Small Things Like These

At a mere 128 pages it is an excellent example of how the short novel can carry a huge impact. It is a gem, winning the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, and shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio and Booker prizes.It takes place in 1985 in a town in Ireland, and concerns a man named Bill Furlong who is a coal merchant and devoted family man with daughters. It is a time of economic challenges but Bill does okay, though it feels a little precarious nonetheless. For reasons related to his childhood and his upbringing he is keenly aware of moral choices and how one person’s small act of generosity can be seen a form of heroism in the right circumstance, and before the book is finished he has the opportunity to put that into action for himself.The specificity of the prose is riveting, with nuance and depth of meaning that are layered throughout the polite conversations of the characters. And there is so much that is unsaid, hovering just outside the page, understated but powerful.

It has the virtues of a novel, with very little exposition, only understated allusions and rich metaphors, so it develops the reader's thinking muscles and forces them to notice what is not revealed.From a large, complex, tangled thread, a single strand of thread is plucked, gently tugged, and revealed.Instead of a strong cry to the world or a rant of injustice, the author has the protagonist do what is most honest to his inner voice and himself, and that's how this novel is an indictment.The unconscious, which underpins consciousness, and our awareness and harmony with nature and the world, really lives when it is directed by the unconscious.it's great as a novel because it's about a world that people who write novels pay attention to.It's The in-between. The novelist's eye and the universe are in the in-between, the in-betweenness. If you describe its expression as just a small thing, just a small thing with no obvious substance. I think it is a novel that deals with such a place.Also, The character of the protagonist, his integrity and responsibility, his tragic flaws, and the subconscious roar that rises up when those flaws are connected to certain situations-The power it has to shatter a calm life in an instant-. In many ways, the archetypal aspects of the novel are in place.# Small tingsThe forces that drive our daily lives are survival, living, and culture. They are all human obligations. When triviality becomes a list of nouns, it becomes a reason to sustain the empty routine. Like a brand names.Meanwhile, there is another concept of small things. When triviality represents a state of mind or a behavior, its identity is fuzzy and usually has a"should be" look. It's the language of the unconscious.A Christmas scene with a couple raising their five daughters with all their best. The book is filled with little things: a long list of names that seems excessively long in light of the book's overall length; a baby Jesus lying in a manger in a Christmas nativity scene that is neither Joseph and Mary nor the wise men; a little girl petting a donkey because she thinks it's cute; the kind of feelings that are not explicitly labeled as shoulds and shouldn'ts; the little things that fulfill small needs, like the matchboxes in Ned's room. The title "Small things (like these)"suggests the extras that make up this world, but it also allows us to see the power and substance of triviality.The final scene, in which the protagonist, Furlong, holds the barefoot little girl's hand as he walks and he has a Christmas gift box of custum leather shoes, is a scene of reconciliation with his own repression. Furling is a man who has has been cusrous about who's his father throughout him upbringing, but somehow has never been able to ask the most curious and frightening question: the question of his father's existence. The little girl means his repression about his existance. The image of the little girl he felt in the Mother Superior's room was his own.

William Furlong lives a good if not well-to-do life. He operates a coal and timber hauling business in an Irish town, providing a decent living for himself, his family, and the people who work for him. It’s now nearing Christmas, and his biggest concerns seem to be his youngest daughter’s negative response to Santa Claus and the usual rush of delivery orders that happens as the holiday approaches.Furlong might not have been expected to have achieved a good life and a sound family. He was born illegitimate. His mother was a maid in the big house outside town owned by a wealthy Protestant family. He never knew his father, although another man working for the family took him in hand and treated him like a son. His mother was unbelievably fortunate in not having been dismissed by her employer; instead, the matriarch seemed to go out of her way to help the woman and her baby. Which, of course, led to all kinds of rumors.He's always wondered who his father was, but he’s never known for sure. But this is the mid-1980s, and DNA ancestry testing is not “a thing” yet. But as he ages, this unknown father helps feed a sense of unease and dissatisfaction, what he might consider as a minor mid-life crisis.He finds himself delivering a load of coal unexpectedly early one Sunday morning to the local convent. The nuns operate the school his daughters attend, the convent itself, and a home for girls. The nun who usually meets him for the delivery isn’t there, so he finds his way behind the building to the coal storage bin, opens it, and discovers a young girl, shivering and terrified. He gets her inside to the nuns, discovering that he has stumbled into something else entirely.When he’s cautioned by the nuns and people outside the convent, including his wife, not to speak of it, he finds himself growing more restless. He knows something is happening in the convent that shouldn’t be, and it’s as if the whole town, and even his wife, are part of a conspiracy of silence. But he’s reminded of the kindness of the employer to his mother and himself, and he realizes that kindness is a kind of redemption.“Small Things Like These” by Irish writer Claire Keegan tells William Furlong’s story. The short novel, simply beautifully told, is a small window on what was then hidden but is now known as the national Irish scandal involving unwed mothers and the selling of their babies for decades.Keegan is best known for her short stories, which have appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, Granta, Best American Short Stories, and The Paris Review, among others. Her writing has won numerous awards and recognitions, including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the William Trevor Prize, and several short story awards. She studied English and political science at Loyola University in New Orleans, received a M.S. degree in creative writing at the University of Wales, and a M.Phil degree from Trinity College Dublin. She lives in rural Ireland.You don’t get the full story of the Irish baby scandal in this novel, shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, but you do get a glimpse, not unlike the glimpse that the characters in the story get. And it’s enough to know that something is very wrong with the institution that is the very heart and soul of the town. But as William’s wife tells him, “This is not our concern.” William Furlong comes to realize otherwise.

Love this book so much Ive gotten her others. Excellent writer!!! All the reviews are correct. Its truly a gem of a book!! Great gift too for someone.

This novella uses an encounter between a villager and a child trying to escape from "homes" for "wayward" girls run by Irish Catholic Orders to reveal the scandal of child servitude and abuse allowed to flourish through the turning of a blind eye, misogyny and greed of those in authority. With understated, implied meaning, Claire Keegan recreates an Irish village whose thinking is dominated by the doctrines of the Catholic Church and the moral courage one villager shows to resist social pressure—and the price he is likely to pay.

Excelente escrita! Primeiro livro que comprei em inglês. Queria aumentar meu contato com o idioma e fui pelas indicações sobre essa autora. Não me decepcionou em nada, certamente lerei outras obras da Claire Keegan. Gosto da forma como ela descreve situações cotidianas e temas delicados (porém necessários) com a mesma naturalidade, poesia e realismo.Única observação é que demorou bastante para a compra chegar, cerca de 2 meses.

I definitely did not expect this story to be based in true historical facts. It is so sad, that church is involved in extreme abuse in Ireland as well. I am wondering why I am surprised...this happened in Canada as well and still church is so powerful....

More of a novella, really, but still a really good book. And, on the plus side, you can read it in one sitting.It's a difficult book to explain (without giving everything away), but it's a gripping and very moving and thought-provoking story. The 'hero' is beautifully written - an absobing and very real character. The author tells a moving and disturbing story, but simply, and without all the usual clichés and obvious characters and plots - it's brilliantly done, but also softly and slowly. You'll never regret reading this book, but it will haunt you for ever after.As well as reading it, if you get a chance, listen to the R4 serialisation of it too - the reader is wonderful (as understated and absorbing as the character), and makes a good book even better.

It packs a powerful punch in a deceptively small package. It's a beautifully written and thought-provoking novella that deserves a place on your bookshelf,a must-read for those seeking a powerful yet nuanced exploration of historical injustice and the human capacity for compassion.

A truthful shocking storyImpossible to put down