SO LATE IN THE DAY by Claire Keegan ~to be published November 14, 2023

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A petite collection of three stories by one of my favorite living writers.

Many of you probably know that I utterly adore Claire Keegan. Her ability to be succinct while delivering so much emotion is unmatched.

The emotions here once again run high, but this time anger and betrayal take center stage, with all of the stories involving misogynistic men showing their true colors. Antarctica, especially, is truly chilling, which is certainly not an adjective I would use for Keegan’s Foster or Small Things Like These, both of which are filled to the brim with hope. And I guess, for that reason, I would recommend that readers new to Keegan be a little wary of starting with this darker and bleaker world. These stories are excellent and well worth your time, but damn.

I should also mention that I believe each of these stories has been published previously, either in The New Yorker or as part of other collections, and So Late in the Day was released as a stand alone title in August. But I whole heartedly recommend getting the collection of three, as they really work beautifully together.

I can’t thank @groveatlantic enough for providing me with my third advance review Keegan. This is out on November 14th!

Keegan is always reliable for well written, human stories and this mini collection of short stories is no exception. my personal favourite was Antarctica

Three short stories, well written with “packed” sentences full of meaning.
The first-SO LATE IN THE DAY-to me offers a perfect description of misogyny, in this case learned from the father and seemingly pervasive within the society.
The second -THE LONG AND PAINFUL DEATH. A woman at a two week writer’s residence( former home of a german nobel literature winner)seems to have some sort of writer’s block until she is insulted and minimize d by a retired german lit professor , which then spurs her on to write feverishly about him and gets her revenge by imagining his long and painful death( though she knows nothing about him).
The third and to me most chilling is ANTARTICA. A happily married woman seeks extramarital sexual encounter on a shopping trip to London,finds it with a complete stranger who initially seems wonderful and then… you’ll have to read it to find out😂😂😂
Suffice to say that envisions her childhood vision of what her personal hell would be like.
All three are excellent but my preferred one was SO LATE IN THE DAY. A man who could have had it all, but could not , and seemingly didn’t realize, his own self-destructive traits.

I went in blind : I've heard about Claire Keegan, I may have read one of her books a few years ago (but don't remember which one) and since she's an Irish author and I love Ireland, I thought I would give her another try. I picked this one up without looking closely at what it was.

Her writing style troubled me at first : short sentences, almost deceptively simple. Yet I enjoyed her first story which shows how attitudes in the family as you grow up can become a burden as an adult. The way you've always been versus love and the desire to be more. The second story amused me and even made me laugh at the end.
As the first two stories were about how men act towards women, the third story was darker and I couldn't help but think the main character (woman) was a nitwit. Yet the story was beliable and engrossing.

This wasn't my favourite book fo the year, but I was definitely engaged by Claire Keegan's writing and the small touches she uses to brush her scenes. I will certainly read more book by her.

Claire Keegan's writing has absolutely won me over. Her short stories are heartachingly beautiful, and real. It feels as though you are in it while reading and that is something so incredible as a reader.

Thank you so much to the publishers and netgalley for the arc. I will continue to read everything this woman writes.

I have previously read two of Claire Keegan’s works, Small Things Like These and Foster. I absolutely adored them. But this book… I hated it. Her writing is excellent, in that it can evoke such a strong emotion in me, but these three stories… I did not enjoy them and wish I could scrub them from my conscience. Maybe that’s the response she was going for, but man, I feel traumatized.

Claire Keegan is truly a master of short fiction! With an economy of prose she conjures fully formed social worlds. The titular story was the strongest but all three were wonderful, and very different.

Claire Keegan's ability to pack a punch in the smallest number of pages is yet again evident here. Keegan writes sparse prose in the best way possible; she trusts the reader can take the inferences and make the abundant connections in her stories without her having to hammer home the salient points.
In "So Late in the Day" the focus is Cathal, a man pondering what life could have been. It becomes obvious as the narrative progresses that Cathal's own actions are the reason for his current situation, and explores relationships between men and women and the influence of misogyny.
As always, the reader is left with lots to think about once the story ends, and it is the type of novel you could easily reread and take something new from each time.

Keegan’s prose is simple, yet melodic and will transport you into the stories she creates. “So Late in the Day” is divided into three separate short stories, and the reader feels a sort of tension build with each one that finally reaches a crescendo with the last title, “Antarctica”.

This was a lovely short story collection. With the same beauty as in 'Small Things Like These' Keegan explores the daily life and inner thoughts of normal people. People like you and me, like your grandparents and neighbours. On the outside, nothing is particularly noteworthy about them. With a great sense of detail and humanity, we discover their inner worlds. This collection focusses particularly on the effects of misogynie, sexual freedom and failing relationships. At times shocking, at times mundane, always well written. I had a great time with this collection.

Claire Keegan is one of the outstanding writers of our time. Despite working on a small scale--truly a "little bit (two inches wide) of ivory," as Jane Austen would say--her characters are well-rounded and her settings realistic and full of details. So Late in the Day joins Small Things Like These, Foster, and Walk the Blue Fields as some of the best work I have read, period.

I always marvel over the ability of Claire Keegan to express so much in a short story or novel. This book contains three short stories that were previously published separately and deal with interactions between men and women.

1) SO LATE IN THE DAY: We meet Cathal on what should have been the happiest day of his life but instead he gets to spend the day in introspection, thinking about where things went wrong.

2) THE LONG AND PAINFUL DEATH: A female writer arrives at the Böll House writer's retreat on Achill Island, Ireland, for two weeks of gloriously peaceful writing, only to be pestered by a German scholar.

3) ANTARCTICA: A middle-aged married woman decides she wants a taste of sexual freedom before she gets too old. She tells her husband she is going to do some Christmas shopping in the city over the weekend and there she meets a man with darker plans than she could have wished for.

A great taste of Claire Keegan's writing. This would make a great little gift for your literary-minded friends.

Many thanks to the publisher and author for providing me with an arc through NetGalley.

So Late in the Day consists of three short stories by Claire Keegan. These are quite different from the hopeful novellas I’ve previously read by this author. These stories are haunting, with dark themes and women who face adverse situations. As always, Keegan’s detailed, descriptive writing is thought-provoking.

So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan is a short story collection exploring topics such as love, lust, betrayal, misogyny, and the ever-intriguing interchanges between women and men. 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.

I always love Claire Keegan's works and this one was no different. I thoroughly enjoyed each of the short story collections and found all of them haunting and thought provoking. I highly recommend this one!

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

These three dark stories are exquisitely formed, with understated drama centering around unsavory people and their choices.

The first story, So Late in the Day, is about a parsimonious man whose fiance’ dumps him just before their wedding. In the second story a writer has been granted a retreat in Heinrich Boll’s cottage where she is confronted by a man who accuses her of misusing and underappreciated the privilege. And in the third story, a woman uses her time away to conduct an affair but finds herself in deep trouble.

These character’s choices and personality flaws reap inevitable consequences, and I was not sad for them as much as satisfied by the justice of their fate.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

Claire Keegan is the queen of keeping the words short but packing in a punch. I loved the way this book draws you into the personal feeling of the two characters and makes us look at ourselves whilst doing so. The two characters are flawed but none more than than the controlling boyfriend. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to look in the window of a real relationship and feel the outcome. Thanks NetGalley for advance copy.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishing house for sending me this e-arc to read and review. This was a great book, I read it here a few months ago and loved it. The cover art is beautiful and the writing style is beautiful. I cant wait to see what else this author comes out with in the future.

Having read this, I can confirm I will not survive in a world if men are really like this. After a second read, it dawned upon me that, the presented behaviors, which I thought to be miscommunication at first, might be fragments of something much worrying. The casual condescension, mansplaining, stereotyping, reluctance, etc.—all that could be taken for human nature turned out to be patterns of a more serious societal problem. The level of aggressiveness only escalated as readers moved from the first story to the next. Cathal in So Late In The Day might be over-frugal, impulsive, and cowardly, but at least his upbringing somewhat justified his viewpoint (not necessarily a redeemable quality). The German literature professor from A Long And Painful Death is straight-up rude, presumptuous, and non-consensually invasive toward the (Heinrich) Boll’s house resident. Then there’s this Antarctica motherfucker, taking away someone’s autonomy, stalking them, coercing them into activities they weren’t interested in doing, and worst yet. holding them captive. As all the victims in these stories are women, and all the aggressors are men, it’s clear Claire Keegan, while putting together this collection, had wanted to display some prime examples of modern-day misogyny—easy to overlook at first glance, but still very inherent if one pays enough attention.

Keegan’s penmanship is worth taking notes too. She’s precise and subtle, observant without pinpointing while controlling metaphors in various forms: a weather forecast foreseeing a failed engagement, a fictional character to project resentment, and a stranded explorer to portray hopelessness. This is just to say her writing methods are super effective as she recounts real-life experiences with imagery. Highly recommended.

I read and loved Foster by Claire Keegan. I’m finding I love writers who can do quiet and understated works that pack a big punch — Keegan is one of these writers. When I saw her upcoming book So Late in the Day, I immediately requested the arc on NetGalley.

Split into three short stories about men and women with a highlight on misogyny, it totals 128 pages, I finished it quickly but needed a minute to digest. On the surface it reads fairly simplistic but the themes probe deeper into societal expectations within relationships between genders while the threat of physical violence that men hold over women always hovers nearby.

It wasn’t a joyous book or gripping but the sense of place was unmatched as was the feeling of foreboding.

Loved this addition to her other books even if it wasn’t my favorite! Don’t miss this piece of literary fiction!

This is a small collection of three bleak, carefully-chiseled stories--Keegan displays her usual skill at observing people while paring the story down to its necessities. Her sentences are as always pointy and precise. This collection focuses on disastrous interactions between women and men (a man trying to figure out why his wedding was canceled at the last moment, a woman writer on a fellowship dealing with an increasingly alarming visitor who wants to see the writer's house the residency is based in, and a woman who takes a weekend break from her family and becomes entangled with a possessive man), and the stories seethe with misogyny; each story builds to an increasingly uncomfortable and ominous conclusion.

Readers who enjoyed her novellas Foster and Small Things like These will enjoy these stories as well. This collection would also make a good entry into her work (although I think Keegan is at her very best at the slightly longer novella length).

Thanks to the publisher, author, and Netgalley for my free earc. My opinions are all my own.