How did Bill Furlong’s upbringing shape him into the man he is today?  How does it impact his decision-making process over the course of the novel?

Notably, it is primarily women who urge Bill to overlook the conditions at the laundry.  Do you think gender plays a role in the characters’ reactions to the laundry, especially given the story’s setting?  What does the story tell us about how women were treated by society in 1980s Ireland?

Class also plays a role in the novel.  How does Mrs. Wilson’s wealth and outsider status (as a Protestant) allow her to make different choices?  How does Bill’s relative wealth (vs. how he grew up) and outsider status (as the child of an unwed mother) impact his own choices?