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Stories of Women and Men
by Claire Keegan
Book Reviewed by:From Booker Prize Finalist and bestselling author of "pitch perfect" (Boston Globe) Small Things Like These, comes a triptych of stories about love, lust, betrayal, and the ever-intriguing interchanges between women and men.
Celebrated for her powerful short fiction, considered "among the form's most masterful practitioners" (New York Times), 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.
In So Late in the Day, Cathal faces a long weekend as his mind agitates over a woman with whom he could have spent his life, had he behaved differently; in "The Long and Painful Death," a writer's arrival at the seaside home of Heinrich Böll for a residency is disrupted by an academic who imposes his presence and opinions; and in "Antarctica," a married woman travels out of town to see what it's like to sleep with another man and ends up in the grip of a possessive stranger.
Each story probes the dynamics that corrupt what could be between women and men: a lack of generosity, the weight of expectation, the looming threat of violence. Potent, charged, and breathtakingly insightful, these three essential tales will linger with readers long after the book is closed.
Irish writer Claire Keegan consistently showcases the short story's everlasting appeal. In her collection So Late in the Day, she presents three clever tales of men and women interacting and surprising each other along the way. At only 128 pages, the book proves you don't need length to pack a powerful punch. Only a talented writer can condense such strong meaning into short fiction, and Keegan proves her masterful skill in this area again and again...continued
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(Reviewed by Christine Runyon).
Storytelling has always been an integral part of Irish heritage and culture. Originally, Irish stories were passed down through the generations by ear, first by bardic poets, and later by storytellers called seanchaí (or seanchaíwere, which means "bearer of old lore" in Gaelic). The bards and seanchaí weren't just storytellers; they were well-respected members of the community, responsible for preserving local history, genealogy, poetry, and myths of Ancient Ireland.
The seanchaí were dedicated to their craft, living as vagabonds and practicing several arts at once. Essentially walking libraries, they were also dramatic entertainers, building scenes amidst fire smoke. The seanchaí told wondrous tales pulled from ...
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