Walk the Blue Fields

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Reading these stories is like coming upon work by Ann Beattie or Raymond Carver at the start of their careers.”— Los Angeles Times Book Review These stories are pure magic. They add, using grace, intelligence and an extraordinary ear for rhythm, to the distinguished tradition of the Irish short story. They deal with Ireland now, but have a sort of timeless edge to them, making Claire Keegan both an original and a canonical presence in Irish fiction.”— Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn Praise for Antarctica:

He led her across the floorboards same as a cat’s tongue moves along a saucer of cream.’ - from ’The Forester’s Daughter Our narrator receives a phone call early the next morning, a visitor wishing to present himself - he's actually outside the cottage. Our un-named narrator puts him off until 8 p.m., and what follows are the small preparations and the ways in which she occupies the free time of her first day. But it is beautifully done. I think Keegan with-holds the woman's name, because it then becomes so easy for the reader to slip herself into the story. A small extract: The austere style and measured pacing of “Foster” is perfect… [A] matchless novella.”— Wall Street Journal In stories brimming with Gothic shadows and ancient hurts, Claire Keegan tells of “a rural world of silent men and wild women who, for the most part, make bad marriages, and vivid, uncomprehending children” (Anne Enright, The Guardian). In the never-before-published story “The Long and Painful Death,” a writer awarded a stay to work in Heinrich Böll’s old cottage has her peace interrupted by an unwelcome intruder, whose ulterior motives only emerge as the night progresses. In the title story, a priest waits at the altar to perform a marriage and, during the ceremony and the festivities that follow, battles his memories of a love affair with the bride that led him to question all to which he has dedicated his life; later that night, he finds an unlikely answer in the magical healing powers of a seer.

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A] stunning second collection . . . Keegan’s stories are the literary counterparts to Picasso’s Blue Period paintings. . . . Keegan’s first collection, Antarctica, led to comparisons with Raymond Carver, but Annie Proulx, with her distilled, poetic prose and attunement to remote landscapes, is a closer match.”— San Francisco Chronicle The best collection of short stories by any Irish writer in recent years. These are strange, haunting, sometimes funny tales, utterly unique in their way of seeing life. I can’t remember the last time I felt such awe when reading the work of a new writer.” – The Week Women’s minds were made of glass: so clear and yet their thoughts broke easily, yielding to other glassy thoughts that were even harder. It was enough to attract a man and frighten him all at once. from - Surrender (after McGahern)

Men and women in the stories seem incapable of overcoming the gaping void of miscommunication derived from a stifling home-life tradition and appear either as eccentric and damaged or domineering and abusive. The Long and Painful Death is an amusing tale of a writer working at a fancy writing retreat in rural Ireland where she meets a local irate snob. The Parting Gift is a moving story of a young girl leaving behind an abusive childhood and escaping to a new, hopefully better, life.A collection of seven stories exploring themes of families, emotions, secrets, memories - not all of them welcome ones, and love that is taboo, morally, religiously as well as legally. Powerful . . . The two foremost contemporary masters of the [short story] form, Alistair MacLeod and John McGahern, know that tradition can live even in the lament for its passing . . . Claire Keegan is their true successor, a writer already touched by greatness.” –Declan Kiberd, The Irish Times Perfect short stories . . . flawless structure . . . What makes this collection a particular joy is the run and pleasure of the language.”— Anne Enright, The Guardian Because a great short story IS like the roar of wind and waves in our ears, the sting of salt on our eyes and lips. It tumbles us into an unknown world, propelling us towards the edge of new possibilities, towards new ways of seeing. I think you'd rather have to be Irish, preferably rural Irish, to really get everything there is to get out of the 8 stories in this collection, however.

Balancing Keegan’s delicate, sparing prose and masterful ear for dialogue with a tale that is almost overwhelming in its tenderness, Foster is a heart-wrenching treasure of a book that only serves to confirm Keegan’s place as one of contemporary Irish literature’s leading lights.”— Vogue, The Best Books to Read this Fall Praise for Small Things Like These:

The plot in these stories unfolds in the interactions between the characters: words, silence, gestures. Keegan writes a clear prose and adopts narrative styles that convey the intended moods. The Parting Gift is told from a second person perspective. The narration is deliberately muted to distance the young woman from her toxic childhood. Symbolism is subtly employed to good effect, too. In Close to the Water’s Edge, a story in which the young man seeks meaning and authenticity, the sea is a symbol of freedom from the tyranny of life both for him and his grandmother. At the restaurant are a chained parrot and a bound lobster. In her debut collection, Keegan transcends well-worn themes of adultery and family discord, fashioning resonant stories with fairy-tale simplicity.”— Newsweek The consistent theme weaving through these stories is that of a past that haunts the characters and is their ball and chain into the present and future. The stories revolve around familiar Irish subjects: shamed priests, writers, quirky women condemned as whores, and bored and destitute farmers.

I know that road, that cliff, that island, from childhood holidays, so it was with a little racing of the heart, a little skip, a little hop over the edge into a well of forgotten memories that I read the first story in this collection. Keegan is so good at conjuring place that I was there on the edge of the cliff, peering over the rim of the world alongside the woman watcher, feeling the wind whip my eyes and the salt burn my lips while the waves filled my ears with their tremendous sound. Achill really is such a wild outcrop. Anything can happen there, and ideas for great short stories are no exception. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-01-10 14:07:58 Boxid IA1755605 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier On her wedding night she felt springs coming up like mortal sins through the mattress.’ - from ’The Forester’s Daughter The best stories here are so textured and moving, so universal but utterly distinctive, that it’s easy to imagine readers savoring them many years from now.”— New York Times Book ReviewThere are tears there but she is too proud to blink and let one fall. If she blinked, he would take her hand and take her away from this place. This, at least, is what he tells himself. It's what she once wanted but two people hardly ever want the same thing at any given point in life. It is sometimes the hardest part of being human." The first two tales in this collection are among the finest short fiction I have read in several years, which includes the new tales in John McGahern’s posthumous New and Selected Stories. That’s how good Keegan can be. The remarkable title tale follows a priest on the day of a wedding . . . “Parting Gift,” which opens the book, is a gem of compactness. . . . Its centre of gravity resonates with such force that the story could easily stretch to a novel.” –Tom Adair, The Scotsman There’s pleasure to be had in history. What’s recent is another matter and painful to recall.’ - from ’Walk the Blue Fields Walk the Blue Fields, the collection by young Irish writer Claire Keegan, was my first encounter with her work. I hope it won’t be the last. In story after story, Ms. Keegan works in a striking Celtic-slanted prose, bringing news of life in the Irish countryside and exposing hearts and hopes and dreams of a number of troubled country contemporaries.” –Alan Cheuse, The Dallas Morning News