A review by balfies
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

A haunting novella about the Irish laundries and the women and girls incarcerated in them. Keegan recounts the mundane minutiae of Irish life in the 80s with precise verisimilitude, but this becomes quietly suffocating to our organisation Furlong as the moral injustices of the laundries consume him. I think this story is deceptively difficult to execute well, but Keegan is able to use a light hand and plain prose to communicate the palpable horror of everyday neglect.
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