Silence is the same as complicity in Claire Keegan’s short, but impactful novel Small Things like These.
Bill Furlong was lucky; his unwed mother was allowed to stay on as a domestic worker throughout her pregnancy in the prosperous home of Mrs. Wilson, a protestant. The reference to this religion distinction is important.
The young boy grew up, knowing he was different, but also fully aware that he was loved and a beneficiary of the wealthy woman’s kindness. The only consistent male figure in his life was Ned, Mrs. Wilson’s farmhand. Through the years, Bill never learned the identity of his father, but later married and had four daughters.
The setting is a small Irish village during a particularly frigid Christmas season. As a coal merchant Bill is kept busy with deliveries, including one to the nearby convent. There he finds a young, pregnant girl locked in the woodshed. He’s deeply moved and this causes him to think about how often he wondered about his father particularly when he was young.
The terse, yet descriptive narrative is chilling – not just because of cold temperatures, but the unwritten awareness of the Magdalen laundries. Bill is keenly cognizant of all that he has and what life might have otherwise been for him and his mother.
This is a quiet, little, heartfelt work addressing hard life truths.
Small Things Like These
Four Bookmarks
Grove Press, 2021
118 pages, includes acknowledgements
The Blue Page Special 