Old Naples News
December 1, 2021

In clear and simple prose, author Claire Keegan brings us into the life of Bill Furlong, an Irishman in a small town in the weeks leading up to Christmas. It is 1985 and the economy is struggling, many people are out of work or barely eking out a living. Bill has a good job at a plant that delivers coal and wood to his local community. But when he takes a load of coal up to the convent at the top of the hill, he makes a horrifying discovery in their coal bin.

Up until this point, Bill has felt mostly satisfied with his life. Happily married, he has five intelligent and talented daughters and can provide for them enough that they have a warm home, plenty of food, and Christmas presents under the tree. Even so, he is still haunted by his past. His mother had him out of wedlock and he never learned the identity of his father. The lack of knowledge of his parentage has left him unsettled. He wishes desperately his mother would have had the courage to tell him the truth before she died.

As he watches his wife and daughters make a Christmas cake he realizes his good fortune, but also is troubled by doubts. Is this the most he can expect from life? He loves his family deeply but wonders if the daily grind of a hard job is all he can hope for when others have more. This thought leaves him guilt-ridden as he knows ultimately the survival of his family is resting on shaky foundations. In the 1980s, most in rural Ireland were one stroke of bad luck away from losing everything. Bill wonders: can anyone really be content with their circumstances, knowing it could all change in an instant? And is it a sin to hope for more?

Bill tries to be a good person. He drops off coal and wood at places he knows can’t pay for it. He gives his men Christmas bonuses and thanks them with heartfelt gratitude for their good work. But after his discovery at the convent, he is faced with a complicated choice. Can he be a good person when doing the right thing is the hard thing? The unpopular thing? This choice could destroy the carefully constructed balance of his world.
Keegan brings to us the warmth of a family preparing for Christmas. She also presents Bill’s dilemma with a deft hand, not allowing the narrative to be derailed by insinuating a sermon or lesson. Instead, we are inserted directly into his doubts and revelations. Can a lone man take a stand against a powerful institution when he is warned not to? Should he threaten the relative calm of his family life to act when no one else will?

A slim novel weighing in at just 128 pages, this is the perfect read for the Christmas season. But the hope and quiet heroism Keegan infuses in her words will stick with us for a long time to come and make us ask the same questions of ourselves well into the new year.

Nice Christmas novella. Set in Ireland - the characters and place deemed to exist far earlier than the late 90's. Sad but true story of the Magdalene homes and one man's coming to learn about his beginning and trying to give back.

2 stars
Convoluted. The author just tried too hard to be profound and inspiring. The book just fell flat for me.

“Small Things like these” by Claire Keegan, dedicated to the women and children who suffered time in Ireland's Magdalen laundries, is a short yet well written novella, set in 1985 Ireland. Bill Furlong, the main character, struggles to keep his business afloat in a declining economy and political unrest, especially during the busiest season of the year. But he cannot ignore the suffering of a young girl he finds locked up in the coal shed when he delivers an order to the convent one frosty Sunday morning. This incident brings back the memory of his own mother and especially the people who helped her keep her child though she was unwed and only 16.
On Christmas Eve, after delivering the last orders and after stalling as much as he could, he finally goes back to the convent, hoping he wouldn’t find her in the shed again. Yet there she is and he must be brave, maybe the bravest he has been his entire life, and take her home to his wife and 5 daughters.
I was delighted to read such a captivating story full of meaning and real feelings and honesty. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

I found the first half of this novel to be a little quiet. I wish it had begun about halfway through and that it had been conceived as a short story. There is a quiet grace in the prose that I found pleasant to read, but it didn't grip me. Furlong, the protagonist, is a good person trying to do the right thing, to an extent that he seemed a little one-note.

This is a beautifully written and captivating novella which I couldn't put down until the last page was turned. From the first sentences, you know you have something special in your hands, and it only gets better from there.

The setting is Ireland in the days before Christmas 1985; the main character is Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant who is married and has five daughters. The narrator gives us equal access to Bill's current life as a successful man, and his humble and humiliating beginnings. The book also tells of Ireland's Magdalen "laundry" facilities, which were quite prevalent, but of which I was previously unaware.

Keegan is keenly skilled at creating rich and realistic characters, and her descriptive writing easily put her readers into the scenes. I especially enjoyed how she relayed Bill's inner thoughts and turmoil, and the information on Ireland's horrific Magdalen laundry facilities, the last of which closed in 1996.

This is a read you won't want to miss. I recommend it highly!

My thanks to Grove Press for allowing me access to an ARC. The book is scheduled to be published on 11/30/21. All views expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

The perfect Christmas story for readers who want to avoid anything too saccharine.

The country Irish setting sucks you in, along with the December weather, while you follow Bill’s thoughts as he goes about his day. It is the everyday things that provide some pause in this story, and I find that to be true for most around the holidays.

This is a slim novella, and can be read in one sitting. I think this would be a lovely gift to a reader because it is reflective and approachable due to its size. Anyone could make time to read it!

“Was there any point of being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry along through the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?”

Small Things Like These is a short novella that can be easily read in an afternoon. Set in Ireland, Christmas 1985, Bill Furlong is the father of five daughters and a coal merchant. When he makes a shocking discovery during a delivery to the local convent, he grapples with doing the right thing.

Claire Keegan’s writing is beautifully descriptive, atmospheric and immersive. I found myself in tears reading the last few pages. Inspired by shocking actual events this would be the perfect story to read at Christmas time.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and Grove Atlantic, Grove Press for the arc of this book. It was a good story, with an emphasis on 'story'. It was more of a novella, which is not my preferred reading. I love a long book, that lets me take my time getting to know characters and places. This book was over before I could. so I was left wanting more. The writing was great and really painted a picture of the location.

Short, concise and powerfully affecting! A little know event rarely acknowledged is the basis for this holiday tale showing the true Christian worth of a man. I only wish this were longer. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for this wonderful read, #smallthingslikethese to read and review.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

An interesting short story about Bill Furlong who makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

3☆

This novella was a quick yet emotional read. It starts so quietly, Furlong is a man with a wife and five daughters. He works hard at his business, delivering coal and wood; and we learn about his childhood.
Then the story takes a turn. One of his customers is the convent beside the school his daughters attend. The convent runs a laundry, and of course I knew where it was now going. Simply told and well written, it makes you wonder how people can just carry on and ignore what everyone knows.

I was absolutely delighted when I got approved for this ARC. When I read the description, I knew this would be one for me.
This book is set in 1985 in an Irish town. During the build-up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does his job, this year he feels his past rising up to meet him, and he encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church. It is a story of hope, complicity and heroism.
This book is only over 100 pages but it certainly hits the nail on the head. Keegan captures the atmosphere in rural Ireland at that time. The qualities of rural Ireland, the colloquialisms and the grip of the Catholic Church are all captured exquisitely. Keegan examines how communities shrouded the Magdalen Laundries, and how those girls sent there were treated, in complete and utter silence. I really liked the gentleness of Bill’s character and I loved how Keegan developed his story throughout the book. I gasped at some of the comments his wife and the nuns made. But it reminded me yet again how this is all such recent history, with its consequences still being felt by so many in this country. I can see why this little book is already being nominated for awards.
I actually wanted this book to be longer. I wanted more about Bill and his family. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the characters so quickly.
But if anything this book has made me want to look up more of Keegan’s work. I thoroughly enjoyed her writing style. If you love Irish fiction and short reads, this book is definitely for you. An excellent read.

EXCERPT: It would be the easiest thing in the world to lose everything, Furlong knew. Although he did not venture far, he got around - and many an unfortunate he'd seen around town and out on the country roads. The dole queues were getting longer and there were men out there who couldn't pay their ESB bills, living in houses no warmer than bunkers, sleeping in their coats. Women, on the first Friday of every month, lined up at the post office wall with shopping bags, waiting to collect their children's allowances. And farther out the country, he'd known cows to be left bawling to be milked because the man who had their care had upped, suddenly, and taken the boat to Fishguard. Once, a man from St Mullins got a lift into town to pay his bill, saying that they'd had to sell the car as they couldn't get a wink of sleep knowing what was owing, that the bank was coming down on them. And early one morning, Furlong had seen a young schoolboy eating from a chip bag that had been thrown down on the street the night before.

ABOUT 'SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE': It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

MY THOUGHTS: It is no small thing that coal and fuel merchant William (Bill) Furlong does. 1985 was a time of great hardship. Bill, although not wealthy, is doing all right for himself and is able to provide for his family - wife Eileen and his five daughters, through careful money management.

Bill Furlong has come from nothing, less than nothing really. But he and his mother were shown great kindness and that is something Billy is dwelling on this Christmas. When Billy discovers someone being treated cruelly and inhumanely, and discovers that his beloved Catholic church is covering it up, he faces a dilemma. Does he help, as his mother was helped? Or does he take heed of the warning and walk away?

For such a short book (128 pages), Small Things Like These packs a solid punch. While a work of fiction, the truth is that many thousands of girls and women were incarcerated and forced to work, hidden in disgrace behind church walls, never to be spoken of nor seen again. The children were adopted out, sold, or simply disappeared. Records were nonexistent or destroyed.

Small Things Like These is a powerful book about family, love, and trying to do the right thing. It is not a read that I am likely to forget in a hurry.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#SmallThingsLikeThese #NetGalley

I: #clairekeeganfiction @groveatlantic

T: @CKeeganFiction @GroveAtlantic

#fivestarread #christmasfiction #historicalfiction #irishfiction #novella

THE AUTHOR: Claire Keegan was born in County Wicklow, the youngest of a large family. She travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana when she was seventeen, and studied English and Political Science at Loyola University. She returned to Ireland in 1992 and lived for a year in Cardiff, Wales, where she undertook an MA in creative writing and taught undergraduates at the University of Wales.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Grove Atlantic via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

Big things come in little packages. How true these words are. This small novella holds large lessons for us all.
Bill Furlong is out making a delivery for his timber and coal company when he makes a shocking discovery, one that will, if not handled properly be his downfall.
This story teaches us about doing the right thing, even when it is so much easier to turn a blind eye, to look away, pretend you don't see or know what is happening. To go against the grain and do what is morally right, not what society or those in power dictate what is right or acceptable. It shows how small acts, boldly taken can be worth the world. That sometimes going against the grain, and not being blind but actually seeing and doing something about it is the only acceptable avenue to take.
Set at Christmas time, I feel this novella is destined to be a Christmas classic, up there with "It's A Wonderful Life, Gift of the Magi, and A Christmas Carol". An excellent, heart-touching, heart-warming story of human kindness, courage and bravery.
A joy to read.
Thank you to the publishers at Grove Atlantic Press and to Net Galley for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review in return.

This beautifully spare and touching tale, set in 1985 Ireland, centers on a moral crisis of individuals and society. Bill Furlong, a coal merchant who has carefully built a business and family life after growing up as an orphan, begins to suspect that the powerful Catholic influence in the town harbors deep injustice. The nunnery that also runs a laundry business has been harboring unwed mothers, but secretly using them as indentured servants who cannot escape the locked facility. As Bill stumbles upon an abused young woman who is trying to escape the facility, he is repeatedly warned by everyone from his wife to the local priest to “mind your own business.”

Everything Bill has worked for is threatened if he follows his conscience and reveals what he knows.
The story draws on the actual scandal in Ireland and abuses by the Church, and will stir a reader’s heart and outrage. Bill is a fully realized character who shares the intimate unfolding of his own past and the difficult present, and the perfectly chosen details of small-town life and social strata keep it grounded.

Highly recommended.

Sparse yet poignant novella about doing the right thing, even in the face of adversity. With few words, Keegan manages to portray the pathos of the Magdalen laundries, the cold of Christmas time, and the urge of one man to acknowledge the small things in life and do more.

I don't want to say much more. It's a beautifully written novella, and to summarize the plot, as it is, would be to ruin the experience for the next reader. Bill Furlong will tug at your heartstrings.

"It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church."

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a small big book - more a novella than a novel – and I enjoyed it from its first page right through to its very last word. Usually, when I enjoy a book so much, I feel bereft when I have to let go but with this one it felt just right. There was nothing more to add and I was left with a little nugget of joy in my heart that I will keep forever.

Keegan takes us to a small Irish town in the 80s where we meet Bill Furlong, the local coal and timber merchant, who - like all of us torn between complicity and doing what’s right - does the right thing and restores in his quiet yet resolute way the reader’s hope and believe in humanity. Small Things Like These refer to the everyday acts of kindness that make all the difference in a life, for the person who is giving as well as for the person who is at the receiving end of it.

Our hero himself has experienced such an act of kindness as a child and it made him into that person who, despite feeling the urge to side with the silent majority, does not look the other way. He does something brave: in his quiet manner he opposes abuse exercised by the omnipotent Catholic Church and condoned by the state and the silence of many, as it happened in his local Magdalen laundry.
Keegan’s restrained style of writing creates a very atmospheric book in which no word is wasted, every word is precise and creates something rather special: a moral tale of a world where Small Things Like These make a real difference.

The story is set in the run-up to Christmas and indeed, it reads and feels like a Christmas story and I wouldn’t be surprised if generations to come (especially in Ireland) will grow up reading or listening to this story during pre-Christmas time. After all we all know, It’s A Wonderful Life.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Faber&Faber for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Small Things Like These is a book to remind us how one person doing the right thing can make a difference. The Catholic Church in Ireland has done some atrocious things to the very people it should have been helping., Bill Furlong was a simple man who decided he could do something to help at least one of those wronged people. A sad situation that ultimately gives you hope for humanity.

A beautiful tender and meaningful meditation on life, its origins and its meaning.

40-something Bill Furlong, pillar of the community despite carrying his unmarried mother’s stigma, father of five girls, fulfils his duties as coal merchant, husband and father while wondering about the meaning of everything.

He repays the acts of kindness that were shown to him and a small act of compassion on Christmas Eve could have consequences for himself and his family in a wonderful thought-provoking ending.