Get the Tissues Ready

Bill Furlong is living a quiet, unglamorous life in Ireland. He has a happy life with his wife and five daughters. They have enough to eat and arenÂ’t living on credit. The town has known hard times, factories are closing up, and people are being laid off. Mr. Furlong is making ends meet though, delivering fuel in the form of coals and logs to the townspeople. One day, near Christmas, he makes a delivery at convent when he discovers something that doesnÂ’t sit quite right with him.

If you enjoy ItÂ’s A Wonderful Life or the story of The Good Samaritan, you will love this book. This story took hold of me early on. It is set in Ireland where times are hard, economic depression is settling in. so many small towns, people are struggling to get by, and people are being driven from their homes, heart wrenched, into the cities to find decent jobs.

This book is a short read but will stay with you for so much longer.

2024 Reading Schedule
Jan Middlemarch
Feb The Grapes of Wrath
Mar Oliver Twist
Apr Madame Bovary
May A Clockwork Orange
Jun Possession
Jul The Folk of the Faraway Tree Collection
Aug Crime and Punishment
Sep Heart of Darkness
Oct Moby-Dick
Nov Far From the Madding Crowd
Dec A Tale of Two Cities

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Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta747 s3 comments Jack EdwardsAuthor 1 book233k

Small but mighty! Quietly understated yet screaming to be heard! I adored this book and can't wait to re-read it and anything else Claire Keegan publishes. So gorgeous.2,364 s4 comments MarilynW1,356 3,466

Small Things These by Claire Keegan

This novella takes place in cold and wintery 1986 Ireland. Bill Furlong, almost forty, a hard working coal merchant with a wife and five daughters, knows how good he has it. He knows all he cares for could be lost at any moment, knows that as the son of an unwed servant, he could have ended up in a very bad place. Instead, thanks to the mercy of a wealthy widow and the attention of her stable hand, Ned, Bill Furlong had a good life, even after his young mother died.

But Bill is feeling unrest. For all his reasons to be happy he is wondering if things could have been different...surely he's not thinking maybe they could have been better? He sees his future stretching in an endless routine of the same thing. Six long days a week of work and then every Sunday being the Sunday before it. Always with work and worries on his mind, never a break in it all. Is this life worth it?

Bill is a very good man and it's hard seeing him filled with these doubts about his life. And then he sees something he can't let out of his mind. What happens is where his life was heading, prefaced by his giving of change to the needy, of his generosity to those who needed it, of his desire to treat others well, despite his wife's teasing and complaining about him doing so. When the story ends we know there will be strife and hardship ahead but there is also a peace that only a compassionate heart can bring to a man. This makes for a beautiful story at any time but it seems very much a Christmas story so I'm glad I've read it now.

Pub: November 30, 2021

Thank you to Grove Atlantic/Grove Press and NetGalley for this ARC.netgalley netgalley-2021467 s7 comments s.penkevich1,142 8,996

‘Was there any point in being alive without helping one another?

There is a classic scene with Bill Murray in the film What About Bob? where he moves about his therapists office taking ‘baby steps’, quite literally taking small steps to represent the idea of how small immediate goals can help accumulate to larger, long term change. This idea is at the heart of Claire Keegan’s astonishing Small Things These, a novella now shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize where the actions of a singular man might become the first baby steps in undoing a system of abuse and oppression in his society. Set in the days leading up to Christmas 1985 in a small Irish village, Bill Furlong’s existential anxiety for a sense of purpose in a life he feels is stagnating leads him to examine the world around him and, in doing so, realizes there are things he can no longer look away from. Brief but breathtaking, Keegan addresses the horrific treatment of women in the Magdalene Laundries and the oppressive power of a church that has it’s hands in all local life in 1980s Ireland, asking us to take small steps to unravel systemic abuse and find that one small life can lead to something great.

‘What was it all for? Bill Furlong asks himself in Small Things These. Born fatherless but taken in by a wealthy widow, Bill has created a pleasant, stable life for himself as a hardworking father of five daughters. His years of being known as a hard worker and a friend to all has made him a welcome fixture in local society, yet he can’t help but feel stagnated and that there must be something more to life than the endless grind to keep just above drowning. ‘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.’ With this as the spark to existential inquiry, Keegan spins a nearly Chekovian tale where each detail is ripe with purpose. It reads a short story one would dissect in a literature classroom and has a timeless feel to it despite being set in a very specific space and time.

‘Always, Christmas brought out the best and the worst in people.’

While a short Christmas tale seems to inspire ideas of cozy, idyllicism, through Furlong we sense a creeping darkness that everyone else seems to miss. One daughter fears Santa Claus, the throngs of shoppers feels stifling, he is overworked and everything takes on a tone of dread. Such as the wildlife around him:
‘It was a December of crows. People had never seen the s 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.’
Any sense of adhering to the peaceful veil masking life that happens at Christmas is shattered by an encounter with a young girl from one of the laundries run by Nuns. These are, of course, the Magdalene Laundries where over 30,000 young women were kept over the years for being considered ‘fallen women’ until they were finally closed in 1993 and have been exposed for terrible abuse. Furlong begins to observe how everyone in town pretends to not notice what occurs at the laundries, and even his own wife encourages him to look the other way because at least it isn’t their girls. This line of thinking disturbs him, and it should disturb us all, as mere self-preservation and looking at oppression as only happening to others is how the systems perpetuate themselves.

The convent as an instrument of the church, with their ‘fingers in everything’, takes on a sinister tone as a lurking darkness over the town, described as ‘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.’ Interactions with Mother Superior do nothing to calm his feelings of unease, seeing the nuns as manipulative and recalling his own questionable birth. He is reminded that while he is welcome in society that he is still an outsider and that the church views his lack of sons as a mark of shame. As the parent to two daughter, I’ve personally always enjoyed the idea of being a Jane Austen dad and scoff the idea of “heirs”, so I’ve got your back on this one Billy.

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

Pulling a simple thread in the fabric of coached reality can begin to undo the whole knit, and Bill questions how he can see the abuse occurring right out under everyoneÂ’s noses and then simply dress up and attend Mass. How can anyone?
‘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?’
While the issue of the laundries is central to the novel, the story progresses more as his personal journey towards purpose and action than it is an investigation of the situation. In what is practically a Christmas Day reversal of A Christmas Carol, instead of taking action to not be shunned from society Bill takes action that will almost surely be met with ostracization. The message is clear: doing the right thing is more important than upholding a polite society that is only polite to those it serves at the expense of others. While he sees people as generally good, he acknowledges ‘the thought itself was privileged,’ and he must use his privileges to the betterment of all. Even the outcasts. The irony is that he is more Christ in his actions than the institution he rebels against that works in Christ’s name.

This is a very sturdy little novella where much of the message takes place in the undertones of the story, amalgamating until it spills over and into action. The name Furlong is key, as it means the amount of work oxen can do in one-eighth of a mile without rest and his ‘work’ is just a baby step that, should others choose to follow in his footsteps (footprints in snow is a major symbol in the end of the story), can become a collection of small things these that make up a movement and larger force. This idea permeates every aspect of the story, which is mostly told through the mundane small daily activities ‘which, when added up, amounted to a life.’ It does make for a bit of a slow reading experience despite the short length, though this may have been due to reading in the fast paces of late summer life as the book embodies a cozy read by the fire amidst snowfall and reads at a pace best suited for that. Small Things These is an important reminder that small actions can promote larger ones as well as a tribute to the young women harmed by the laundries. If we can take the messages here to heart, perhaps we, too, can be another baby step on the road to progress.

4.5/5

‘The worst that could have happened was also already behind him; the thing not done,which could have been—which he would have had to live with for the rest of his life.’christmas ireland novella ...more438 s8 comments Adina 1,018 4,230

4.5* rounded up

07.09.2022 Now shortlisted for Booker Prize 2022. I will not be sorry if it wins

This is the other Irish Booker nominee, which I was writing about in my review of The Colony. There were “Small Things” that made it a better novel, in my opinion. Most of my friends think otherwise though.

The plot is set in 1985, not the best times to be Irish. People are struggling to find food and work but Bill Furlong, a coal merchant, is doing well. He is a kind, married man with five daughters. His mother got pregnant at 16 while working as a maid for Mrs. Wilson. Instead of throwing her out, as her family did, Mr. Wilson took care of both mother and child with kindness.
One day, close to Christmas, while delivering coal for a laundry lead by nuns, he discovers a secret that will torment his conscience. What should he do? Continue as nothing has happened, as everyone else seems to do? Or do the right thing and risk losing everything?

This small novel gave me breathing problems, as it happens when I read a good book about womenÂ’ struggles and the unfair way they are treated for deeds that are not their fault or have few options to protect themselves. All the hurt and suffering with the blessing of the Church and the passivity of people. I was enraged that the practice the novel writes about was in place until 1996!!!. There are no words. It was beautifully written, poignant and the ending left me with a flicker of hope in humankind. A small one though.booker_2022 ireland415 s6 comments Will Byrnes1,325 121k

It was a December of crows. People had never seen the s 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. Bill Furlong is a decent man, risen from a lowly station in life to being a respected pillar-of-the-community sort. Not well off, mind, but a coal and wood supplier who keeps several folks employed, his customers supplied, and his family fed, a George Bailey sort, but from a much less settled foundation. There is never much left over, and always a new cost looming on the horizon. In the course of making his rounds he sees something that presents a powerful moral challenge. The story is FurlongÂ’s struggle to decide, stay silent, or do something.


Claire Keegan – image from her FB page – shot by Cartier-Bresson

1985 is a grim time in New Ross. Ireland is in the midst of a long recession. Despairing of ever finding work, people are emigrating in droves, to England, to America, to wherever work can be had. Those who remain hold little hope for any near relief. Those with work know that they could be laid off in a heartbeat. Those running businesses know that their continued survival depends on the continued demand of their customers, and the customersÂ’ ability to pay. Those without work drain their savings, survive on the dole, or what charity they can find. Too many, employed or not, drown their fears in drink. Keegan captures the bleak tone of the time. the dole queues were getting longer and there were men out there who couldnÂ’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 childrenÂ’s allowances. And farther out the country, heÂ’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 theyÂ’d had to sell the car as they couldnÂ’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 Christmas is coming, and one might wonder if that starving boy was a descendant of Tiny TimÂ’s. Keegan even summons A Christmas Carol to mind, noting that, as a boy, Furlong had received the book for Christmas.

He had had a difficult start to life, raised by a single mother, his father not known to him. Luckily for them, a well-to-do local woman, Mrs Wilson, took in mother and son, employing mom to work in the house. Things could have been a lot worse. many other nations, Ireland was host to a network of Magdalene Laundries. These were institutions run by the Catholic Church, with the complicity of the Irish government. Young women who became pregnant were often cast out of their communities, their families even, and these enterprises took them in. Reports eventually emerged revealing the abuses these girls and young women endured, often being forced to give away their babies, living in degrading conditions, essentially forced laborers in church-state workhouses. Thousands of infants died there, and many of their mothers as well. New Ross was one of the places where a Magdalene laundry was run. It is one of the reasons Keegan chose to set her story there. This is not a tale about these laundries, per se, but one of those constitutes the immediate and very considerable dark force that Bill Furlong is thinking about taking on. While delivering coal to the convent, he sees something he was not supposed to see. To act or not to act, that is the question. Why were the things that were closest so often the hardest to see? The language of this novel, the imagery is powerfully effective, celestial even. I felt a need to read a lot of this book out loud. (trying to avoid spoiling it with my terribly fake Irish accent) There is a rhythm, a musicality to the writing that propels its powerful imagery towards the intended targets.

The passage quoted at the top of this review offers a sense not only of a grim time and place, but of the hostile force of the nuns, priests, and the Church, as embodied by the crows. The state, participant in the Magdalene miseries, is given passing notice when a local pol parachutes into town for a Christmas-tree-lighting, if it is possible to parachute in while riding a Mercedes and wearing a rich man’s coat. This is a town that is not being well looked after by the authorities. 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 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 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 When she returned home with her degree, Keegan sent out 300 resumes and did not get a nibble. Erin go Bragh.

The harsh times have not driven from people in New Ross the ability to want things, needed or not. FurlongÂ’s wife, Eileen, wants a proper, going-away vacation, as well as some nice things seen in a shop window. His children have small, mostly manageable desires. The people in town want an end to economic doldrums, some reason to stay around instead of emigrating. The residents of the convent want something more significant. Furlong is in dire need of a new truck to replace the one his business relies on, and which is nearing its last gasp. He also wants to know who his father was. 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. He is no saint, but workaholic Furlong has that rare capacity to look inside himself critically, consider his life, his actions, in light of his values, even recognize where he might have stepped away from the moral line he believes in following. He had opted to ignore wrongs he had seen before, but for this father of five girls, and son of a single mother, this is a tough one to let pass. However, there are powerful, and insidious forces arrayed against his better angels. He is repeatedly warned, when he mentions his concerns, that crossing the Church could be extremely costly.

The cold of the season will make you shiver and want to add another layer as you read. Some Irish coffee might help as well. Will Furlong cross that bridge and do something or let what he knows sink into nothingness in the dark, frigid waters of the Barrow River below? You will want to know, and will read on until you do.

Keegan is mostly known as a short-story writer. She has won many awards for her work, which is marked by compactness, showing what needs to be shown to tell her tale. Do not dismiss this novel for its brevity. Small Things These is huge! You may not need to prepare a manger with fresh hay, but I would definitely make room for this novel in your collection this holiday season. It is an evocative, beautiful, moving novel that deserves to become a Christmas classic. 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?
Review first posted – November 12, 2021

Publication date – November 30, 2021


I received an e-ARE of Small Things These from Grove Press in return for a fair review, and a few lumps of coal. Thanks, folks, and thanks to Netgalley for facilitating. Bless you, every one.




This review has been cross-posted on my site, CootÂ’s Reviews

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to KeeganÂ’s personal, FB, and Twitter pages

On her personal site, there are links to, among other things, two of her short stories, in the Links tab.

Interviews
-----The Guardian - Claire Keegan: 'Short stories are limited. I'm cornered into writing what I can' by Sean OÂ’Hagan - 2010
-----New Ross Standard - Claire’s novel examines cult of silence in 1980s New Ross by Simon Bourke – April 2021
-----Claire Keegan: ‘I think something needs to be as long as it needs to be’ by Claire Armistead
-----Independent.ie - Writer Claire Keegan: ‘I think stories go looking for their authors’ by Emily Hourican
-----The Writing Life - Claire Keegan and the art of subtraction by Terence Patrick Winch – video – 28:29 – from 2013 – re her short stories

Items of Interest from the author
-----The New Yorker - Foster - this is an abridged version of her award winning story
-----Hollihoux – a reading of Foster by Evanna Lynch

Items of Interest
-----The Charles Dickens page - A Christmas Carol - the full text
-----BBC - Irish mother and baby homes: Timeline of controversy
-----Wiki about The 2005 Ferns Report on sexual abuse of children by priests in the Diocese of Ferns
-----The actual report
-----Wiki on the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland
-----Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries
-----George Bailey
-----Ann Lovettbooks-of-the-year-2021 christmas fiction ...more331 s9 comments David299 1,141

For the right reader and in the right setting, Claire Keegan's little gem of novel casts quite a spell. I first read this in December, around the holidays, and I was struck by the beautifully told story in little more than 100 pages. Fast forward seven months, and I'm dismayed to report this didn't hold up on a re-read. The spell has been broken. In fact I'm not sure what had enthralled me so much the first time around. I found it overly sentimental and the ending too cute. Almost a made-for-tv holiday movie. I'm also a bit uncomfortable with the hero of the story being a man when all the other characters (falling on a continuum of victim to villain) are women. I still admire the perfect pacing and spare prose but, alas, the bell no longer rings for me.booker-prize-2022358 s2 comments Paromjit2,880 25.3k

This may be a short novella from the award winning Claire Keegan, but it packs a powerful punch, set in the bitterly cold winter of 1985 in Ireland in the run up to Christmas, we are inexorably drawn into the life of coal and timber merchant Bill Furlong. He was born to a 16 year old unmarried mother, employed by a kind Mrs Wilson who did not turn her out when she became pregnant. He is married to Eileen and they have 5 daughters, living in a community suffering the ravages of redundancies and desperate poverty. Whilst Bill is managing to survive, he does his best to help those less fortunate and those of his customers that are unable to pay, something his wife berates him for, but he is who he is, as he dwells on his background, and a Mrs Wilson that had helped him rise above the circumstances into which he had been born.

When he makes a delivery to the local convent and Magdalen laundry, Bill encounters some of the unwed girls and single mothers incarcerated there that have him concerned as to how they are being treated, something that hits him even harder when he discovers a traumatised young mother, Sarah Redmond, locked in the freezing coalhouse. Bill just cannot wipe his memory of the horrors of what he has seen as he wrestles with his conscience. Eileen asks him to ignore it, drawing his attention on the need to protect their family. Indeed, Mrs Kehoe reminds him of the power and influence of the Catholic Church, the need for self preservation with her revealing comment 'They're all the one'. Despite the fearful and complicit community that shields the sins of the church, the courageous Bill cannot walk away, knowing he is inviting a world of trouble, he has to live with himself, finding an inner happiness in acting in a compassionate way, the real true Christian at Christmas.

This novel is a damning indictment of the morally bankrupt Catholic Church's cruel judgementalism of girls and women who got pregnant outside wedlock, their babies taken, their enslavement, and exploitation in the laundries. It is estimated approximately 30 000 women were imprisoned in the laundries that finally closed in 1996, records were destroyed or made inaccessible, with true figures not known, it is thought that many thousands died. This is a read that enraged and made me want to weep, it's hard to believe such evil survived until 1996, the Church aided in perpetuating their criminal behaviour, the murders and injustices, by the Irish State. A hard hitting, poignant, and beautifully written book on the darkness in Ireland's history. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.historical-fiction literary-fiction netgalley301 s1 comment emma2,050 65k

short books are magic.

there is no other word for being able to convey so much, make the reader feel so extensively, and say so little, in such a small amount of time.

this book in particular is the embodiment of showing not telling, to an almost confusing extent. how am i feeling all this? you will say. what happened to make this happen to me?

and the answer is claire keegan did.

a few short weeks ago i had no idea keegan's works existed and now i am wholeheartedly struck by them. i never want to read anything else.

and this isn't even my favorite one.

bottom line: claire keegan performs magic.

--------------------
pre-review

got that 5 star feeling

update: pretty damn close.

(review to come / 4.5)4-and-a-half-stars couldn-t-wait-to-read historical ...more255 s6 comments Regina1,139 3,984

1985 + Ireland + Christmas = Prime spot on ReginaÂ’s Must Read list

In fewer than 120 pages, Claire Keegan has crafted a touching, memorable story about a working-class father of five young girls who reflects on the choice between doing what’s right versus what’s easy. Despite being born into the world under less-than-ideal circumstances, life turned out okay due to the generosity of others. When he discovers a teen in dire need of a saving from the Catholic Church’s cruel (and very real) Magdalen Laundries, will he have the gumption to jeopardize that “okay” existence to step in and embody generosity himself?

What a truly inspirational story this is, and one that makes for perfect reading during the Christmas season, or any season really. For me itÂ’s the message rather than the method that will stick with me though. Some readers may find the literary, dialect-heavy writing too cumbersome, but sticking with it and pushing on to the heartwarming end is so worth it.

Small Things These is destined to be a classic novella that begs to be read by its fans year after year. Why not start with this one?

4.5 stars

My heartfelt thanks to the author and Grove Press for the opportunity to review a gifted copy via NetGalley. Small Things These is now available and can even be found on the Hoopla library app.

Blog: https://www.confettibookshelf.com/214 s Carolyn Marie Castagna305 7,241

January 2024 - I already wanted to re-read this book, and (unsurprisingly) I thought it was brilliant!

September 2023 - A small book with a big message. Every word was perfectly placed, and every line was beautifully written. Greatly looking forward to reading more from Claire Keegan.201 s1 comment Gaurav181 1,332


Often in life, we find ourselves in situations of unease and indecisiveness wherein we struggle to take decisions. The cost associated with such decisions is at times gets so daunting that it dissuades us from taking the decision altogether. The indecisiveness gives rise to anguish and anxiety about life which robs us off comforts of the existence we might have carved out for ourselves. Most people logically analyse the problem and thereby reduce it to nothingness by explaining themselves rationally, if not judiciously, and move on in their lives but there are some who canÂ’t do away with this angst and it becomes their lifelong reality.


Small Things These is a slim novella which appears to be a tiny Christmas story at the outset, but it is a wisely drawn-out bold portrait of human conscience. The book may be just 110 odd pages long, but its impact and scope would put quite a few full-length novels to shame. The story is set in a small Irish village of 1985 wherein the ordinary life of working class is stung by the enigmatic and dark realities of Magdalen laundries, gnawing at humanity from the veneer of Church and the state. The book starts with picturesque natural scenery from the fictional town of Ireland- New Ross, wherein the protagonist, Bill Furlong is living a pleasant life with his family comprising of wife and five daughters, that ticks all the boxes of a happy life but the feeling of contentment is far away from BillÂ’s life as his past keeps on haunting him. Although there are no such dark secrets in his past but some vital and indispensable curiosities are left unaddressed, which have become inflamed wounds over the years.



link: source

Life is getting tough there in 1985 as New Ross is witnessing a decline with businesses shutting down, people migrating to London, Boston, and NY; though times are raw, but Bill Furlong feels all the more determined to carry on. The family is preparing for Christmas, but Bill seems to be lost amidst the arrangements often contemplating upon on his life as to what it would have been if they were given time to think and reflect instead of carrying it on mechanically. His disquiet mind jumps from one to another thought with his past often creeping in with slightest of the possibility.


The Work and the constant worry. Getting up in the dark and going to 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 table and falling asleep before waking in the dark to meet aversion of the same thing, yet again. The mundanity of life can be intimidating and unnerving sometimes as it robs life off the sense of movement and progress and our entire existence gets scorched from the flames of hell of nothingness. Furlong calms down his stormy and windy mind by contemplating his time at Mrs. WilsonÂ’s, explaining himself to be contended with how things have turned out and the privileges of his current situation, the sense of satisfaction gradually curbs down the feeling of uneasiness.


It is December of crows who fancy scavenging the dead or diving in mischief for anything that looks edible along the road before roosting at night in the huge old trees around the convent. The Good Sheperd nuns, in charge of the convent, run a training school for girls to provide them basic education, they also operate a laundry business. The laundry is having a good reputation among the well offs and has been their favourite, however, various kinds of rumours about the training school and the laundry roam in the social circles.


The dark hearsays bite the consciousness of Furlong and affect him in a way that they could distress and torture the consciousness of a normal human being. His wife, Eileen, tries to assuage his haunted soul by explaining him that these things are beyond their control and perhaps they should turn their heads away from these. The ordinary part of Furlong tries to persuade him the way his wife does, besides, the risk associated with it is so daunting and ominous their it would throw out their entire existence altogether. However, the extraordinary part of Furlong shakes and quivers him to his soul, and the righteousness torments his entire being as to how can he turn a blind eye to the grave injustice to the humanity. The self-preservation and courage of his soul battle hard against each other to overcome this feeling of indecisiveness and eventually the valour and bravery win over the survival instinct since what is the point of being alive without helping each other, without standing for what is right you call yourself a Christian, riding upon the waves of pretence and hypocrisy.


While most people turn their eyes blind on such occasions of brutality and inhumanity, simply because of the danger and menace associate to them, Furlong's own past stares in his eyes with astounding hope and yearning, and Furlong rises from dungeons of indifference to ride over the waves of heroism and act in accordance with his extraordinary virtuousness. We have seen right from the onset of civilization that ethics and morality play crucial role in the act and judgement of humanity, the importance of our culture, upbringing and religion canÂ’t be ignored in this regard. More often not it is seen that silences of the societies to such grave injustices act as complicit to viciousness and the entire humanity is put to shame but sometimes people Furlong throws away the safety net of ignorance and fights against the tremors of foreboding and trepidation, and perhaps humanity is held in this highest regard because of people him since it is enough to barely exist but we have created values and meaning of our lives and thereby to take the responsibility to act according to them. The focus of the author here is not so much on exposing the oppression and injustice going on in the institutions such as church and the state, but it has more to do with examining and understanding the conscience of a man where ignorance is perhaps supposed to be the safest option by far.


The prose of Claire Keegan is taut and dense wherein so much is said in a few words, it seems as if the words are condensed in the hearth of efficiency to produce a rich, picturesque prose wherein no word to be wasted. There are touches of comic humour too under the beautiful, soothing, and hopeful prose, despite dealing with darker side of humanity, which has a biblical resonance. The old legends which travel in our society on the stream of time to reveals significant insights, at times dogmas too, from the bygone times, as we see that Furlong is advised by old man that the road he traverses upon will take him wherever he wants to go.



link: source

Although, the novel is written with a third person narration, but it has been told mainly from the perspective of Bill Furlong (as the other characters happily play supporting role without any complaints), the shy protagonist who expresses himself timidly, unless of course, he takes onto himself and decides to act according to the moral values of humanity. We see the references to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the book has been given as a Christmas gift to Bill Furlong by Mrs. Wilson, however, the real gift of the Christmas would be, as pointed by Furlong, that it brings out the best and the worst of people. The author ignores the suggestive details of a narrative and gets straight to the point with a precise and sharp prose shimmering with beauty so as to hit straight into your heart through a silken narrative showcasing her incredible skill of saying so much in so few words.

The lyrical, rich and tightly woven prose which has been distilled to leaves aside any traces of superfluousness inevitably reminds one of Anton Chekov as he mentioned that ‘when a person expands the least possible amount of energy on a certain act, that is grace’, the influence of Chekov could be easily felt through the Small Little Things, as the author does here. The text of full of references to various forms of art such as music of the period in which the book has been set. It is first brush with the author, but I have no hesitation in saying that her prose is hypnotic and arousing which goes straight to your heart, and it will not definitely be last as her ability to conure up great worlds through a few but elegant and effortless words, is hard to ignore.


The worst was yet to come, he knew. Already he could feel a world of trouble waiting for him behind the next door, but the worst that could have happened was also already behind him; the thing not done, which could have been- which he would have had to live with for the rest of his life. 192 s44 comments Candi650 4,917

“... nothing ever did happen again; to each was given days and chances which wouldn’t come back around.”

If you had the chance to do the right thing, no matter the cost, would you do it? Or would you, a good majority of people, take the easy road and turn a blind eye to wrongdoing, injustice, or outright cruelty? ItÂ’s much easier to follow the crowd and avoid going against the powers that be. Especially if speaking up might be at the risk of putting yourself or your loved ones in jeopardy in some way. But would you be able to live with yourself? Could you rest easy each night?

“Sundays could feel very threadbare, and raw. Why could he not relax and enjoy them other men who took a pint or two after Mass before falling asleep at the fire with the newspaper, having eaten a plate of dinner?”

Christmas is near and Bill Furlong is faced with a crisis of the conscience. In Ireland in 1985, the Catholic Church holds the reins in town and governs the behavior of its citizens. After a routine visit to the convent to deliver coal, Furlong makes a discovery that causes him to make a tough choice. Sitting through mass will leave him with a bitter taste in his mouth and lead to a different sort of reflection from that preached by the men in robes.

“It was a December of crows. People had never seen the s 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.”

I admire the way Claire Keegan writes. Simply yet elegantly, with wonderful imagery. I read a collection of her short stories this summer and was impressed. So it was easy for me to grab this one at just the right time. The prose in this novella is just as striking. The message is one that isnÂ’t necessarily new, but it reveals a piece of lesser known history and for that I was pleased. ThereÂ’s a note at the end that informs the reader of the Magdalen laundries in Ireland. If youÂ’re not familiar with these shameful establishments, IÂ’d recommend looking them up. Along with the other abuses revealed in recent years, this adds to a history of the Catholic Church that makes me the black sheep in the family, refusing to attend Christmas Eve mass once again this year. To each his own, but I was able to sleep with a clear conscience that night. Ah, the gift of reading to expand oneÂ’s mind. ThatÂ’s better than any material object wrapped in bright paper, ribbons and bows.

“… 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?”
european-literature historical-fiction novella198 s Kimber SilverAuthor 1 book348

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”-Aesop

In this poignant novella, I became acquainted with Bill Furlong, an Irish businessman who provides wood, coal, and the to the small community in which he has always lived. He has carved out a good life with his wife and five daughters.

Furlong is an everyday hero in a world that has dealt him some harsh blows. He was born to a young unwed mother whose employer, a wealthy widowed landowner, generously took them into her home despite the stigma of BillÂ’s illegitimacy. This humanitarian sacrifice shaped the man he would become and, in a pay-it-forward fashion, he extends kindness to those less fortunate even when it comes at great cost to himself. His selflessness made me admire him all the more.

Claire Keegan has the incredible ability to take a seemingly ordinary story and, without fluff or fanfare, turn it into something extraordinary. The characters are deep and the tale is touching.

I did feel the ending was a bit abrupt, which is why I've given a 4.5 rating instead of the full five stars. I still highly recommend this splendid read because Keegan has yet again captured me with the magnificence of her storytelling.

I look forward to enjoying more of her work in the future.christmas contemporary-fiction delicious-writing ...more188 s2 comments Shelley's Book Nook281 245

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Claire Keegan's Foster is one of my favourite books, it still resonates with me more than fifteen years later. This story is less than 130 pages but boy does Keegan ever pack a lot into those pages and she manages to make the ordinary extraordinary. This one takes place at Christmas time in 1985. Bill Furlong is our main character, he is a humble timber merchant and father of five daughters.

Furlong is a simple man but has a good heart and we see that when he makes a delivery to a convent that also happens to be an unwed mother laundry. We have all heard the stories of the Magdelene Girls so I won't go into that but at the convent, Bill observes some of the unwed mothers and notices their harsh treatment by the Catholic church. This touches Bill because of his own mother giving birth to him unwed and only sixteen. Bill and his mother were lucky, she had a compassionate, female employer. Bill realized these girls could have been his mom if it weren't for her good fortune of having a supportive boss. For one lucky girl at the convent, Bill becomes a saviour and as they say, not all angels have wings. All. The. Stars.192 s52 comments Angela M 1,337 2,163

I’ve had two books by Claire Keegan on my to read list for a while now. After reading this beautifully written novella, I want to be sure I read those others now. This is a work of fiction but it brings to light some horrible abuses on young girls and women in “schools” or “homes” run by the Catholic Church in Ireland. * It’s the story of an honest man, a good man who works hard to provide for his wife and five daughters. Always restless, a little worried about the future, but in many ways, his past is with him daily, still wondering who his father was, and still thankful for the opportunities afforded him by his mother’s employer. He makes an awful discovery one day just before Christmas in 1985. It shakes him to the core and tests his moral sensibilities with the fate of one young girl and perhaps others hanging in the balance.

This is the kind of story that when I read the first gorgeous sentences I knew that if nothing else, the writing would hold me. “In October there were yellow trees. Then the clocks went back the hour and the long November winds came in and blew, and stripped the trees bare. In the town of New Ross, chimneys threw out smoke which fell away and drifted off in hairy, drawn-out strings before dispersing along the quays and soon the river, dark as stout, swelled up with rain.” But it was so much more than just the prose that held me. It was Bill Furlong who is one of those characters who make you want to be a better person.

*(Magdalen Laundries. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magda...)


I received an advanced copy of this book from Grove Atlantic through NetGalley.2021-favorites netgalley-182 s1 comment Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer1,917 1,494

Now shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.

3rd in my longlist rankings (and my top ranked book to make the shortlist) - my Bookstagram rating, ranking, summary review and Book themed Golden Retriever photo is here: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChKBUTts0...

A gem of a novel and one which was just as good on a post Booker longlist re-read. It also thankfully acts as a counter example to two if the most pernicious trends in literary fiction: that quality is correlated to length and literary merit to being transgressive or misanthropic.

It was also winner of the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction (from an incredibly strong shortlist) and 2022 Kerry Group Irish novel of the Year having previously been shortlisted for the Folio Prize - its length making is sadly too short for the Women's Prize.

Hilary Mantel, Colm Toibin and Damon Galgut all picked in the New Statesman Book of 2021 feature.

ORIGINAL PRE PUBLICATION REVIEW 9/21

A strong 2022 Prize contender.

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?

Claire Keegan is an award winning short story writer, publisher of two short story collections. One of her most famous and lauded stories “Foster” was later expanded by her and published by Faber and Faber as a hugely acclaimed novella.

This her fourth book is also best thought of as a novella – on winning the rights to publish it Faber I felt captured it beautifully as “an exquisite wintery parable” – and although I read this book at the end of August I think it would make an ideal Christmas gift or holiday reading – it almost has something of the nature of “A Christmas Carol”.

The book is spread over less than 100 generously spaced pages – but I imagine for this author that is something of a wide canvass on which to paint, and she manages to capture brilliantly a man (his difficult past, his ostensibly happy present, but also his sense of disquiet and finally his decision to take a stand on a point of principle regardless of the cost), the difficult history of a nation and its infamous Magdalen Laundries and to make a timeless fable. And all of it rendered in pitch perfect prose.

The book is set in Ireland in late 1985 – the third party protagonist is Bill Furlong who runs a successful coal and timber business.

Bill was born to a single mother in 1946, who was taken in by the widow for who she had been working as a domestic. Bill was mercilessly teased at school for his status and lost his mother at 12, but had some stability from the widow and her farmhand who acted as something of foster parents to him – the widow then giving him some capital to start a coal and timber business. Now Bill is married and the father of five girls – the oldest two of which already attend the well-regarded local Catholic school. Bill at the time of the book is strangely disquieted at the poverty he sees around him (rather to the dismay of his wife who seems him as a soft touch) – but his crisis comes when he visits the local convent (which is also a laundry) only to be shocked by the mental and physical condition and predicament of some of the girls he sees there. The reassurances of the nuns and the warnings from both his wife and other women, firstly that the girls are undeserving and secondly not to take on the establishment power of the Catholic Church (not least due to the repercussions for his other three daughter’s chances of being accepted in the school) serve only to spur him on.

Overall this is a beautiful book - and a perfect Christmas present.

My thanks to Faber and Faber for an ARC via NetGalley2021 2022 2022-booker-longlist ...more175 s2 comments Henk919

Nice to see the broad appreciation to this slight book in number of pages, but very important in message, with its shortlisting for the 2022 Booker Prize!
An initially quiet story setting the spotlight on the harrowing experiences of young “fallen” girls in Ireland, and how difficult power structures and social control make doing the right thing
’Where does thinking get us?’ she said. ‘All thinking does is bring you down.’
She was touching the 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.’

Expertly done, from a kind of pedestrian, meandering seeming historical novella to an examination of what integrity means, engaging with a history that effected the lives of 30.000 girls in Ireland.
More background on the subject matter can be found here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magda...

Claire Keegan sketches the life of coal merchant Furlong, married to Eileen and their five daughters.
ItÂ’s only people with no children who can afford to be careless is a quote quite early in the book and with the economy tanking there is enough to be concerned about. Village life is expertly conjured, but when the clearly shady business of the nuns comes into focus Small Things These starts to shine.

At my job we have a core value called "Act with integrity" and one of the examples included to describe the value is "Doing the right thing, especially when its difficult". Furlong is a perfect illustration of the struggle this lofty goal brings with it when he is confronted with a young girl mistreated by the nuns: ‘Ah, I’ll not,’ Furlong stepped back - as though the step could take him back into the time before this.

The trauma is understated, not explicit, but very much something that I felt as a reader, for instance in this short sentence:
She looked at the window and took a breath and began to cry, the way those unused to any type of kindness do when itÂ’s at first or after a long time again encountered.

An important book that kind of reminds me in feel of the velvet iron fist method Kazuo Ishiguro applies so often - 4.5 stars rounded down, highly recommended!netgalley168 s2 comments Peter472 2,574

Illuminate
Claire Keegan has crafted an outstanding novella that is heartbreakingly authentic, compelling, and reassuring in how a regular person, rejected and ultimately helped curb, the authority of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Claire KeeganÂ’s writing is exquisite (I have found a book fitting of those words), and Small Things These gently unfolds with a beautiful descriptive rhythm. In stark contrast to the beauty of language, it touches on the atrocious and sinful actions from within the religious orders in Ireland. Many of those charged with upholding exemplary conduct and shepherding their congregation towards a life in the image of God became the evil in our communities. The Magdalen Laundries became a place for incarcerating single mothers that society spurned, simply for becoming pregnant. They were places where women received appalling treatment, having their children taken away to be adopted, or worse.

Bill Furlong was the son of a sixteen-year-old housemaid (father unknown to him), working for the wealthy Mrs Wilson. The kindness and care shown by Mrs Wilson, and his circumstances, were undoubtedly an influence on Bill as she treated him family. BillÂ’s story is set in 1985, and he is a coal and timber merchant, hardworking, and married to Eileen with five daughters. While the economic climate is depressed, Bill manages to sustain work and pass on kindness and charity to others. After supplying the convent (and Magdalen Laundry) with coal, he observes the working women supporting the nuns are depressed and weary. BillÂ’s wife warns him to stay out of their business rather than invite the wrath of the Catholic Church.

After a further visit to the convent, he discovers a young woman locked in the coal shed and takes her to the Mother Superior on the run-up to Christmas. What he witnessed and the breakdown of the human spirit leaves him feeling guilty and hypocritical attending mass later. “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?” For Bill Furlong, to do the right thing against the worries of powerful retaliation has a poetic quality during the time of Christmas. “Always, Christmas brought out the best and the worst in people.” The true history behind the Magdalen Laundries and how recent they existed is shocking. Small Things These is a very personal story, and an insight into how many felt in their repulsion of the Church and how many were unaware of these evil secrets, and the power the Church had to conceal them seemed boundless.

I would highly recommend reading this book, and I want to thank my fantastic Buddy, Ceecee, for drawing my attention to this remarkable book. I also want to thank Faber & Faber and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in return for an honest review.favorites literary-fiction netgalley167 s Tina 604 1,337

This is a profound little novella. The writing and narration is beautiful. It's a story set in Ireland in 1985 around Christmas time.

Bill Furlong is a hard working husband and father of five children. One day just before Christmas he is delivering coal around his sleepy village in Ireland when he encounters a girl in a shed on the compound of the local convent. She's cold and dirty and he discovers she has just given birth. He prepares to bring her to the Mother Superior for help. As he leaves the girl there he feels something is not right. He begins to think back to his childhood and how he was raised by an unwed mother. Now Furlong wrestles with his conscience and doing the right thing even if it goes against the beloved Catholic Church.

It's a beautiful and touching story that sheds light on some of Ireland's most darkest times yet it leaves you with some hope. That there are good people in the world who are willing to put themselves on the line to do the right thing.audio-books historical-fiction hoopla-audiobooks ...more170 s7 comments Robin510 3,073

There's no end of love and appreciation for this book, and I by no means wish to rain on anyone's parade. I understand the love, for the most part. Claire Keegan is a graceful writer, and I mainly enjoyed the time I spent in her quiet story, which takes place in the Irish 80s, and in the head of humble coal man, Bill Furlong.

Christmas is coming, and Bill is working hard to make his deliveries while also pondering about the small things. Life is hard and spare for many around him, and he works around the clock to keep food on the table for his wife and five daughters.

Life is tough, which he knows all too well from his own humble beginnings, and people have to be careful not to rock the boat lest some water get in. When Bill sees something terrible, his conscience is tested. What to do, when the world around wants peaceful waters at all costs?

There's something fable- about the story because it's so simply told. Something The Little Match Girl about it, but with a happier (though uncertain) ending. Except it's not a fable, so, you know, something about it doesn't sit quite right with me. While I enjoyed much of what other readers enjoyed, I wanted more from Claire Keegan. More complexity, more edge. There was a lot of potential here that I feel could have been explored, but instead we spent the bulk of these pages in the protagonist's cozy, innocent musings.

There's nothing wrong with coziness, I suppose, but in a book that deals with the abuse of women by the religious powers-that-be, it seemed very little was touched on in that regard. There's also a sentimental style that peeks in from time to time, spread on a bit too thick. Bill's character lacks nuance or subtlety (he's as saintly as Atticus Finch) and so there isn't a lot of tension in the story, or question about what he might do. It would have been much more interesting if he had let us all down at the end. Now that would have gotten my attention!

3.5 stars2022 group-read irish ...more163 s2 comments Andy MarrAuthor 3 books933

'Is there any point in being alive without helping one another?'

No.
No, there's not.
And this novella shows this beautifully.153 s2 comments Elyse Walters4,010 11.2k

“This story is dedicated to the women and children who suffered time in Ireland’s Magdalen laundries”.

“‘I’d no call to say that to you, Bill,’ Eileen cooled. ‘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 s of what them girls go through”.

“Whatever suffering he was to meet was a long way from what the girl at his side had already endured, and might yet surpass”.

This book is a work of fiction but inspired by “The Magdalen Laundries” in Ireland. (also known as Magdalene asylums)….which operated from the 18th to the 20th centuries. They were run ostensibly to house ‘fallen women…..
an estimated 30,000 were confined in these institutions in Ireland.
In 1993, unmarked graves of 155 Women were uncovered in the convent grounds of one of the laundries. The last Magdalen laundry was not closed down until 1996.

“It is not known how many girls and women were concealed, incarcerated and forced to labour in these institutions”.

Many girls and women lost their babies. Some lost their lives.
It was recently recognized and reported that the Mother and Baby Home Commission Report found that nine thousand children died in just eighteen of the institutions investigated. These institutions were run and financed by the Catholic Church.
No apology what is issued by the Irish government until 2013.

I had read Claire Keegan’s, tiny 95 page book, “Foster”, which was deeply touching and affecting (I still own a physical copy), a couple of years back. I knew ‘then’ how exquisite and powerful her writing was.
And now — with “Small Things These” ….
it only took the ‘very first’ sentence to realize - *Wow*….yep…
Claire Keegan commands our attention—with her gorgeous visual uncompromising attention to detail…..
“In October there were yellow trees. Then the clocks went back the hour and the long November winds came in and blew, and stripped the trees bare. In the town of New Ross, chimneys threw out smoke which fell away and drifted off in hairy, drawn-out strings before dispersing along the quays, and soon the river, dark as stout, swelled up with rain”.

We meet Bill Furlong, who was the father of five girls in this small Irish town. He was an honorable, reliable, good manÂ…a family man.
Bill was born out of wedlock in 1946—by a 16-year-old mother who died when he was twelve. Bill never -ever- did find out who his father was. But a neighbor, Mrs. Wilson, (who’s husband had been killed in the war and had no children of her own), took Bill Furlong under her wing, gave him little jobs to do, and helped him with his reading. Bill worked his way up and had a talent for business.
By 1985, the adult Bill married Eileen. They had five daughters, [Kathleen, Joan, Sheila, Grace, and Loretta].

The town had a church, a coal yard, supermarket, KehoeÂ’s diner, (think fish & chips on Fridays), a bingo hall, St. MargaretÂ’s school for girls, a post office, a hospital, a nursing home, a shoe store, a fertilizer factory, a florist shop, a Town Hall, Waterford Dept. Store, a mushroom factory, a funeral home, and local pubsÂ… and a hotel in the nearby town of Enniscorthy.

Bill Furlong was a coal and timber merchant. He needed to make deliveries to the convent—the catholic run institution— just outside town— when he discover something is wrong….[cruel, inhumane, merciless conditions]…..
He was faced with a difficult choice, (confronted by social conformity pressures)Â…..
Bill needed to act in the most ethical manner, while exercising discretion.

Powerful - and exquisitely written. Can be read in one sitting.

“Small Things These”, by Claire Keegan — at only 128 pages proves that great things come in small packages.

Thank you Netgalley, Grove Atlantic, and Claire Keegan (I have two other of ClaireÂ’s books to read). Claire is a very intelligent author.
Her writing flows so effortlessly she makes it look simpler than it really must be. Nataliya840 14k

LetÂ’s be hones
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