Name: love, kinanti's review of So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
Item: So Late in the Day
Rating: 5
Author: love, kinanti

Claire Keegan

From Booker Prize Finalist and bestselling author of "pitch perfect" (Boston Globe) Small Things Like These, comes a tryptic of stories about love, lust, betrayal, misogyny, and the ever-intriguing interchanges between women and men. Celebrated for her powerful short fiction, considered "among the form's most masterful practitioners" (New York Times), Claire Keegan now gifts us three exquisite stories, newly revised and expanded, together forming a brilliant examination of gender dynamics and an arc from Keegan's earliest to her most recent work. In "So Late in the Day," Cathal faces a long weekend as his mind agitates over a woman with whom he could have spent his life, had he behaved differently; in "The Long and Painful Death," a writer's arrival at the seaside home of Heinrich Böll for a residency is disrupted by an academic who imposes his presence and opinions; and in "Antarctica," a married woman travels out of town to see what it's like to sleep with another man and ends up in the grip of a possessive stranger. Each story probes the dynamics that corrupt what could be between women and men: a lack of generosity, the weight of expectation, the looming threat of violence. Potent, charged, and breathtakingly insightful, these three essential tales will linger with readers long after the book is closed.

Stories of Women and Men

So Late in the Day

Ritik Sahni

"... the fact that she would not listen and wanted to do a good half of things her own way."

"Things may now be changing, but that a good half of men your age just want us to shut up and give you what you want, that you're spoiled and turn contemptible when things don't go your way."

"That was the problem with women falling out love; the veil of romance fell away from their eyes, and they looked in and could read you."

"... didn't they say that a woman in love burned your dinner and that when she no longer cared, she served it up half-raw?"

"...if things have not ended badly, that they have not ended." "...so late in the day, that she'd changed her mind and had no wish to marry him after all."

"She felt she could sit for days, reading and working, seeing no one."

"She did not like stopping, once she had started."

"There was earth and fire and water on these pages: there was a man and a woman and human loneliness, disappointment."

"She was preparing for his long and painful death."

"Every time the happily married women went away, she wondered how it would feel to sleep with another man."

"She had left a dish of macaroni and cheese out for the kids, brought her husband's suits back from the drawers.”

"She thought of Antarctica. The snow, and ice, and the bodies of dead explorers. Then she thought of hell, and then eternity."

MIND-BLOWN, especially for the last chapter: antarctica. by the time i wrote this review and possibly next months, i'll be forever haunted by the ending. oh i wish this book is translated into my native language so all the patriarchy, misogynistic, chiset men could read this, like at least i could give this book as the gift to make them educated. i always love short-stories-compiled-in-one book, cause i'll be able to read stories with different plots but still connecting with the topic that have to be brought in. like i said, this book is bringing the topic about how cruel this world can be for women when they've met a bunch of patriarchy and full misogynistic and have chiset-mind-type of men. after i read this, it makes me even more scared of men than the ghost or devil. at this point, devils feel offended if they're apple to apple to those kind of men. and somehow, men are just dumb. i really love this book. i can't write a review that much cause it will spoil a lot, but i genuinely will recommend this book to everyone for their first read experience, cause this book is less than 200 pages, can be read in one sitting, and also cause this book is a compile of short stories, i guarantee they will never get bored. ⭐️ 5 out of 5 stars for so late in the day!

love, kinanti

Chapter 1: So Late in the Day

"... the fact that she would not listen and wanted to do a good half of things her own way."

"Things may now be changing, but that a good half of men your age just want us to shut up and give you what you want, that you're spoiled and turn contemptible when things don't go your way."

"That was the problem with women falling out love; the veil of romance fell away from their eyes, and they looked in and could read you."

"... didn't they say that a woman in love burned your dinner and that when she no longer cared, she served it up half-raw?"

"...if things have not ended badly, that they have not ended." "...so late in the day, that she'd changed her mind and had no wish to marry him after all."

 

Chapter 2: The Long and Painful Death

"She felt she could sit for days, reading and working, seeing no one."

"She did not like stopping, once she had started."

"Everything takes too much time."

"There was earth and fire and water on these pages: there was a man and a woman and human loneliness, disappointment."

"She was preparing for his long and painful death."

 

Chapter 3: Antarctica

"Every time the happily married women went away, she wondered how it would feel to sleep with another man."

"She had left a dish of macaroni and cheese out for the kids, brought her husband's suits back from the drawers.”

"She thought of Antarctica. The snow, and ice, and the bodies of dead explorers. Then she thought of hell, and then eternity."

 

MIND-BLOWN, especially for the last chapter: antarctica. by the time i wrote this review and possibly next months, i'll be forever haunted by the ending. oh i wish this book is translated into my native language so all the patriarchy, misogynistic, chiset men could read this, like at least i could give this book as the gift to make them educated. i always love short-stories-compiled-in-one book, cause i'll be able to read stories with different plots but still connecting with the topic that have to be brought in. like i said, this book is bringing the topic about how cruel this world can be for women when they've met a bunch of patriarchy and full misogynistic and have chiset-mind-type of men. after i read this, it makes me even more scared of men than the ghost or devil. at this point, devils feel offended if they're apple to apple to those kind of men. and somehow, men are just dumb. i really love this book. i can't write a review that much cause it will spoil a lot, but i genuinely will recommend this book to everyone for their first read experience, cause this book is less than 200 pages, can be read in one sitting, and also cause this book is a compile of short stories, i guarantee they will never get bored. ⭐️ 5 out of 5 stars for so late in the day!

Jan 5th edit - I want to put a little bit more thought into my review since previously I did it coming off of an airplane dead tired.

I enjoyed this book, I do think the first story carried it though. I thought it did a wonderful job showing misogyny isn't just someone spouting they hate women. It's in their actions, their lack of thought, their inability to give, and their objectification of what makes someone a person.

The second story wasn't as interesting to me, but I do think its interesting it inspired creativity. I also relate to the woman doing every other thing on planet earth before doing the one thing they need to sit down and do.

The last story took a really dark turn which was eluded too the whole time. It showed the other side of the coin of woman's apathy and how that can be dangerous too. There were glaring red flags the entire time this woman was in danger but she didn't seem to heed them. She even made comments about how she didn't care about the man she was seeing despite him caring deeply about her (in his creepy way). Lonlieness caused both of these two strangers to meet, and in the end they still end up alone. The woman trapped, the man because he is forcing this woman to stay by him.

I was torn between 3-4 stars, but rounded up to 4 since I did like the deeper meaning of the first and third story. Maybe I just don't understand the second one as much. I do think I prefered Small Things like These by Keegan.

Ashley Denktas

Jan 5th edit - I want to put a little bit more thought into my review since previously I did it coming off of an airplane dead tired.

I enjoyed this book, I do think the first story carried it though. I thought it did a wonderful job showing misogyny isn't just someone spouting they hate women. It's in their actions, their lack of thought, their inability to give, and their objectification of what makes someone a person.

The second story wasn't as interesting to me, but I do think its interesting it inspired creativity. I also relate to the woman doing every other thing on planet earth before doing the one thing they need to sit down and do.

The last story took a really dark turn which was eluded too the whole time. It showed the other side of the coin of woman's apathy and how that can be dangerous too. There were glaring red flags the entire time this woman was in danger but she didn't seem to heed them. She even made comments about how she didn't care about the man she was seeing despite him caring deeply about her (in his creepy way). Lonlieness caused both of these two strangers to meet, and in the end they still end up alone. The woman trapped, the man because he is forcing this woman to stay by him.


I was torn between 3-4 stars, but rounded up to 4 since I did like the deeper meaning of the first and third story. Maybe I just don't understand the second one as much. I do think I prefered Small Things like These by Keegan.

Grace McCarter

Mat Connor

Claire Keegan reminds me of Alice Munro in that she writes short stories and novellas that feel more complete than most novels. Foster and Small Things Like These are books I unreservedly recommend to anyone who reads (or breathes).

So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men is still a great showcase of her talents, but not where I would start. The three stories collected here share the themes of misogyny and the difficulty men and woman sometimes have in communicating with each other. 

So Late in the Day begins by introducing us to Cathal at his workplace on a beautiful July afternoon. Everyone around Cathal is excited about the upcoming long weekend, but he’s miserable. Cathal almost seems to resent the nice weather. He’s the ultimate glass half-empty coworker. He struggles to get through his workday, ignoring his boss’ recommendation to take off a little early. He gets home, makes a shitty frozen dinner, feeds his cat, and watches bad TV. We get flashbacks to a time in his life where there was the possibility of happiness. The special meaning of this long weekend—the real reason he’s in such a foul mood—is slowly revealed to us. 

This is the newest story collected here, first published in 2022, and the only story told through the perspective of a man. It’s a testament to her skill that Keegan can make us feel sympathy for this miserable character, while still holding him accountable for his bad behavior and efforts to sabotage his own chance at love and happiness.

The Long and Painful Death was my favorite story in the collection. A writer is staying at a writer’s retreat on the Irish coast, the former home of the German Nobel laureate Heinrich Böll. This writer is thrilled to have a relaxing place to work, read, and relax. Unfortunately, a rude, old German academic interrupts her Zen environment to ask for a house tour.

I found this story funny. Keegan plays a fun trick on the reader. She shows a writer, excited to finally focus on her writing, who seems to spend all her time doing everything but writing, to the point where you almost start to judge her for not using her opportunity more wisely. I was starting to wonder if we are supposed to judge her, but it’s literary entrapment because as soon as that German professor makes a rude comment we realize how unfair it is to judge her. The writer gets her revenge on the professor in a fun way.

Antartica is the oldest story here, first published in 1999, and my least favourite. A married woman is a little bored with her life and makes the decision to have an affair with a random man. She feels that she needs to do something dangerous and taboo before she gets too old. She meets a man in a pub who seems harmless. He lives in a dingy apartment with his cat. They start an affair and everything seems fun until it goes dangerously bad. 

I think I may need to give this one another read. I’m not a fan of short stories that end with a sudden dark twist ending. It’s a trope that a lot of short story writers seem to rely on when they don’t know how to end their story. To be fair, this story was published 25 years ago and Keegan tackles her themes with more complexity now. I question putting this story last though. There is also a degree of “Be careful what you ask for” that I find a little lame, but I might need to give this one another read.

Important Warning for Men and Cats

 During Antarctica, I noticed that the terrible male characters in the collection all live alone with a cat. Claire Keegan is not an author who includes unnecessary details in her work, so I took note. I was reading this on my back deck when I looked over my shoulder and saw this.



I started chuckling when I then turned the page a couple minutes later and read this paragraph:

“The cat jumped on the bed and startled her.

“Jesus Christ!” she said. There was something creepy about this cat.”

That was the confirmation I needed that Claire Keegan has an agenda against men with cats. I started feeling a bit self conscious and wanted to explain to her that my cat was basically forced on me by my sister. She was one of 12 kittens born in a horse barn that needed a home. There’s nothing weird about that. I’m more of a dog person but I’ve become very fond of my cat.

I heard some rumblings below me and looked down to see this:



Jesus Christ, now my cat was being creepy just like the cat in the freaking story! She was trying to get my attention so that I would go back in, feed her, and turn on some bad TV. I felt like a male character in a Claire Keegan short story, waiting for her to masterfully catalogue all my flaws in 20 pages or less.

Ritik Sahni &
So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan

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Ritik Sahni &So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan

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So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan