Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Small Things Like These
Author: Claire Keegan
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publish Date: November 2021
Read: May 2025
Story Synopsis: A simple Irish family trying to make ends meet with five children manages the whispers and rumors in a small town. When Furlong, the father, delivers coal to the local convent, he encounters a young woman who’s been abused, yet wants to return to her infant child. The nuns come to gather the young woman and Furlong suspected some shady business. Despite his wife’s protestations, Furlong ends up rescuing a young woman to help her escape the abuses of the convent.
Why does this book beguile? I heard so much about this book over the last few months. At only 67 pages, I knew it would be a quick read (about an hour), so I was delighted to get it from the library.
I don’t get the hype. Small Things Like These is a work of fiction, and frankly, far too short to dive into a heavy subject like Catholic-church abuses. I would have loved a bigger, deeper look at the topic - either fiction or nonfiction. I understand the point of the story: it’s never too late to do the right thing and/or the right thing isn’t always popular or easy - however, I wanted more. The story was too short for me to care about the characters or the plot.
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