I don’t know why, but I have just been in the mood for quick reads these days. While scouring the internet for inspiration, I came across Claire Keegan, whose short stories and novellas are immensely popular. My local library happend to have a few on hand, so I picked up the novella Small Things Like These and short story, Foster, to get started.
I did “watch” the film adaptation of Small Things Like These last year, though I admit I fell asleep pretty early into it. The novella follows Bill Furlong, a hard wroking coal merchant who experienced an atypical childhood. His mother had him as a teen, but her employer, Mrs. Wilson, was kind enough to keep her on both during the pregancy and after Bill’s birth. When she died upexpectedly, Mrs. Wilson looked after Bill from the age of twelve, teaching him well along with treating him the same.
This upbringing crafted him into a fine family man, with a wife and five daughters. His daughters showed the same amount of diligence and promise, while he feels like maybe he scored out of his league with his wife, Eileen. It’s a cold Christmas season, and as Bill is delivering coal across town he makes a stop at the local convent. Several rumors have swirled around about the convent, but Bill happens to stumble upon a group of girls cleaning and looking a bit worse for wear. He puts the encounter back of mind as best he can, but another visit brings him upon Sarah, a young woman who was locked up overnight in the coal shed. Fighting with himself and what to do, his good morals lead him to do the right thing in the end.
I really liked this novella a lot. Bill, as quiet and blue collar as he is, is an intelligent and kind-hearted man. I think his stuggles in his youth make him a more empathetic person, who possibly comes across as boring to others. it was interesting to read about how scared the small town was to ruffle any feathers with the convent, though I’m sure that was the case with a lot of convents like that at the time. In the back of the novel, Keegan explained that there were convents like this through the late 90s in Ireland, where women were put to hard labor, their babies given up for adoption, and a multitude of deaths, both of the women and the babies, in that span of time. If you want to read something similar with a bit of a supernatural twist, might I suggest Grady Hendrix’s latest novel Witchcraft for Wayward Girls.
Keegan’s short story, Foster, was so, so good. Clocking in at just under a hundred pages, it’s kind of crazy how much she made me care about three characters. A young girl, whose name we never learn, but whose perspective we are seeing events take place, is getting dropped off at her aunt and uncle’s house. It’s unclear if it’s just a visit at first, but quickly we learn that she’s there to stay for an undetermined amount of time. Her father, a drunk, drops her without so much as a goodbye, and suddenly she’s alone with practical strangers. Apparently her mother is expecting another baby, one of a lot, and for some reason having their oldest around would be a bother.
She refers to her aunt and uncle as Mrs. Kinsella and Kinsella, respectively. Right from the beginning they get her clean and let her observe and help out with everything around the house. The first night isn’t the most successful, but Kinsella and Mrs. Kinsella more than make up for it moving forward. They even eventually bring her to town for new clothes and sweets. When stray questions come about who she is and why she is there, she avoids them, not really connecting any dots. It’s not until later that she’s made aware that the Kinsella’s once had a son who’d accidentily drowned. Once they are aware that she knows this, they don’t shy away from it, and it somehow makes their bond even stronger.
Every time Kinsella called her “petal” I felt my heart melt. And even though the whole situation was likely tougher on Mrs. Kinsella, when she tumbled into the well, it seemed to be then that Mrs. Kinsella let her full care for the girl be known. When they have to take her back to her neglegent parents and dirty home life, my heart broke for this new formed family and what it could have and probably should have been. I highly recommend the read, and at this point if I can get my hands on any other of Keegan’s work, I’m definitely doing it!