45 pages • 1 hour read
Claire KeeganSmall Things Like These
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Further Reading: Beyond Literature (NonFiction)
“Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan – between happiness and ruin” by Lamorna Ash (2021)
This review compares Keegan’s latest work to others in her oeuvre and comments that this latter book has a more optimistic tone. Ash also defines key tendencies in Keegan’s writing, such as the choice to focus on a limited human scene and then go deep.
“Small Things Like These add up to a seismic change in 1980s Ireland” by Thúy Dinh (2021)
This review compares Keegan’s work to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Dinh writes that while Dickens’ hero Scrooge experienced greater social veneration because of his transformation, the opposite is true for Furlong.
“My central character isn’t someone who says much. A longer novel would not have suited his personality” by Claire Keegan (2022)
The interview with Claire Keegan on her nomination for the Booker Prize, reveals details about her writing process and her feelings toward her protagonist Bill Furlong. She also describes her inclination toward shorter forms of fiction.
“The Horrors of Irish Magdalene Laundries, Revisited” by Lydia Millet (2021)
This review sets Keegan’s writing in the context of the Magdalen laundry phenomenon in Ireland.
