Having read two of Claire Keegan’s novellas and being absolutely blown away by them, I went into So Late in the Day expecting it to be another favorite of this year. Sadly, these short stories didn’t pack the same emotional punch for me and I couldn’t connect with the characters or the themes of the stories. This collection wasn’t for me, but I still look forward to reading more from Keegan in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Faber and Faber for an advanced copy to read. All opinions my own.

Didn't feel the connection I expected🙁

This set of short stories left me flat and a bit baffled. After reading the author's Foster that inspired a lot of sympathy and emotion I expected similar, but I felt no connection with these characters. I found the stories too short.

The first story had only one, cruel moment of misogyny that struck me as memorable as the main character thinks back over how he lost his fiancee and considers how he was raised in a home where his mother was a servant and scapegoat to her husband and sons.

The second story was also a miss for me. A female author retreating for a few weeks to a seaside cottage and finding inspiration from an unwelcome and unexpected source. The story provided minute details of how her day was spent but I did not get any feel for who this character was or what made her tick.

The last story, Antarctica, was better than the other two but even that just frustrated me as I felt the stranger the housewife meets in the bar was a shadow: no name, no background, no explanation of his intentions.

Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for sharing a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

If Claire Keegan writes it, I am going to read it. She is such a great contemporary Irish writer. I love her short stories and she never disappoints.

As a fan of short stories and Irish literature, i was excited to read Claire Keegan's new short story collection. There are three stories here, and the brief collection packs a real punch. I love stories like these which describe the brief relationships between pairs of characters. The endings all surprised me and left lasting impressions. I can't wait for more people to read this when it comes out!

I can't actually believe that this is my first book by Claire Keegan. I've several of her books on my shelves, and So Late In The Day has definitely prompted me to pick them up soon.

A triptych of short stories about women and men, love, misogyny, desire, and betrayal, there's something very special about these stories The prose is succinct and beautiful and then it's like an explosion of emotion. Of the three stories, I did prefer the first and last, but Claire is clearly a master of capturing relationships even if it's with one's self. There's great insight into the complexity of people in general, and I was completely captivated by this short but perfectly formed book!

5★
SO LATE IN THE DAY (story one) (title story reviewed in October 2022)
“It had been an uneventful day, much the same as any other. Then, at the stop for Jack White’s Inn, a young woman came down the aisle and took the vacated seat across from him, wearing a familiar perfume. He sat breathing in her scent until it occurred to him that there must be thousands of women, if not hundreds of thousands, who smelled the same.”

What is it about a familiar smell that can completely transport us to another time or place? Cathal has just been hit with the memory of another woman who wore the same Chanel perfume.

Sabine had grown up in Normandy, and he had met her a couple of years earlier at a conference in Toulouse, where they discovered they both worked in Dublin. They formed a casual relationship which gradually became more serious.

”At some point, Sabine began spending most of her weekends in Arklow, and they started going to the farmers’ market together on Saturday mornings.
. . .
Almost everything she brought home she cooked with apparent light-handedness and ease, with what Cathal took to be love.”

Keegan notes those little moments in childhood that shape us as adults and shows the repercussions that they may have in future relationships.

As of today (Nov 2023), this story is still available from 'The New Yorker'.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/02/28/fiction-claire-keegan-so-late-in-the-day

You can listen to her read it here:
https://www.wnyc.org/story/claire-kee...

THE LONG AND PAINFUL DEATH (story two)
It’s okay, no trigger or content warning necessary about a death, long, painful or otherwise.

In this story, a writer has been accepted by the family of late award-winning author, Heinrich Böll as the writer-in-residence for a two-week stay in Böll House. She has arrived at 3am with a few supplies and great intentions of diving into her work, looking out at the famous view from his study window when the day dawns.

Before she can get going in the morning, a German man has phoned her, asking for a tour of the house. Not now, she says. But he’s right outside and he’s insistent, almost demanding. Many people have applied for this residency, why does she deserve it?

She puts him off – after arguing and with some difficulty – until that evening, saying she has work to do. But first, a walk to the shore and then the exploration of an interesting area and pool at the bottom of the cliff.

“With care she stepped over the flat brown stones, followed the slippery path and came out into the cove of white sun. Debris had washed up from the high tide but all around her were deep layers of glistening, bleached stones. Never had she seen such beautiful stones, clanking like delft under her feet each time she moved. She wondered how long they had lain there and what type of stone it was but what did it matter? They were here, now, as she was.”

She even bakes a cake. How she chooses to “work” and spend her residency is up to her, not some annoying random man who wants her to feel guilty. Looking back on her life and how she has arrived at this point is enlightening, and what eventually inspires her is clever and satisfying.

ANTARCTICA (story three)
This was an unexpected tale from Keegan, but after I finished, I could see the recurring theme of the stories.

First, here’s a bit about this one.

“Every time the happily married woman went away, she wondered how it would feel to sleep with another man.”

I imagined this would be the lament of one of those wives, slaving away in the kitchen and dreaming of a better life, but this woman actually takes off for a weekend on her own, before she gets too old, she says.

“She had left a dish of macaroni and cheese out for the kids, brought her husband’s suits back from the cleaners. She’d told him she was going shopping for Christmas. He’d no reason not to trust her.”

She does indeed shop on the Saturday morning, buying the appropriate gifts, and then she’s free.

“She dressed up in the afternoon, put on a short plum-colored dress, high heels, her darkest lipstick, and walked back into town. A jukebox song, ‘The Ballad of Lucy Jordan,’ lured her into a pub, a converted prison with barred windows and a low, beamed ceiling. Fruit machines blinked in one corner, and just as she sat on the bar stool, a little battalion of coins fell into a chute.

‘Hello,’ the fellow next to her said. ‘Haven’t seen you before.’ He had a red complexion, a gold chain inside an open-necked Hawaiian shirt, mud- colored hair, and his glass was almost empty.

‘What’s that you’re drinking?’ she asked.”

And… she’s off! On her way to an exciting weekend, and it is. He’s an admiring suitor and he cooks. Of course it’s not all going to be happy families, but you knew that, right?

Keegan is so good at picking just the right details to indicate the untold parts of the story. I think that’s probably the secret to a good short story or novella. Everything doesn’t have to be spelled out – just enough that we have a good idea of where someone is coming from, who they are now, and what their dreams might be. Of course, some indication of where they’re headed is welcome, too.

Interestingly, in the second story, ‘The Long and Painful Death’, there’s a scene where the writer-in-residence remembers a past affair with a separated man who wanted her to move in.

“Once, when they were getting ready to go out, she had put her hair up, pinned it loosely and had chosen a long, velvet dress. She was thinner then, and in her twenties. ‘I like you like this,’ the man had said that night, but she’d known it wasn’t true; he preferred her in a short skirt with high heels, with her hair loose, and her lips painted red.”

So it’s short skirts, heels, and bright red lipstick for those two. In the first story, we know the woman who cooks so lovingly for Cathal was neatly dressed as a professional at the conference where they met. He was intrigued by her blouse with tiny buttons up the back.

In each of these stories, somebody gets their just rewards, although in one case, I thought it was a little extreme. Still, I love the way Keegan’s mind works.

Although my review is long, this is a very short book. The stories combined are only about 17,000 words, but Keegan doesn’t need a big novel to make a big impact.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for a preview copy of #SoLateintheDay.

In a Nutshell: It’s a Claire Keegan story collection! What more do you want to know?! Read it! (As you must have guessed, this is a very biased review, because I love this author!)

Claire Keegan is one of my top favourite contemporary authors. She has a way of making me feel like a fool, most times.
Hmmm… Those two sentences don’t make much sense next to each other, do they? 👀
Let me elaborate.
I love Claire Keegan. She's among the few writers who believes in the intelligence of her readers and hence never goes overboard elaborating her content. She offers just enough for us to read and then trusts in our capacity to read between the lines and process the gaps. This means that her stories can never be rushed through. That what she says is much less than what she leaves unsaid. That you need to invest in comprehending much beyond the written word. That if you are a perceptive literary reader, you will have the time of your life with her works.
All this also means that when I read her stories, I am almost always left mouth agape after the first round. I return immediately to the start, and read the whole thing again searching for the clues I missed. Only after the second round do I see the cleverness of her hidden hints.
Am I complaining?
No way! I simply love the way she allows me to sink into the story with her vivid writing and yet challenges me with the journey her story takes. She always captures humans in their humanness than in their perfection. Thus she adds so much depth to a short story as even some novels cannot match.
This collection has three stories that have already been published elsewhere. Each story has an interplay between a man and a woman. (Cue: the tagline of the book!) Unlike what you would think though, the stories aren’t dominated by romance. But the juxtaposition of the pair in the stories leaves an aftermath on one of them, and that’s the character we hear from. The central character isn’t necessarily likeable, but this is not a problem as they are sketched believably. The endings aren’t what you wold call happy, but they are oh-so-perfect for the plot.
As always, I rated the stories individually. And the results weren’t a surprise. For anthologies, I usually review only those tales that impressed me, but this time, as there are only three stories, and each of them is a winner, here’s a mini review on the trio:

1. So late in the day - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
First published in New Yorker magazine.
I had already read and reviewed this story in July 2022. (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4834092436). But I reread it just to see if my opinion has changed. It hasn’t. Still a subtly impactful story. This provides a master class in writing for plot development as well as character development. Now, how many short stories can you say that about?

2. The Long and Painful Death - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
First published in her story collection titled ‘Walk the Blue Fields’.
This story took a while to get going. Initially, I wondered where the author was going with that detailed flow that almost bordered on ‘telling’. But I trusted her, and waited for her to explain the title to me. It’s only at the ending that the meandering plotline made sense and made me laugh. Wannabe authors, you might find this story very “inspiring”! 😄

3. Antarctica - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
First published in her story collection titled ‘Antarctica’.
It will be tough to talk about this story (a simple premise at the start, but soon,…) or the characters (so excellently sketched!) without spoiling it, so all I'll say is: Oh. My. God!

Four trivial complaints:
1. Why only three stories?
2. Why only republished works?
3. Why no author’s note?
4. Why such a boring cover?

Strongly recommended to all short story or literary fiction lovers. This collection is a gem not to be missed! Not for those readers who seek quick and easily entertaining stories.

4.3 stars, based on the average of my rating for each story.

My thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the DRC of “So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I have heard a lot about Claire Keegan's books recently especially small things like these. So I had to pick this up and this short story collection did not disappoint me.

Claire Keegan is an irish author and she is famous for short stories. In this book, we are introduced to her writing prowess in the form of three short stories. The stories explore the dynamics between men and women. through chance encounters, romantic relationships and sex.

1. SO LATE IN THE DAY

"That was the problem with women falling out
of love; the veil of romance fell away from their
eyes, and they looked in and could read you."

The story starts at a Cathal's workplace , some tragedy must have happened with him from the tone of the first few passages but we do not know it yet. Slowly in a flashback, we come to know what took place in his life in past few years. Cathal is the result of years of patriarchy that we have endured since ages. The unconscious weaving of misogyny throughout the story is blatant and infuriating.

“Cunt,” he said.

Although he couldn’t accurately attach this word to what she was, it was something he could say, something he could call her.

Cathal's resentment and at some points hatred is incomprehensible.

"He wanted to deny it, but it felt uncomfortably close to a truth he had not once considered. It occurred to him that he would not have minded her shutting up right then, and giving him what he wanted."


2. THE LONG AND PAINFUL DEATH

A young woman who is on writing retreat receives an unwanted guest, a guest she thinks might be a good company but it turns out that the unwanted guest is something you would have done rather without.

All she had needed, tonight, was what
every woman sometimes needs: a compliment
– a barefaced lie would have sufficed.

3. ANTARTICA

This is my favorite story from collection. A woman on an excursion for christmas gifts away from her family ends up with a stranger, What happens next is totally unexpected, well I expected something to happen to be honest but definitely not that twist.

Overall I totally liked it and will be recommending to everyone. I actually already did on my book clubs.

Thank you so much netgalley and Grove Atlantic publisher for this amazing ARC in exchange of an honest review.

I typically love Claire Keegan’s short little novels for her characterization and writing and while I enjoyed this short story collection series, it felt TOO short too me.

SO LATE IN THE DAY by Claire Keegan ~to be published November 14, 2023

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A petite collection of three stories by one of my favorite living writers.

Many of you probably know that I utterly adore Claire Keegan. Her ability to be succinct while delivering so much emotion is unmatched.

The emotions here once again run high, but this time anger and betrayal take center stage, with all of the stories involving misogynistic men showing their true colors. Antarctica, especially, is truly chilling, which is certainly not an adjective I would use for Keegan’s Foster or Small Things Like These, both of which are filled to the brim with hope. And I guess, for that reason, I would recommend that readers new to Keegan be a little wary of starting with this darker and bleaker world. These stories are excellent and well worth your time, but damn.

I should also mention that I believe each of these stories has been published previously, either in The New Yorker or as part of other collections, and So Late in the Day was released as a stand alone title in August. But I whole heartedly recommend getting the collection of three, as they really work beautifully together.

I can’t thank @groveatlantic enough for providing me with my third advance review Keegan. This is out on November 14th!

Keegan is always reliable for well written, human stories and this mini collection of short stories is no exception. my personal favourite was Antarctica

Three short stories, well written with “packed” sentences full of meaning.
The first-SO LATE IN THE DAY-to me offers a perfect description of misogyny, in this case learned from the father and seemingly pervasive within the society.
The second -THE LONG AND PAINFUL DEATH. A woman at a two week writer’s residence( former home of a german nobel literature winner)seems to have some sort of writer’s block until she is insulted and minimize d by a retired german lit professor , which then spurs her on to write feverishly about him and gets her revenge by imagining his long and painful death( though she knows nothing about him).
The third and to me most chilling is ANTARTICA. A happily married woman seeks extramarital sexual encounter on a shopping trip to London,finds it with a complete stranger who initially seems wonderful and then… you’ll have to read it to find out😂😂😂
Suffice to say that envisions her childhood vision of what her personal hell would be like.
All three are excellent but my preferred one was SO LATE IN THE DAY. A man who could have had it all, but could not , and seemingly didn’t realize, his own self-destructive traits.

I went in blind : I've heard about Claire Keegan, I may have read one of her books a few years ago (but don't remember which one) and since she's an Irish author and I love Ireland, I thought I would give her another try. I picked this one up without looking closely at what it was.

Her writing style troubled me at first : short sentences, almost deceptively simple. Yet I enjoyed her first story which shows how attitudes in the family as you grow up can become a burden as an adult. The way you've always been versus love and the desire to be more. The second story amused me and even made me laugh at the end.
As the first two stories were about how men act towards women, the third story was darker and I couldn't help but think the main character (woman) was a nitwit. Yet the story was beliable and engrossing.

This wasn't my favourite book fo the year, but I was definitely engaged by Claire Keegan's writing and the small touches she uses to brush her scenes. I will certainly read more book by her.

Claire Keegan's writing has absolutely won me over. Her short stories are heartachingly beautiful, and real. It feels as though you are in it while reading and that is something so incredible as a reader.

Thank you so much to the publishers and netgalley for the arc. I will continue to read everything this woman writes.

I have previously read two of Claire Keegan’s works, Small Things Like These and Foster. I absolutely adored them. But this book… I hated it. Her writing is excellent, in that it can evoke such a strong emotion in me, but these three stories… I did not enjoy them and wish I could scrub them from my conscience. Maybe that’s the response she was going for, but man, I feel traumatized.

Claire Keegan is truly a master of short fiction! With an economy of prose she conjures fully formed social worlds. The titular story was the strongest but all three were wonderful, and very different.

Claire Keegan's ability to pack a punch in the smallest number of pages is yet again evident here. Keegan writes sparse prose in the best way possible; she trusts the reader can take the inferences and make the abundant connections in her stories without her having to hammer home the salient points.
In "So Late in the Day" the focus is Cathal, a man pondering what life could have been. It becomes obvious as the narrative progresses that Cathal's own actions are the reason for his current situation, and explores relationships between men and women and the influence of misogyny.
As always, the reader is left with lots to think about once the story ends, and it is the type of novel you could easily reread and take something new from each time.

Keegan’s prose is simple, yet melodic and will transport you into the stories she creates. “So Late in the Day” is divided into three separate short stories, and the reader feels a sort of tension build with each one that finally reaches a crescendo with the last title, “Antarctica”.

This was a lovely short story collection. With the same beauty as in 'Small Things Like These' Keegan explores the daily life and inner thoughts of normal people. People like you and me, like your grandparents and neighbours. On the outside, nothing is particularly noteworthy about them. With a great sense of detail and humanity, we discover their inner worlds. This collection focusses particularly on the effects of misogynie, sexual freedom and failing relationships. At times shocking, at times mundane, always well written. I had a great time with this collection.

Claire Keegan is one of the outstanding writers of our time. Despite working on a small scale--truly a "little bit (two inches wide) of ivory," as Jane Austen would say--her characters are well-rounded and her settings realistic and full of details. So Late in the Day joins Small Things Like These, Foster, and Walk the Blue Fields as some of the best work I have read, period.