So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
(Realistically, a 4.5)
"So Late in the Day"
This story gracefully touched on the gendered dynamics of heteronormative dating scripts, delving into the everyday encounters of subtle and overt misogyny that women face. In this story, a man comes face-to-face with a woman who is too good for him. She respects herself and knows when to back down and step away. No placating herself for him, no "I can fix him," or putting up with disrespectful behavior. The main character comes so close to realizing how gendered violence (e.g., in the form of emotional harm) has perpetuated his upbringing and reinforced the way he and other men operate in society. Yet, he refuses to dwell on that realization and curbs his growth as an individual. Keegan did a great job jumping into this character's life in media res, making the reader empathize with him. Her writing spun this character out meticulously, baring these flaws openly, but approaching them slowly and allowing it to build up.
"The Long and Painful Death"
A writer is staying in Böll's house for two weeks, and the start of her prolonged stay is punctuated by her 39th birthday. Her initial days, wherein she's settling into the space, are interrupted by a retired German professor of literature who maintains that he was permitted to see inside the house, even though she already occupies the residency. He insists that he can see the inside; the main character placates him by convincing him to come later in the day instead of outright refusing him. Arriving uninvited, unannounced, and full of opinions, the main character is left to defend her character and her actions against this professor who decided to "educate her," admonishing her kindness towards him, insisting that she has wasted time when other writer, more "worthy" writers would willingly take her place and take the opportunity seriously. Keegan seamlessly worked the underlying anger towards successful women into this male character, and the main character's response, while compressed and to the point, doesn't leave anything to be desired. The reader is thrust into this scenario where a jealous man condemns a successful female writer. I enjoyed the professionalism of the main character, who turned her anger into something tangible, creating from it rather than destroying or bringing down others.
"Antarctica"
As always, I enjoyed Keegan's writing. While it was encapsulating, the plot was incredibly predictable. I appreciated the religious commentary sprinkled in throughout the conversations between the main character and the man she was with, but it felt a bit overstated by the final paragraph. Without the explicit statement, I picked up what Keegan was putting down and returned to previous themes. This opinion notwithstanding, the author provided a very real commentary on the experiences of so many women with acts of gender-based violence. My only issue is the risk of stories like these with the normalization of sexual violence and gender-based violence; without proper commentary, we risk reducing female characters to nothing more than background decoration. While this woman's experience was the primary focus of the short story, the readers are left with little to take away from the ending and the plot.
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