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Grove Press, 2021

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Small Things Like These

By claire keegan, reviewed by erik hage.

At just over one hundred pages, Irish writer Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These is a deceptively slim volume. On the one hand, it has the scathing social and religious indictment of a longer novel; on the other, it is a quiet and morose character study, a novella that delves into one man’s psychology and moral fiber. This character study is really the bulk of the plot, which moves not through propulsion, but by a steady undertow of dread embodied by its protagonist, Bill Furlong.

Furlong is a coal and wood merchant living in a small Irish town in 1985. A family man, he enjoys a level of success that belies his origins: born to an unwed sixteen-year-old mother—a deep mark of shame in Catholic Ireland—Furlong, through the generosity of a wealthy Protestant benefactress, Mrs. Wilson, is able to escape poverty without getting separated from his mother.

Furlong is humble, hardworking, and deeply compassionate. When he sees a small boy foraging for sticks along the road, he offers him a ride and the change in his pocket, knowing that the boy’s father is an alcoholic. Furlong sees his own potential fate in the lives of the less fortunate and is kept up at night ruminating “over small things like these”—the random-seeming moments that separate good fortune from misfortune.

Furlong also spends a lot of time wondering about the identity of his father. Because of his “illegitimacy,” Furlong is a compelling central figure for the writer’s larger ambition, which is to condemn the “Magdalen laundries,” Catholic Church–sponsored homes in which disenfranchised girls and women were essentially incarcerated, put to work, and abused, sometimes ending up in unmarked graves. Their children often died there as well, or were surreptitiously offered up for adoption. Remarkably, these social institutions existed for more than two hundred years, the last one closing in 1996. Just as remarkable is the Irish state’s longstanding acceptance of them as a social institution.

It is a compelling plot device to put Furlong in conflict with this institution and the local Mother Superior after he discovers a girl locked in a convent coal shed, but the conflict appears suddenly, culminates quickly, and leaves too many questions unanswered. (An afterword explains the social context behind the story.) Also, what may be a life-changing revelation about Furlong’s father is delivered in an offhand manner.

At times, Small Things Like These begs for the full scope of a novel that moves beyond the story’s ending and deals with the consequences of the final act. At others, it begs to be pared down to a tauter, more suggestive short story. As it is, the insular psychological study and the biting social condemnation never fully fuse.

There is also a discomfiting imbalance between the rich and empathic portrayal of Furlong and that of the women in the story. All of them, besides Mrs. Wilson, who resides in memory, seem to be unfeeling enablers of a corrupt institution. Furlong’s wife, Eileen, the most vividly rendered of them, is downright scornful of her husband’s kindness and empathy. Furlong even sees his daughters, who otherwise get short shrift in the narrative, “as young witches sometimes … with their black hair and sharp eyes.” Nor do we get a full sense of Furlong’s mother beyond his memory of a “strong, freckled arm” and her singing while milking the cow.

Keegan is, however, a masterful renderer of environments, which accord with the sorrow and dismal hardship of the story. The book opens with a time-lapse–style image of the town in fall and winter, from the “yellow trees” of October to the “long November winds”: “chimneys threw out smoke which fell away and drifted off in hairy, drawn-out strings before dispersing along the quays, and soon the River Barrow, dark as stout, swelled up with rain.” Later, the descriptions reflect Furlong’s growing awareness of corruption:

On the street, a dog was licking something from a tin can, pushing it noisily across the pavement with his nose. Already the crows were out, sidling along and letting out short, hoarse caws and longer, fluent kaaahs as though they found the world objectionable. One stood tearing at a pizza box … quickly flying off with a crust in his beak.

Keegan’s prose is the kind you want to savor, and this story brings to light, particularly for non-Irish readers, a harrowing social history. Moreover, Furlong’s empathy, emotional scars, and redemptive morality are utterly absorbing. These, no small things themselves, often offset the lapses in structure.

Published on June 28, 2022

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New York Times Bestseller

IndieBound Bestseller

Booker Prize Finalist

SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE

by Claire Keegan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 30, 2021

A stunning feat of storytelling and moral clarity.

An Irishman uncovers abuse at a Magdalen laundry in this compact and gripping novel.

As Christmas approaches in the winter of 1985, Bill Furlong finds himself increasingly troubled by a sense of dissatisfaction. A coal and timber merchant living in New Ross, Ireland, he should be happy with his life: He is happily married and the father of five bright daughters, and he runs a successful business. But the scars of his childhood linger: His mother gave birth to him while still a teenager, and he never knew his father. Now, as he approaches middle age, Furlong wonders, “What was it all for?…Might things never change or develop into something else, or new?” But a series of troubling encounters at the local convent, which also functions as a “training school for girls” and laundry business, disrupts Furlong’s sedate life. Readers familiar with the history of Ireland’s Magdalen laundries, institutions in which women were incarcerated and often died, will immediately recognize the circumstances of the desperate women trapped in New Ross’ convent, but Furlong does not immediately understand what he has witnessed. Keegan, a prizewinning Irish short story writer, says a great deal in very few words to extraordinary effect in this short novel. Despite the brevity of the text, Furlong’s emotional state is fully rendered and deeply affecting. Keegan also carefully crafts a web of complicity around the convent’s activities that is believably mundane and all the more chilling for it. The Magdalen laundries, this novel implicitly argues, survived not only due to the cruelty of the people who ran them, but also because of the fear and selfishness of those who were willing to look aside because complicity was easier than resistance.

Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-8021-5874-1

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Grove

Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021

LITERARY FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL FICTION

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by Claire Keegan

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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.

A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.

When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781250178633

Page Count: 480

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023

FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

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by Kristin Hannah

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BOOK TO SCREEN

SEEN & HEARD

THE MAN WHO LIVED UNDERGROUND

by Richard Wright ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 20, 2021

A welcome literary resurrection that deserves a place alongside Wright’s best-known work.

A falsely accused Black man goes into hiding in this masterful novella by Wright (1908-1960), finally published in full.

Written in 1941 and '42, between Wright’s classics Native Son  and Black Boy , this short novel concerns Fred Daniels, a modest laborer who’s arrested by police officers and bullied into signing a false confession that he killed the residents of a house near where he was working. In a brief unsupervised moment, he escapes through a manhole and goes into hiding in a sewer. A series of allegorical, surrealistic set pieces ensues as Fred explores the nether reaches of a church, a real estate firm, and a jewelry store. Each stop is an opportunity for Wright to explore themes of hope, greed, and exploitation; the real estate firm, Wright notes, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from poor colored folks.” But Fred’s deepening existential crisis and growing distance from society keep the scenes from feeling like potted commentaries. As he wallpapers his underground warren with cash, mocking and invalidating the currency, he registers a surrealistic but engrossing protest against divisive social norms. The novel, rejected by Wright’s publisher, has only appeared as a substantially truncated short story until now, without the opening setup and with a different ending. Wright's take on racial injustice seems to have unsettled his publisher: A note reveals that an editor found reading about Fred’s treatment by the police “unbearable.” That may explain why Wright, in an essay included here, says its focus on race is “rather muted,” emphasizing broader existential themes. Regardless, as an afterword by Wright’s grandson Malcolm attests, the story now serves as an allegory both of Wright (he moved to France, an “exile beyond the reach of Jim Crow and American bigotry”) and American life. Today, it resonates deeply as a story about race and the struggle to envision a different, better world.

Pub Date: April 20, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-59853-676-8

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Library of America

Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021

LITERARY FICTION | GENERAL FICTION

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by Richard Wright

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Small Things Like These

Claire keegan.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2021

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‘ It was a December of crows. People had never seen the likes of them, gathering in black batches on the outskirts of town then coming in, walking the streets, cocking their heads and perching, impudently, on whatever lookout post that took their fancy, scavenging for what was dead, or diving in mischief for anything that looked edible along the roads before roosting at night in the huge old trees around the convent. ’

‘ Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror? ’

It was a December of crows. People had never seen the likes of them, gathering in black batches on the outskirts of town then coming in, walking the streets, cocking their heads and perching, impudently, on whatever lookout post that took their fancy, scavenging for what was dead, or diving in mischief for anything that looked edible along the roads before roosting at night in the huge old trees around the convent. The convent was a powerful-looking place on the hill at the far side of the river with black, wide-open gates, and a host of tall, shining windows, facing the town.

the dole queues were getting longer and there were men out there who couldn’t pay their ESB bills, living in houses no warmer than bunkers, sleeping in their coats. Women, on the first Friday of every month, lined up at the post office wall with shopping bags, waiting to collect their children’s allowances. And farther out the country, he’d known cows left bawling to be milked because the man who had their care had upped, suddenly, and taken the boat to Fishguard. Once, a man from St Mullins got a lift into town to pay his bill, saying that they’d had to sell the car as they couldn’t get a wink of sleep knowing what was owing, that the bank was coming down on them. And early one morning, Furlong has seen a young schoolboy eating from a chip bag that had been thrown down on the street the night before

Why were the things that were closest so often the hardest to see?

When she was 17, she went to New Orleans. “I got an opportunity to go and stay with a family there, and then I wound up going to university. A double major in political science and English literature.” She remembers well what Ireland was like the year she left. “I really wanted to get out. It was 1986. Ann Lovett had just died. I felt the darkness that is in Small Things Like These . I felt that atmosphere of unemployment, and being trapped maybe. And things not looking so good for women. "My parents used to go dancing, and I used go with them, down to the pub. I remember everybody getting really drunk at the bar on a Sunday night. "I remember looking at all the men at the bar – it was pretty much all men at the bar – and they were getting drunk and saying they couldn’t bear the thought of going back to work in the morning. And then others would say they didn’t have any work in the morning. - from the Independent interview

Of late, he was inclined to imagine another life, elsewhere, and wondered if this was not something in his blood; might his own father not have been one of those who had upped, suddenly, and taken the boat for England.

As they carried on along and met more people Furlong did and did not know, he found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?

Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?

“Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?”

“As they carried along and met more people Furlong did and did not know, he found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?”

“He thought of Mrs Wilson, of her daily kindnesses, of how she had corrected and encouraged him, of the small things she had said and done and had refused to do and say and what she must have known, the things which, when added up, amounted to a life. Had it not been for her, his mother might very well have wound up in that place. In an earlier time, it could have been his own mother he was saving – if saving was what this could be called. And only God knew what would have happened to him, where he might have ended up.”

‘What have I against girls?’ he went on. ‘My own mother was a girl, once. And I dare say the same must be true of you and half of all belonging to us.’ ‘You don’t mind bringing the foreigners in.’ ‘Hasn’t everyone to be born somewhere,’ Furlong said. ‘Sure wasn’t Jesus was born in Bethlehem.’ ‘I’d hardly compare Our Lord to those fellows.’

The times were raw but Furlong felt all the more determined to carry on, to keep his head down and stay on the right side of people, and to keep providing for his girls and see them getting on and completing their education at St Margaret’s, the only good school for girls in the town. Always it was the same, Furlong thought; always they carried mechanically on without pause, to the next job at hand. What would life be like, he wondered, if they were given time to think and reflect over things? Might their lives be different or much the same – or would they just lose the run of themselves? What was it all for? Furlong wondered. The work and the constant worry. Getting up in the dark and going to the yard, making the deliveries, one after another, the whole day long, then coming home in the dark and trying to wash the black off himself and sitting into a dinner at the table and falling asleep before waking in the dark to meet a version of the same thing, yet again. Might things never change or develop into something else, or new? Lately, he had begun to wonder what mattered, apart from Eileen and the girls. 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.

‘Where does thinking get us?’ she said. ‘All thinking does is bring you down.’ She was touching the little pearly buttons on her nightdress, agitated. ‘If you want to get on in life, there’s things you have to ignore, so you can keep on.’ ‘But if we just mind what we have here and stay on the right side of people and soldier on, none of ours will ever have to endure the likes of what them girls go through.

In an earlier time, it could have been his own mother he was saving – if saving was what this could be called.

She looked at the window and took a breath and began to cry, the way those unused to any type of kindness do when it’s at first or after a long time again encountered. Before going back into the house, he’d washed his face at the horse-trough, breaking the ice on the surface, pushing his hands down deep in the cold and keeping them there, to divert his pain, until he could no longer feel it. And for a whole day or more, Furlong had gone around feeling a foot taller, believing, in his heart, that he mattered as much as any other child.

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Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

A Haunting Tale of Moral Courage in 1980s Ireland

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Genre: Historical Fiction, Novella
• First Publication: 2021
• Language:  English

In Claire Keegan’s powerful novella “Small Things Like These,” the austere beauty of a small Irish town in 1985 serves as the backdrop for a profound moral awakening . Through the eyes of Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, Keegan masterfully excavates the dark underbelly of institutional abuse in Catholic Ireland while crafting a deeply moving narrative about individual conscience and quiet heroism.

Narrative Craftsmanship

Keegan’s prose is remarkably precise, each word carefully chosen like a mason selecting stones for a wall. The economy of her writing style creates a stark beauty that perfectly mirrors the winter landscape she describes. The story unfolds over the weeks leading up to Christmas, and Keegan uses this seasonal setting to powerful effect, contrasting the warmth of family life and holiday preparations with the cold reality of institutional cruelty.

The author demonstrates exceptional skill in building tension through seemingly mundane details. Bill Furlong’s daily routines as a coal merchant become a meditation on class, privilege, and moral responsibility. His observations of town life—from the crows gathering at the convent to the frost-covered cobblestones—create a vivid sense of place while hinting at deeper undercurrents of unease.

Character Development

Bill Furlong emerges as one of contemporary literature’s most compelling everymen. His character is shaped by his own history as the illegitimate son of a teenage mother, saved from potential institutionalization by the kindness of his mother’s Protestant employer, Mrs. Wilson. Keegan expertly weaves this backstory through the narrative, allowing readers to understand how Furlong’s past influences his present moral choices.

The supporting characters are equally well-drawn, particularly:

• Eileen, Furlong’s practical wife, whose concern for social standing and security represents the complicity of ordinary people in systematic injustice
• The five Furlong daughters, each distinctly characterized despite limited page time
• The Mother Superior, whose polite menace embodies institutional power
• Sarah Redmond, the young woman in the coal shed, whose plight becomes the catalyst for Furlong’s moral awakening

Themes and Symbolism

Social commentary.

Keegan deftly handles several interconnected themes:

• The power of the Catholic Church in Irish society
• The complicity of ordinary people in institutional abuse
• The tension between individual conscience and social conformity
• The impact of class and privilege on moral choice
• The inheritance of trauma and the cycle of abuse

Symbolic Elements

The author employs subtle yet effective symbolism throughout:

• The winter setting reflecting the moral coldness of the town
• The crows as harbingers of hidden truths
• The Christmas season highlighting the gap between Christian ideals and practice
• The river Barrow representing both escape and danger

Historical Context and Contemporary Relevance

The novel’s setting in 1985 Ireland is crucial to its impact. Keegan’s author’s note reminds readers that the last Magdalene Laundry didn’t close until 1996, making this not simply historical fiction but a reflection on very recent history. The estimated 30,000 women who passed through these institutions, and the thousands of children who died in mother and baby homes, form the dark foundation upon which this narrative is built.

Writing Style and Technical Excellence

Keegan’s writing is a masterclass in restraint. Her sentences are clean and precise, yet capable of carrying immense emotional weight. The narrative moves with the steady pace of snow falling, each scene building upon the last to create an overwhelming sense of moral urgency.

Critical Assessment

• Masterful prose that balances beauty with efficiency
• Complex moral themes explored without preaching
• Vivid sense of time and place
• Powerful character development
• Effective use of historical context

Areas for Consideration

• Some readers might find the pacing slow in the early chapters
• The economic focus on Bill’s business dealings occasionally threatens to overshadow the central narrative
• The ending, while powerful, might leave some readers wanting more resolution

Comparative Analysis

“Small Things Like These” stands alongside works like Colm Tóibín’s “Brooklyn” and Sebastian Barry’s “The Secret Scripture” in its exploration of Irish social history through intimate personal stories. However, Keegan’s work is distinguished by its focus on moral choice and individual responsibility in the face of institutional evil.

Legacy and Impact

This novella demonstrates the enduring power of historical fiction to illuminate contemporary moral challenges. It raises uncomfortable questions about complicity and courage that resonate well beyond its specific historical context.

Final Verdict

“Small Things Like These” is a masterpiece of concision and moral complexity. While it may be slim in pages, it carries the weight of history and moral consequence in every carefully crafted sentence. Keegan has created a work that is both timeless in its exploration of human conscience and timely in its relevance to ongoing conversations about institutional abuse and social responsibility.

For readers interested in similar works, consider:

• “Foster” by Claire Keegan
• “Walk the Blue Fields” by Claire Keegan
• “The Secret Scripture” by Sebastian Barry
• “The Heart’s Invisible Furies” by John Boyne

Personal Reflection

As a reviewer, I find myself returning to passages of this book long after reading, discovering new layers of meaning and significance. Keegan’s ability to address profound moral questions through the lens of ordinary life makes this work both accessible and deeply challenging. It’s a reminder that the greatest moral choices we face often come disguised as small things, and that heroism sometimes looks like simply doing what’s right when everyone else looks away.

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Book Club: Let’s Talk About Claire Keegan’s ‘Small Things Like These’

This slim novella about one irishman’s crisis of conscience during the christmas season is the topic of our december book club discussion..

Hosted by MJ Franklin

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Clare Keegan’s slim 2021 novella about one Irishman’s crisis of conscience during the Christmas season, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, has also been adapted into a film starring Cillian Murphy . In this week’s episode, MJ Franklin discusses the book with his colleagues Joumana Khatib, Lauren Christensen and Elizabeth Egan.

Keegan’s book was also one of The New York Times Book Review’s 100 best books of the 21st century. As we wrote , “Not a word is wasted in Keegan’s small, burnished gem of a novel, a sort of Dickensian miniature centered on the son of an unwed mother who has grown up to become a respectable coal and timber merchant with a family of his own in 1985 Ireland. Moralistically, though, it might as well be the Middle Ages as he reckons with the ongoing sins of the Catholic Church and the everyday tragedies wrought by repression, fear and rank hypocrisy.”

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Review’s podcast in general. You can send them to [email protected] .

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A Book Tour With a Side of Fried Rice:  Curtis Chin’s memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant,” celebrates the cuisine and community of his youth . Now he’s paying it forward.

Cormac McCarthy’s Secret:  Revelations about a relationship between the author and a girl who was 16 when they met shocked readers, but not scholars of his work. Now there’s a debate about how much she influenced his writing .

The Book Review Podcast:  Each week, top authors and critics talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .