A review by sarahmatthews
Foster by Claire Keegan

emotional reflective medium-paced

Foster by Claire Keegan

Read in Braille

Faber and Faber

Pub. 2010, 89pp

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This is my third Claire Keegan novella and she’s become one of my favourite writers! I chose to read this one in Braille as it slows me down and makes me consider every word and sentence more closely, which is part of the joy of reading her, no word is wasted.

In this story we’re following an unnamed narrator, a child who’s been taken to stay with relatives she hardly knows in order to take the pressure off her mother who’s expecting another child to add to an already large family.

Distance is put between the narrator and her relatives as she refers to them as “Kinsella” and “the woman”, and from the beginning the child is trying to figure out how to feel about the situation she’s been thrust into, as seen in this small exchange at bedtime:

“She is just about to hang a blanket over the curtain rail, to block it out, when she pauses.

‘Would you rather I left it?’

‘Yeah,’ I say ‘yes.’

‘Are you afraid of the dark?’

I want to say I am afraid but am too afraid to say so.”

As the novella progresses family secrets slowly emerge, and we start to get a sense of the contrast between the attention she’s receiving here and what she’s accustomed to:

“Kinsella takes my hand in his. As soon as he takes it, I realise my father has never once held my hand, and some part of me wants Kinsella to let me go so I won’t have to feel this.”

There’s a lovely moment where Kinsella sets her a challenge to run to the post box and back, timing her on each run and it becomes a fun game, a motif that returns later on.

This is a powerful novella with beautifully written, complex characters, which is firmly rooted in rural Ireland. I thought Claire Keegan captured very effectively the feeling of confusion young children have in the adult world and the language she uses to tell the story reflects that so well.

A sad and poignant story that’s masterfully constructed, and one I’ll be thinking about for a while. I’m also intrigued to find out if the recent film version is a good adaptation. 

I read this for Novellas in November #NovNov hosted by Rebecca of Bookishbeck and Cathy of 746Books.