#BookReview of So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan

** An Irish Times Book of the Year **

[ About So Late in the Day ]

After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the bus home. There, his mind agitates over a woman named Sabine with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently. All evening, with only the television and a bottle of champagne for company, thoughts of this woman and others intrude — and the true significance of this particular date is revealed.

From one of the finest writers working today, Keegan’s new story asks if a lack of generosity might ruin what could be between men and women.

[ My Review ]

So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan published with Faber & Faber August 31st and is described as ‘an exquisite new short story from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Small Things Like These and Foster.‘ Back in September I ordered a copy from my local library and was delighted to receive a message last week that it was available for me to collect. I have previously enjoyed Claire Keegan’s writing via Foster and Small Things Like These and I loved An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl), the movie adaptation of Foster. I knew from the general global acclaim that it had gathered, that, although succinct, So Late in the Day would be another treat of a read. Claire Keegan’s use of language and her ability to hone in on a scene with minimal descriptions is what makes her work so extraordinary.

So Late in the Day introduces us to Cathal. It’s a warm Friday afternoon in Dublin and Cathal is at his desk in an office overlooking Merrion Square. The minutes drag on and Cathal is clearly struggling to stay focused until home-time at 5pm. His boss suggests he finish up early but Cathal dismisses the offer and ploughs on. After work he gets the Arklow bus back home for a weekend of solitude, with only his thoughts of what could have been to keep him company.

With economical prose, Claire Keegan wonderfully portrays Cathal and the situation he finds himself in. It is a story of a man and a woman, and how they both view the world very differently. It’s a study in how our upbringing impacts our development and growth, in more than just the physical way. As Cathal reflects on what might have been, over a TV dinner and a bottle of champagne, his true character is slowly revealed.

So Late in the Day is an understated and very effective short story about domesticity and the relationship between men and women. It has been published by Grove Press in the US, November 14th, as part of a collection entitled So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men, where it is described as a ‘triptych of stories about love, lust, betrayal, and the ever-intriguing interchanges between women and men’. I am curious as to why it wasn’t published in this neck of the woods in a similar format. As a standalone, at just over forty pages, it is a very slim book indeed!!

Cutting prose and excellently observed So Late in the Day is an insightful tale, a thought-provoking short story highlighting misogynistic and ignorant behaviour in the everyday.

[ Bio ]

Claire Keegan’s stories are translated into more than thirty-five languages. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. 

Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize for the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. Foster won the Davy Byrnes Award and in 2020 was chosen by The Times as one of the top fifty works of fiction to be published in the twenty-first century. 

Small Things Like These was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize, awarded for the best work of literature, regardless of form, to be published in the English language. It won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, the Ambassadors’ Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.