An Irish Rabbit Hole

Quick Book Notes #10, on the work of Claire Keegan

Robert Henri, Irish Girl, 1913.

Dear Friends,

Have you ever read anything by the Irish author Claire Keegan?

No? Me, neither, until

Julian Girdham

recommended her work to me in the comments on this recent collaborative post on fathers in literature.

If you haven’t read Keegan’s novellas, you need to fix this. Now.

Allow me to help you. Let’s go down this Irish rabbit hole together.

There was something vaguely familiar to me about Keegan’s name when Julian mentioned her in his coments, and although I wracked my brain over it and looked at Julian’s ‘stack and reached back into my memories of reading Irish literature in college, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I had reveled in my reading in college and had found much of what I read intensely compelling, both as literature and because my father is an Irishman (my brother and I are in the process of claiming our own dual citizenship, in fact), and the cultural aspects of much of the literature were familiar to me.

So I decided to just go ahead and check out Keegan’s short book, Foster, from my local library and read it right away, other books on my TBR list be, uh, darned.

Of course, I’m very glad that I did. The story in this book is one of those that envelops you immediately and completely in a life that seems ordinary to those living it, and may even be ordinary, but ought not to be ordinary, and certainly is nothing like ordinary. How can I explain this? A child — loved, after a fashion; cared for, somewhat less; but never before cherished — leaves home to live with relatives for a few weeks. These relatives are strangers to her, but they are not without their own pain over loss and belonging, nor are they without gifts to give.

Foster is the sort of book that hurts in a way that prevents you from crying. It makes you want to change for the better, and to turn to others to learn what lies beneath their days, as well.

I gradually became aware, as I read the first pages, that Foster is the book upon which the remarkable film The Quiet Girl is based, which explains the little flag that my brain sent up upon first hearing Keegan’s name. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a better film adaptation of a book. The book and the film are both works of art; read the novella first, but I urge you thereafter to make sure you also do not miss the film.

After reading Foster (and rewatching the film, as well), I knew I needed to begin a personal collection of Keegan’s works, so this time I forewent borrowing from the library and purchased a copy of another of her novellas, Small Things Like These. I’m glad that I did.

The protagonist, Bill Furlong, is the father of a gaggle of girls and a business owner who works hard daily to provide for them a home and education that will secure them a middle-class start in the world. He is troubled, however, by the realities that not all girls in the neighborhood have the same, and that he might not be doing enough in and with his life, either by himself or by others. One day, he encounters a distressed and distressing girl at a nearby Magdalene laundry while he is delivering fuel there, and he must decide what to do. He must decide what to do in the moment, and he must decide what to do over time. Ought her to risk his own girls’ security to help another girl, not even knowing what he can really do?

I can’t say enough good about this short book, which holds a similar, powerful interior flame to Foster and brings forth many of the same emotions. I have been realizing lately how important pacing is in both fiction and non-fiction, and Keegan is a master of pacing and of the subtle building of tension.

I hope you’ll read both books, and tell me about Keegan’s others, if you have read them. I look forward to discussing with you, and to reading more!

— Have you read any of Keegan’s works, or watched The Quiet Girl? What did you think?

— What books have you been reading recently?

— Do you have a current favorite national literature besides that of your own country?

Finally, I’d love to receive feedback from paid subscribers on what is working and what is not in our paid offerings. I’m really happy with how things are going, and would love to adjust or add or subtract topics and types of posts in order to fit what you would most enjoy reading and discussing!

Tell me: What’s on your mind about the Hollow?

Have a wonderful week,

-Dixie