#fiction 2022; ISBN: 9780571368709
This is an astonishing book that strokes me with only more than 50 pages.
Last century, Ireland. Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant as well as a father of five girls, is struggling with repetitive boring life and recalling his memories of boyhood. Having discovered the secret of Magdalen laundries, Furlong eventually helps a little girl escape from the laundry despite the opposite attitude of his wife and many unpredictable troubles waiting for him.
Above all, the empathy for ordinary people (infants, girls, and women) suffering in Magdalen laundries throughout the book is deeply moving. The authentic historical context reinforces the power of both this book and the hero in it. While being a hero saving the little girl, Furlong is first an ordinary person fighting with domestic trivia and getting lost in his rich perception and thoughts. With the gift of compassion, he finally chooses a path that is destined to be difficult but more than meaningful, at the same time, he finds out “the best part of him” as well as his own way to approach real happiness.
Small Things Like These is a carefully selected title. “Small things” are the warm details that Furlong and his wife do for their daughters day by day, and also the kindnesses Mrs Wilson taught Furlong when he was young. Therefore, these small things accumulate and inherit – “In an earlier time, it could have been his own mother he was saving”. There is a contrast between those daily small things and how much impact they can make, whereby this book achieves its success in a grander sense – to encourage people to observe, remember, and convey small kindnesses.
Finally, the language of this book is very concise, and beautiful as well. Keegan demonstrates her masterful skills of using detail as well as environment description to set off the atmosphere and imply the plot. In the meanwhile, she adopts many metaphors of nature, such as a river in the darkness, to vividly present the psychology of the character. She freely transforms objective and subjective narration which includes Furlong’s seeing, feeling, recalling, and in-depth philosophical thinking.
I was really excited by the last chapter which shows how Keegan deepens the motif, completes the story with an open ending, and also reveals how indifferent other people are when Furlong takes the little girl home. This book is thus more than historical fiction and has significance in the social dimension. It is worth reading again and again.
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