Book: Small Things Like These
Author: Claire Keegan
Pages: 118
Read On: Kindle
How Long it Took Me To Read: 1 day
Publisher: Grove Press
Plot Summary: It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.
Review: I'll be honest, I am not, at least no longer, one of those readers who read the entire Booker Prize Long List and then make predictions and really invest (in more ways than one) into the winner. I keep my eye on the proceedings. Look up the books on the list. See how many I've already read in a given year. I usually pick up the winning book...if it sounds like it's something I want to read.
I was super busy, moving back home and getting back to normal life, the list came out this year. And so many of the titles seemed like something I would enjoy. Others not so much. One I had already read- Night Crawling by Leila Mottley and some I already owned (on my Kindle).
Out of all these books, this one caught my attention and I had to read it.
And I did.
Back in July. It had oddly taken me this long to talk about it.
First things first. at a 118 pages this book is a masterclass in how to write deftly about a people, a country, it's culture and it's perils. This slim little book packs a punch. At the end of it, I did want more. I wished we have a 100 or more pages to tell us about the lives of these people we had gotten to know. I wanted more time, more answers and just more...yet...this book felt complete. Enough. Perfect.
I loved it, let's just get that out of the way. I really, really loved it.
On the face of it, this is a simple and atmospheric tale. Winter of 1985, the days leading up to Christmas in a small-town in Ireland. Times are hard (as they were), people are being laid off, there is uncertainty in the air and amidst this there is our main man Bill Furlong. He has a nice wife and five lovely daughters he loves very much. He grew up an anomaly in this town, a child born out of wedlock in a very conservative country. So having a happy family and a home and enough, is big deal to him. It means more to to him than the next person for sure. Life is going well, well enough. There is Christmas cheer in the air and festivity looming large (this book would make an excellent Christmas read) and yet..right under the surface something is very wrong. Injustice and cruelty and exploitation are closer than you think and not all is idyllic.
Bill is a good man. A solid good man who I immediately just felt connected to and rooted for. He is kind and helpful and something happens in this seemingly peaceful and gentle world that really makes him stop in his tracks and make him think about what is the right thing to do..or should he do this thing at all? Rock the boat? Bring trouble into his world? Jeopardize his own well-bring and that of his family? You felt his dilemma. His inner struggles with keeping mum or trying to do the right thing. I loved this aspect of the novel and books like this, that deal with the inner struggles about right v. wrong.
There is so much we don't know enough about in this world of ours. So many dark chapters in our recent history. Especially as women, there is so much that other women have endured that we know scant about. The thing this book delves into (I am trying to be vague so as to not spoil it) is one such injustice and a gross violation and exploitation of young girls and women, all in the name of culture and propriety and sanctioned by religious dogma and the State itself. I knew a little (very little) about what went on in Convents in the Ireland, how young mothers were shunned and sent off, forever in most cases, to have their babies (out of wedlock) and how so many women died and so many babies died and so many children were taken away from the mothers and adopted out and the mothers had absolutely no agency or voice in this entire operation. I have read a few books, mostly all thrillers, centered around this slice of history and it left me stunned. This book showed me another side to this sordid mess and I promise you, you will be enraged. I think it's very important to read about these stories. To bear witness. To know and learn about what people have endured, what women have endured.
I am so glad I picked this book off the list and I can't recommend it enough. It's a curious mix of warm Christmas vibes, a gentle bunch of people and something slightly sinister going on a man trying to make sense of it all.
Highly Recommend.
Rating: 5/5
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