Family | Book Chatter

Small Things Like These
By Claire Keegan
Grove Press, #9780802158741, November 2021, 128 pp.

The Short of It:

Brief, but powerful.

The Rest of It:

“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.” ~ the publisher

This is a fictional account of an actual event in history when fallen young girls were set to convents in Ireland. Disguised as a home for girls, it was actually a cruel, abusive place called a Magdalen laundry. These women often lost their babies. The numbers of children lost, in the thousands.

In this story, Bill delivers coal to the convent and discovers a young girl, locked away. She begs for help. He’s not sure how to respond and can’t under watchful eyes. So he returns home, to his wife and five daughters as they prepare for the Christmas holiday.

There’s cake making. Gift wrapping, the merry sounds of a happy family but Bill cannot forget that young girl at the convent. He mentions it to his wife Eileen and she reminds him that the convent is very good to them. They pay on time and often include a Christmas bonus, which they did. She tells him to forget the incident. That everyone knows what goes on there but that it’s none of their business.

This doesn’t sit well with Bill. His mind keeps going back to that young girl, her name is Sarah and as he gazes upon his own girls, he is unwilling to let it go.

This is a marvelous read. Short. Very short. I had no idea how short it was when I was looking for a book to read on Hoopla. A mere 128 pages but each page is so rich with detail. There are no extra words here. Every word bears weight. The heavy story line against the joys of Christmas is a stark juxtaposition but it works so well here. As brief as it is, it would be a good discussion book for a club.

Recommend. It was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

How the Light Gets In
By Joyce Maynard
William Morrow, 9780062398307. June 2025, 432 pp.

The Short of It:

Wow, wow, wow.

The Rest of It:

Following the death of her former husband, Cam, fifty-four-year-old Eleanor has moved back to the New Hampshire farm where they raised three children to care for their brain-injured son, Toby, now an adult. Toby’s older brother, Al, is married and living in Seattle with his wife; their sister, Ursula, lives in Vermont with her husband and two children. Although all appears stable, old resentments, anger, and bitterness simmer just beneath the surface. ~ Indiebound

How the Light Gets In is the follow-up to Maynard’s much loved Count the Ways. The family has grown, there are new losses to navigate. Eleanor is still Eleanor but still struggling with motherhood and marriage and what tragedy can do to a family.

In this story, it’s presented early on that Eleanor’s son Toby suffers a brain injury. Although Toby suffers in some ways, he thrives in others. He’s the most caring, loving individual and quite the qualified goat farmer. Eleanor is of course, very protective of him and that drives how she interacts with nearly everyone he meets.

This is a layered, family drama that spans the pandemic years and those very difficult election years so it is heavy in places. Maynard touches on sexual identity, infidelity, drug and alcohol use, the prevalence of school shootings, and political unrest. I feel that Maynard did her best to pack everything into this book, and by the time you turn that last page you will have been through it. It’s heavy and weighty.

There are some beautiful, quiet moments though. I think that is what most of us come to expect from Maynard and she does not disappoint.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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