I had loved Keegan’s first two books, “Foster” and “Small Things Like These” and looked forward with great anticipation to reading this one only to be very disappointed.

There are three short stories in this slim volume and all of them are downers.  We spend a day with Cathal, a CPA who was evidently left at the altar by Nora, his fiance, when she decides that marrying him would be a mistake.  Then we meet an unnamed 39 year old woman writer who has been awarded a two week stay at Heinrich Boll’s house on Achill Island off the west coast of Ireland. Her encounter with a German visitor results in a tense and angry separation and disruption in her writing.  Finally, and most unsettling is the tale of the woman, a wife and mother of two who goes off to ‘the city’ to find a man to sleep with.  Bad decision which results in a Stephen King like ending.

None of these stories were uplifting or enlightening, and though Keegan’s fine writing showed through, that wasn’t nearly enough for me.  The blurbs on this book’s cover should have ensured a great read—George Saunders wrote that “Claire Keegan is one of the greatest fiction writers in the world” and Dennis Lehane crowed that “Claire Keegan is my favorite writer in the English language”.  Great praise from two writers whose work I value, but it didn’t work for me.  Maybe it will for you.