...he could hear her saying, yet again, and very clearly, and so late in the day, that she’d changed her mind...
Claire Keegan is deservedly having a moment right now, and while I’ve enjoyed joining others in reading her recent novellas, I found this collection of three of Keegan’s short stories to be even more powerful. Each of the stories in So Late in the Day concerns the relationships between men and women; and while the men presented here are all kind of awful, the women find ways to empower themselves (even if they must then live with the consequences.) From the sentences to the story arcs to the satisfying endings, I loved everything about these stories. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)
It occurred to him that he would not have minded her shutting up right then, and giving him what he wanted. He felt the possibility of making a joke, of defusing what had come between them, but couldn’t think of anything and then the moment passed and she turned her head away. 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. ~ So Late in the Day
A man isn’t looking forward to going home for the long weekend and confronting the ghosts of what could have been. There’s a nice passage about the family influences that may have made him what he was — and some commentary that Irish men in general are “spoiled” — but ultimately, there’s no doubt that he got what he deserved.
As she worked, the sun rose. It was a fine thing to sit there describing a sick man and to feel the sun rising. If it again, at some later point, filled her with a new longing for sleep, she fought against it, and kept on, working with her head down, concentrating on the pages. Already, she had made the incision in place and time, and infused it with a climate, and longing. There was earth and fire and water on these pages; there was a man and a woman and human loneliness.~ The Long and Painful Death
After an unpleasant interaction with an academic who interrupted her writers’ retreat, a woman takes her revenge against him on the page. There was a real sense of menace in this story and it was satisfying to see this woman gain the upper hand.
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. It was December; she felt a curtain closing on another year. She wanted to do this before she got too old. She was sure she would be disappointed.~ Antarctica
More curious than unhappy, this woman wants an anonymous fling while Christmas shopping for her family in the city. What could go wrong?
