BOOKER BABY: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan📚 Reading The 2022 Booker Longlist: A Series #3

[@RachaelsReadingNook]

Love the blue eyeshadow/top 😊I'd love to see a final ranking of the long list once you've finished them! Interesting comments on the story coming from a male character's perspective. I haven't read this/not sure if I plan to, but ah the shoe thing is too much 🙈

[@kiranreader]

thank you!!! yes, omg!! that's a great idea :)

[@Phil-p7p]

I really enjoyed this one and feel that many of those commenting are not giving this book and its author the credit they deserve. I don't buy the alternative "fantasy" ending idea for one moment. In interviews the author has made clear that Furlong can be seen as having a breakdown of sorts. He arrives at a point where he is simply no longer able to continue living in the way he has been hitherto ... holding all the trauma of his own childhood and burying himself in his work as a coping mechanism. My criticism would be that she might have made his trauma a little more clear as a motivating force, rather than expecting us to connect all the dots ourselves. That said, she is an author who very much believes in the power of suggestion in a novel. The author has also explained that the ending can also be seen as an act of self-destruction by Furlong who along with his family will likely face serious consequences. I don't thing Furlong parades the girl, but he does decide to take the most direct route home which inevitably means that the townsfolk will have no choice but to witness how their collective silence and inaction have made them complicit in the abuse of the girl(s). As for the shoes, perhaps they symbolise the girl's transition from a place where she has has been abused and has no shoes to a place where she will be loved and will have shoes. Perhaps the emotional weight and serious social consequences of what he was doing meant he simply didn't think about giving her the shoes. He clearly didn't plan any of the details of the rescue (otherwise he might have gone equipped with hot soup, a blanket and some nice new trainers) , it simply emerged from what he was emotionally driven to do. Given that he is, in effect, saving her life it seems a little mean to complain that he didn't immediately give her some shoes. I have no problem with the author choosing a male protagonist (even in this particular context). Nor do I feel that in any way the author is somehow failing to adequately represent women. It's a perfectly reasonable choice for an author to write the book she wants to write rather than the book others might prefer her to write. I thought it an excellent little miniature with an authentic atmosphere. Despite its modest length it did have a certain emotional force and the feel of the book has stayed with me.

[@kiranreader]

hi phil!! appreciate the comment, very thorough!!! you make some great points, to look at Furloung as being at a breaking point is a great way to analyze the text. so interesting to hear that the author described the narrator's final act of heroism as an act of self-destruction - he's def put himself in a very precarious situation. and i wish we could see what the fall out is from actions!!! are you currently reading anymore books from the longlist?

[@Phil-p7p]

@@kiranreader Just finished Glory which I thought was superb and a very strong contender for the shortlist. Have also read Nightcrawling which I also enjoyed. It had an unflinching directness that made it at times an uncomfortable read albeit in a good way. A very strong debut novel. Leila Motley wrote the first chapter when she was just 16 and the rest of the book when she was 17. There's a poetic dimension to her prose and it's refreshing to read something with such raw youthful energy. Next up for me is "Seven Moons" which I've heard good things about. Though I must also squeeze in Lapvona soon as I'm attending a small event with Ottessa Moshfegh on 30th August and need some questions and insights at the ready. Naturally I'll steal your one about the role faith plays in the book. 🤣

[@kiranreader]

@@Phil-p7p I've almost finished glory - it's a fun one!! Need to start nightcrawling soon. OMG!!! Pls keep me posted on the Moshegh event, hope its a lot of fun!!!! lol!!!!

[@annakap97]

will have to end this one early and return to the spoiler section one i've read it, but I just finished nightcrawling and can't wait to see your review! it truly took my breath away

[@kiranreader]

ahh! that's good to hear, i'm looking forward to reading nightcrawling and can't wait to hear your thoughts when you've read small things like these :)

[@tomlabooks3263]

Excellent! Most of us would probably NOT do the heroic thing in pretty much any historic circumstance where the modern question is: “Why didn’t they do the heroic thing?”

[@kiranreader]

very, very good point!!!

[@slimshady94]

oh hey, it’s sweet kiran!

[@kiranreader]

💖

[@Rainierbooks]

I am not going to read all the 13 but 6 of the longlist. And I finished "Small Things Like These" yesterday. I did not know anything about the Magdalene Laundries, just another crime of the catholic church. I think, it is a story of the Magdalene Laundries, but as you say Claire Keegan choses to try to make it more generally applicable (if that s the right word). I was not so attached to the shoes and I don't want to think that the final scene is just a fantasy. But the ending is open to our fantasies. What will he do with that girl? Will he bring her home as his 6th (adopted) child? That seems impossible, because the church has such an incredible power over the people (and the laundries were running until 1996). Will he run away and leave his own family to bring that kid to a safe haven and where would that be? It is a great book and it might make the shortlist, although I would rank "Nightcrawling" higher.

[@kiranreader]

your totally right - the ending is open to our own fantasies and leaves the reader with more questions than answers!! lol loving your videos reviewing the 6 books you are reading from the longlist :)

[@madrouter]

Maybe she'll tell us if she wins 🏆 😏 I cracked up when you said this is a short story. It was! The male perspective didn't bother me either, as you said, I don't think the book was about the atrocities but rather guilt and intervention. It's well written but I believe it's one of those cases where the topical nature of it is getting it on so many long lists. I'd feel somewhat strange if it won. I stick by my fantasy theory haha because if it was meant to be real then I have to say it was bad writing haha because of the shoes/situation.

[@kiranreader]

hahaah yes lol if she wins she has to tell us!!! now that i've had more time to think about your theory i think you're right!!!

[@SpringboardThought]

Fantastic review as always. Yeah it didn’t seem like he knew why he even did it, so that’s an interesting idea about the end. I like it more because I would have liked it more if he didn’t save her tbh, rather than the perfunctory ending that did nothing for me.

[@kiranreader]

ty, ty!! yea there's just something off about this ending!!! lol

[@ioanna.]

Enjoyed your review Kiran! Thank you!! The shoes? They were a peace offering for his wife.¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@kiranreader]

thank you for watching!!! good point on the 🥿!! we need some answers from the author!! lol

[@gregoryduke3527]

I felt it was a bit odd to have the protagonist be a man (even with the theory you reference at the end of the video, which clearly puts him in a worse light), but I felt it was more odd how Keegan fails to really offer any nuanced women! I'm not expecting an all-encompassing work on the Magdalene Laundries, but I am expecting an author who is writing about a human rights crisis that entirely afflicted women to take the time to consider women more. The laundries become an abstract evil in the town in a manner that allows the protagonist to have his little crisis about the possibility of everyone living with such horror in their backyard, but it just doesn't feel significant. It becomes a staid Christmas parable about the most boring moral questions!

[@kiranreader]

i think you are so right!! after i filmed my review, i just kept on thinking about Keegan did the women of this world dirty!! The women we see, the narrator's wife and the pub lady, are both aware of what the nuns are doing and they encourage the narrator to just put his head down. overall, this novella reduces this moment in history to a boring parable. there's no nuance, and it's very broad strokes. i can't help but wonder why it was long listed lol

[@PagesAndStages]

Completely agree!