Member Reviews
Claire Keegan has been on my radar for some months now, and I finally took the plunge with this short collection of stories. Each of the three stories in this collection explores an aspect of what can pass between men and women; the interpersonal, the romantic, the intellectual. The benefit of these stories is that you feel the requisite emotion, be it cringe, frustration, fear, selfishness, curiosity, or ignorance, only briefly, but strongly. Keegan delivers some well-crafted sentences and excellent word choice so that you see the scenes take shape in your mind, and she sets the stories up well overall so that you get the feeling that you know these characters in only a few pages.
3.5 stars. This trio of short stories was a quick, interesting read, but they didn't all work equally well for me. I liked the second story best -- it was very atmospheric. The first story was interesting and thoughtful. The last story was the one I liked the least, because of its strange ending. On the whole, though, I really like Keegan's writing: it's detailed and evokes a definite, distinct atmosphere in each of the stories. I also like how the first and third stories mirrored each other in certain ways, with the second story a more neutral in-between.
Thanks to Netgalley for the e-ARC.
So Late in the Day, a book with 3 short stories. They are all different but have one thing in common. Mysogyny.
Story one is about a man reflecting on his life, how it could have been better if he tried to be a better man.
Story two wasn't memorable to me, that is why I can't recall anything.
Story three is about a married woman who goes to the city to escape her life filled with duties. She meets a man and is left handcuffed to a bed. We can all imagine how this ended. Either with death caused by hypothermia or shame after staff find her.
Keegan was able to write these stories beautifully. As if it is a summary of three amazing novels.
Thank u Grove Atlantic for the ARC!
One new and two older stories makes three terrible men. I had read the last one, the near-horror story "Antarctica" before, with it's slow accumulation of dread and the ending that you hope won't be coming. Perhaps the one I like best is the middle story, from Keegan's second collection, with its closely observed detail (well, an attribute of all her work), fine sense of place, and the introduction of an odd, furious man who the protagonist gets her own literary revenge on. I give this 4 stars instead of 5 to leave that extra one for the earlier books "Foster' and "Small Things Like These," both masterpieces.
These stories are dark little gems, maybe a little too so for my taste, but Keegan is a master of the short story form. Immensely readable!
I have so enjoyed reading Claire Keegan’s previous work that I requested this advance copy of So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men from NetGalley without even reading the description. (So to say I was eager to dive in is an understatement, indeed.) Although I enjoy reading nearly all literary fiction, I have a special place in my heart for well-written short stories. And of this genre, Claire Keegan is a master! Her writing is crisp, spare, and full of emotional punch. This collection of three dark short stories shows off Keegan’s skills with precise, insightful, and unforgettable glimpses into the lives of three “couples.” The three stories, taken together, create an unsettling commentary on relationships between women and men. Evocative and emotional, this collection will give fans of Claire Keegan something to savor.
Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on November 14, 2023.
4 stars
Keegan's an excellent writer, this review is really more for the volume itself, which consists of one new story and two others published long ago in already existing books to fill out the length. I would not include the new piece among Keegan's best. It's a rather simplistic-feeling depiction of a man who doesn't understand that being married to someone entails also living with them. I get the intent, and I know there are people like this in the world, but something about the characterization feels rather thin. The other two stories date back to 2008 and 1999 so if you've been reading the author's work for any length of time you've definitely read them by now.
Claire Keegan is the best short story writer to exist. This collection is another gem. She is the absolute master.
There was a time that I would never consider myself a lover of short stories... until Claire Keegan, that is. She is the master of a short story that packs a punch, makes you think, and shows you that an incredibly well-written short story can be so much more than a novel.
So Late in the Day finds Keegan revising and expanding three stories (that I had previously never read) so I have no comparisons to make. These stories are brilliant... and I have not stopped thinking about them. These stories would be wonderful for a book group to read and discuss... there is just so much to consider in Keegan's writing! I will not give anything away about the stories, but I will say that there is something for everyone in each story.
I highly recommend!
I would like to thank Netgalley, Grove Atlantic, and Grove Press for the electronic copy of this book!
For me, the first short story clinched it and is the winner. Honest, raw and real. I could picture the scene rolling out in front of me as I read "So Late in the Day".
The second short story drew a blank for me while "Antarctica" was ... predictable, nevertheless communicating the complexities of relationships. Similar to "Small Things like These", this collection too is sure to evoke strong feelings in the reader.
SO LATE IN THE DAY — Claire Keegan
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC! I was so delighted to get my hands on this short story collection that releases on 14th November.
The thread tying the three otherwise disparate stories together is misogyny (maybe that’s a metaphor in itself). In So Late in the Day we follow Cathal, a man whose failure to address his own shortcomings in the breakdown of a relationship leads him to believe the problem is women at large. In A Long And Painful Death, a woman writer on retreat on Achill Island meets a man who clearly doesn’t believe she deserves the experience. And in the aptly named Antarctica, an unnamed woman’s attempts at a weekend of infidelity go chillingly awry.
Anyone who has read Foster or Small Things Like These will recognise Keegan’s skill in evoking so much feeling through her descriptions of the mundane and the everyday. Every single word is working hard here, these stories do so much in just 128 pages. She is such an immensely talented writer, we are lucky to have her.
I'll be honest, I saw Claire Keegan listed on NetGalley, and I hit "request", no further questions asked. I've read and loved Foster, Small Things Like These, and The Farmer's Daughter, so the three previously published but revised and expanded short stories collected in So Late in the Day were brand new to me. The theme of relationships between men & women emerged quickly, with an arc stretching from disappointing, misaligned expectations, to the threat of danger. The tension heightens with each story, and without revealing any spoilers for new readers, the ending is really powerful -- I can't wait for others to read this collection so I can discuss it. For more recent Keegan fans like me who've primarily read her most popular novellas, these stories have a contemporary setting, rather than being set in the recent past.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this collection ahead of publication. The US release date is Nov 14, 2023.
So Late In The Day is a collection of three short stories by award-winning Irish author, Claire Keegan.
In the title story: As he finishes work and makes his way back home from Dublin on the Arklow bus, Cathal reflects on his relationship with his French-born fiancée, Sabine. It wasn’t quite what he’d expected, and today was a radical departure from the day they had planned.
From Sabine’s perspective, this might have been titled “Just in Time”. Keegan’s powerful little tale demonstrates how easily toxic masculinity can be inherited. Short but compelling.
In The Long and Painful Death, a writer’s first day at a two-week writing retreat on Achill Island is marred by a call from an insistent German wanting to be shown the cottage, Boll House. She delays his visit but the intrusion puts her off her planned writing day. When she meets him, she realises that this angry, dissatisfied man, a retired professor of literature, is apparently incensed at the lack of appreciation and respect shown by applicants granted use of Nobel Literature Prize winner, Heinrich Boll’s working residence for writers.
A tension-filled little tale with a perfect ending.
In Antarctica: “Every time the happily married woman went away, she wondered how it would feel to sleep with another man. That weekend she was determined to find out.” After she completes her Christmas shopping in the city, she picks up a man in a bar. She’s had quite a bit to drink and he seems kind. She’s not disappointed; she gets what she came for. And more.
This one has a sting in the tail.
As always, Keegan spare, succinct prose easily conveys the mood, threat and tension of her stories. Her descriptive prose is wonderful: “He had looked at her then and again saw something ugly about himself reflected back at him, in her gaze” and “Just outside the panes, a hedge of fuchsia was trembling brilliantly in the very early morning” and “The sky was cloudy but promising, streaked with patches of blue. Down at the ocean, a ribbon of water rose into a glassy wave and fell to pieces on the strand” are examples. Three small but excellent doses of Claire Keegan.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Grove Atlantic.
A good writer, but these stories were far too vulgar for me. I would recommend her novellas over this collection of short stories.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this title before its publication date.
"‘Is there anything you would not give me?’ she had once asked. ‘Nothing,’ he had said, instantly. ‘There is nothing.’ For some reason, she had kept looking at him, and had waited. ‘Well,’ he had said, clearing his throat. ‘Maybe the land. I wouldn’t like to give you the land.’"
A collection of three dark stories. In one word, I would call the trio 'menacing', every story exploring some form of misogyny, with the last story moving from menace into implied terror. It's also the story I found the least convincing, buuuut I will confess that's probably me just wanting Keegan to write a kind of story I know (and love) from her, which is of course unfair.
"‘What trouble you have made,’ the man said, looking at the cake. ‘It’s nothing,’ she said, and wondered, at that moment, how he would respond if she gave him none."
The writing is exemplary as always, and has that moreish quality good contemporary writing can have - I couldn't stop reading.
What an insightful short story collection! Reading about men and women and their differences intrigues me and this collection did just that. Keegan is such a fabulous writer and her pieces are a bit complex but they leave you feeling like you've learned something. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars.
Claire Keegan again brings a story that feels utterly tender and kind. The characters feel like real humans who are at times unaware of their own shortcomings and the story is about how one deals with these shortcomings when they come up in the context of relationships in our lives. The voice of the main character had a calm yet enticing quality to it. I felt my life slow down as I read the book but I wasn't bored in the least. I had felt this way with other Clair Keegan books and felt it again this time. Highly recommend this book.
I thought I had read everything that Claire Keegan has written, so I was overjoyed when I saw this little volume was available on NetGalley. So Late in the Day is a collection of three short stories. I felt the same wonder and appreciation I've previously enjoyed after reading something written by Keegan when I read the title story, "So Late in the Day". But after finishing the second and third stories, it dawned on me that I had read them before. That was when I finally read the book description, "Claire Keegan now gifts us three exquisite stories, newly revised and expanded, together forming a brilliant examination of gender dynamics and an arc from Keegan’s earliest to her most recent work." Reading Claire Keegan's stories once is a treat, and reading them more than once is even better. Intricate yet sparse, full of emotion, pleasure, pain, and fully formed characters in the space of a short story- Claire Keegan's writing has it all.
Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. This book will be published on November 14, 2023.
Simply perfect, as to be expected from Claire Keegan. Keegan has a way of dropping you right into the middle of a piece of everyday life and tearing out your heart. Perfectly drawn characters, she always leaves you wanting more of the story.
Clare Keegan's work is amazing, so I was thrilled to find and read this collection of short stories. Authentic and unflinching, the stories reflect the difficulties of relationships despite the ways we may romanticize them. Highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.