Claire Keegan

[underthepromenade]

I've started reading and listening to Claire Keegan's "Small Things Like These". It's such an amazing book: it covers so much rich detail in a really short amount of time. I'm flying through it, and going to move on to her other book Foster soon.

Has anybody else read it?

It has been made into a film starring Cillian Murphy.
I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Her Foster story has been made into an Irish Language film called An Cailín Ciúin. It has subtitles and is well worth a watch.

Thanks @LadyEloise1 ! I'm really looking forward to the film. I might read Foster first and then see the film afterwards.

My DD gave me So Late in the Day.
Disturbing, just perfect writing.

I also loved Small Things like These.

Was Foster made into a film called The Silent Girl, or something?

I've read this and loved it

Then went on to read So late in the day by her too

Yes An Cailín Ciúin means the Quiet Girl/Silent Girl in the Irish language.

I've loved everything I've read of hers. I have The Forester's Daughter on my kindle still to read which I might bump up to my next read.

Loved it

I've read Foster and So Late in the Day, I honestly don't get the love for her writing.

I loved it - almost poetry in the sparseness of the prose, and beautifully crafted.

Wonderful book.
I don't understand the need to turn everything into a film, though. I think the beauty of the book comes from the lyrical, sparse, magical writing.

Generally speaking I agree. An Cailin Cuiun is surprisingly successful at accurately reflecting the book (once you get beyond the fact that the book wasn't set in an Irish speaking family). It is beautifully done.

I loved Foster and Small Things. Late in the Day I found much harder to engage with though I don't think that was about the writing but the characters. It is an unsettling read for sure.

I read this review of it today which was pretty similar to what I think of it.

Downloaded Foster on Audible to listen to next!

I've just finished Foster. The story carried me away less than the Small Things Like These, but I enjoyed it all the same.

Which version did you read? It was a short story first published in the New Yorker (I think) and then became an expanded version published as a separate short novella.

@GalileoHumpkins — what is it you don’t care for in her work? I admit I can get irritated by elements of its John McGahern pastiche.

I thought it was So Late In the Day in the New Yorker.
I love her writing although was a bit surprised by one of the early stories in the Antarctica collection - not what I was expecting at all!

Foster was also first published in a shorter form in the New Yorker before being published on its own in expanded form by Faber. I think they have a ‘first reader’ agreement with CK. Antarctica was written when she was still very much under the influence of Flannery O’Connor and Southern Gothic. She finds a much more McGahern-y mode (with a bit of Eilis Ní Dhuibhne) in Walk the Blue Fields.

She writes so beautifully. Every phrase says so much.

@LadyNijo thanks - interesting background. I enjoyed Walk the Blue Fields which was why going back to Antarctica was quite the contrast.

Just finished Foster. What an amazing writer Claire Keegan is. I read Small Things like These recently. Outstanding. Really need to get all her stuff, there's a raw honesty that I rarely find in other writers. Stunning.

Just got it today. Really looking forward to reading it. Read Foster during the week, heartbreaking and beautiful.