Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well. It’s Friday, and it’s time for another review. Today, I’m reviewing Claire Keegan’s novel Small Things Like These.
Small Things Like These was published in November 2021 by Grove Press and is 128 pages long.
The Plot
Small Things Like These is a beautifully written novel exploring the themes of love, loss, identity and family. Set in rural Ireland at Christmastime in the 1980s, the book is a poignant and insightful portrait of what it is to be a compassionate human being.
Characters
Bill Furlong
Bill Furlong runs a coal merchant business and lives with his wife and daughters in the Irish town of New Ross. While his wife is busy readying their house for Christmas and baking with their daughters, Bill works.
One morning, Bill drops off a load of coal to the local convent, where a laundry service and training school for girls is run. Inside, he discovers a group of young women he thinks are being treated harshly. He’s troubled by this, and when he tries to talk to his wife about it, she warns him not to meddle in the nuns’ business. Bill reminds her that his mother might have ended up there if her employer, Mrs Wilson, hadn’t been compassionate and helped them out.
Later, when he returns to the convent, he finds a young woman, Sarah Redmond, locked in a coal shed. He takes her inside, where the nuns make a fuss of her, giving her tea and cake – a show for Bill.
Leaving the convent, Bill can’t help but think of the young woman, about his mother and how his life could have been so different if not for the kindness of Mrs Wilson.
Eileen Furlong
Eileen is Bill’s wife, and though she loves him and their family very much, she would prefer that everyone keep their heads down and stay out of other people’s business. Like a lot of the town, Eileen tries to ignore the goings on at the convent and tells Bill that all they should be concerned about is that at least none of their daughters will end up in a place like that.
Mrs Wilson
Mrs Wilson is a protestant widow who lives a comfortable life on a farm outside of town. In flashbacks, we learn that she employs Furlong’s mother and allows her a somewhat ordinary life concerning her pregnancy. Having no children of her own, Mrs Wilson is like a second mother to Furlong, encouraging him to read so he can improve his chances of a better future.
Mrs Kehoe
Mrs Kehow owns the cafe frequented by Furlong’s workers. She hints to Bill that she has heard about his visit to the convent and warns that he should keep his head down since the nuns control everything, especially his daughters’ futures since they go to the school right next to the convent, which is run by the nuns, too.
Sarah Furlong
Sarah Furlong is Bill’s mother and worked in Mrs Wilson’s house. Finding herself pregnant at a young age, Sarah, who had been brought up catholic, was ousted by her family, and it is only through Mrs Wilson’s intervention that she isn’t sent to the convent’s Magdalen laundry. Sarah doesn’t reveal who Bill’s father is while he’s growing up, and she dies when he is only twelve, leaving him not knowing.
Ned
Ned is a farmhand employed by Mrs Wilson and, whilst growing up at the house, a friend to Furlong. Later, after a stranger comments on their common likeness, Bill suspects Ned is really his father.
Sarah Redmond
Sarah Redmond is the young woman Bill finds locked in the coal shed. She is traumatised and disoriented due to her baby being taken from her when he was born. When Bill finds her, the nuns play on her disorientation and allude to her having mental health issues and blame this on her confusion. She is once again locked in the coal shed and is later rescued by Bill, who returns to help her escape.
Writing Style
Keegan’s prose in Small Things Like These is lovely. Her eloquent, detailed and evocative descriptions bring the Irish town of New Ross to life, creating a rich and stunning setting within which readers will become fully immersed. The book is a short, easy read, and the story of Bill Furlong, though simple, is captivating. Keegan has a way of drawing you into the plot, and the way she shows the family preparing for their Christmas celebration had me feeling very nostalgic for my childhood Christmases, which feel very similar to the Furlongs’.
The book also gives a fascinating look at religion – particularly Catholicism, which the story is a little critical of, though, without being overly so. I was raised catholic (though now I’m a fully-fledged atheist) and brought up by people who had similar views on keeping one’s head down and staying out of other people’s business. My nanna was a woman who was a very proud catholic and would defer to anyone she perceived as having any authority at all within the church, priests and nuns included.
Although my nanna’s family hailed from Ireland aeons ago, I knew nothing of the Magdalen laundries. However, I’m sorry to say I’m not entirely surprised at their existence.
Final Thoughts
Before reading Small Things Like These, I’d not read anything by Claire Keegan; I only came across it when I saw the book being reviewed on Between The Covers on BBC2 and, though not usually my cup of tea, I was intrigued. Since reading and enjoying this one, I look forward to more.
If you’re looking for a quick, Christmassy read focussing on character rather than plot, this book is undoubtedly worth your time. It’s a powerfully moving story that will stay in your mind for ages after you’ve finished reading it, and I very much recommend it.
I’m giving Small Things Like These 8/10.
Have you read Small Things Like These? What did you think?
Thank you, as always, for stopping by to read my review. I really appreciate it!
Until next time,
George
© 2024 GLT
Categories: Book Reviews, Reading
GEORGE L THOMAS 
I give the book a 10/10. As a Baby Scoop Era mother in the USA where a Jesuit took my newborn in forced adoption in 1968, I lived the experience of the story as fact, not fiction. There are 3-4 million of us just in the US. The story captures exactly why so many of us were abused by the Catholic Church and the abuse kept secret. The abuse was allowed because so many turned a blind eye to not make waves in their own lives. I wept because all it would have taken to save us is just one person with a conscious, and the book captures that point subtly yet powerfully.
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Thanks for the comment, Kathleen! I’m so sorry you had to go through that! I hear there is a moving being made of the book, so hopefully, more people will know about stories like this one — like yours.
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I loved this book. Made me angry at how these poor young women were mistreated. I felt sad and cried throughout much of it. Euphoric for Bill when he could no longer keep the blinkers on. Feel a follow on read would be good though to see what happened, when he got home!
keen to see how it plays out on film.
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Yes, I am, too. The book was relatively short, so I assume they added some more story to make the film. It will be interesting.
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loved the book. Read it a while back when it was first published. A powerful Irish writer. Her other books are amazing too. ‘Late in the Day’. Powerful. Irish male misogynist behaviour at its height. Each book you need to read twice. The re reads give you more insight. Only small books and can be read in two hours. I spent a lot of time visiting our local laundry, in Dublin. My grandfather worked for the nuns after the War in 1916. Those girls were so sad. They were called ‘Penitents’ meaning living to atone for their sin. The sin it was called, o sin of the shame of having a baby out of wedlock. As young girls many of us lived with the threat of being sent there if we got pregnant. It happened in my family. A relative ended up in New Ross. Sean Ross Abbey. They had undignified burials. Watch the movie, ‘Philomrna’.,’. The book is a true story, quite different to the movie. It’s traumatic, true to what really happened, and we should all hang our heads in shame. Claire Keegan says herself that it’s about how we as a nation turned our faces the other way. That was her message.
Afraid of the Church power. Don’t forget those girls were marched up to those Convents by their Mother’s, via the Parish priest, never to be seen again. Some of the fathers of the babies were brothers, cousins, fathers. It’s an outrage. Too busy learning about the brave men of Ireland being rammed down our throats in school. Another side of Irish men. Google the Tuam Babies. All those little souls, 900 of them found 10 years ago buried in a specific tank outside the convent. It makes me cry at times. I feel like I did nothing. Bill Furlong was a strong man. The movie with Cillian Murphy as Bill is outstanding. Read The Magdalene Girls too written by girls who escaped.
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Thanks so much for your comment. It’s awful that these places ever existed, and unfortunately, a lot of what we’re taught about history is cherry-picked so that perhaps a country’s more shameful moments may be forgotten. Or, at the very least, minimised. I’m definitely going to read more of her work. So much story in so few words. Brilliant.
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