When I woke up this morning, I could feel something sitting on my right shoulder and now it seems as if there’s a furry paw beginning to curl around my neck. I know I have little time. I know that I have to choke this thing before it chokes me..So here goes: if I’ve learned anything from Claire Keegan, it’s to avoid messing around and to get straight to the point. Why waste time setting up scenarios, explaining the background. You just have to grab the reader from the first line, get those heart...

This collection of short stories is excellent. She is such a wonderful writer. With each story, there is an ominous feeling- you just continue reading waiting to see what will unfold and yes there is an element of tragedy in each story. The only bad thing about short stories to me is that they are short- just as I get invested in the characters and their situations, the story ends. The stories in this collection are some of the best I've read.

Thank you to my lovely friend, Lindsey, for recommending this book. We were discussing independent and used bookstores and she suggested I borrow this book of short stories she found in a used bookstore she loves from her, and I'm very glad I did!Claire Keegan's stories are fascinating. A couple left me scratching my head, as I'm nowhere near as deep as I'd like to be, and so sometimes reading inbetween the lines is not my strong suit. However, I found the majority of her short stories about rur...

Some real crackers in here. I didn't love them all, but the ones I loved were stellar.

Each of these remarkable short stories by Irish writer Claire Keegan is a little polished gem—perfect and priceless.With a unifying theme of betrayal, the 15 stories are wide-ranging in their plots, characters, and settings. Here is just a sampling:• In the title story, "Antarctica," a happily married woman with children quite purposefully decides to sleep with a stranger just to find out what it's like, but she could never anticipate how it ends.• In "Storms," a little girl is forced to grow up...

3.5*Antarctica 4*Love in the Tall Grass 5*Sisters 4.5*The Burning Palms 5*Passport Soup 4*

Before starting this, I fully expected it to be a one-star-less read than Walk the Blue Fields; how could it be as good? These earlier stories are perhaps less complex than the later ones, but this collection contains two of my now-new favorites. I am in awe of Keegan's satisfying, even cathartic, endings.I came to this collection knowing she received her undergrad degree in New Orleans and wondering if her time here might've informed any of it. Evidenced by the handful of stories set in Louisia...

The only other thing I’d read by Keegan was her recent novella Small Things Like These. I found these stories curiously one-note, most often considering (young) women’s sexuality and the consequences. The way that adultery/promiscuity is always punished feels old-fashioned. The stand-out by a mile is the title story, in which a married woman takes a train into a city and seeks out an affair. Watching a documentary on Antarctica in her new paramour’s flat, she says, “I always thought Hell would b...

I don't have much to say about this short story collection. Critically aclaimed it may be, but it left me cold and indifferent. The first story, named''Antarctica'' and the story with the simple title ''Sisters'' were the best, written in a foreboding voice, full of mystery. Especially, ''Antarctica'' was on my mind for days. However, I found the writing to be repetitive and the themes of the stories tedious and too melodramatic and narrow. We have women who want to ''try'' how it would have bee...

Claire Keegan’s first collection of short stories might seem much simpler in style than her later works, but it holds all the elements that are found in her more developed later writings. I really enjoyed most of the stories , and even when I really didn’t get on with this or that story, I couldn’t help but marvel at the beauty of her writing. She has a simplicity that captures complexity. She’s a must read!

Two stars for most of the short stories. But because of the stories "Men And Women" and "Sisters" I'm going for 3 stars. I was a bit disappointed with this collection after having read the superb short stories "Foster" and "The Forester's Daughter".

I think the best stories are a circle; these go in a straight line. They’re good, just not the best. That said, I want to remember the title story, because wow.(Also: funny to come across Mississippi and Louisiana when everything else is across the pond.)

After reading one of Claire Keegan's short stories in The Best American Short Stories of 2011, I bought both of her published short story collections: Antarctica (published in 1999) and Walk the Blue Fields (published in 2007). The 1999 collection had several very good stories, including the title story, Antarctica; Men and Women; Love in the Tall Grass; Sisters; Passport Soup; and The Ginger Rogers Sermon. These are set in Ireland and have the charm of that location and a feeling of authenticit...

“She thought of Antarctica, the snow and ice and the bodies of dead explorers. Then she thought of hell, and then eternity.”In the heat of July and early August, I’m often drawn to stories set in frigid climates, believing they will help dull that sense of lethargy and invigorate the spirit a bit. I’ve read Jack London as well as White Darkness by David Grann in past summers. They did the trick rather splendidly. So when I saw this title by Claire Keegan, an author that seems to be well-liked by...

Many of Claire Keegan’s stories read almost like fables. Her characters include a happily married woman who “wondered what it would feel like to sleep with another man”, a pining woman who waits years for a romantic rendezvous with a married doctor and a crass, homophobic millionaire who strips the joy from his achieving stepson’s life.Put another way, her characters can seem emblematic, and that’s the good and the bad of it. There are at least two stories that could easily fit into a “Best of S...

Claire Keegan is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. Her short stories each present a world of people who are at risk, taking chances, living lives under pressure of real or imagined horror or stress. Occasionally there are moments of happiness amidst the sadness. Her people take full advantage of these moments, swallow them whole as if to live on them for a while.While I didn't rate this collection as high as Walk the Blue Fields: Stories, there are some stories here that I loved, part...

Read four of the stories, then gave up. Tales that go nowhere - no bottom line/denouement/"punchline". Compare these to the short stories of Roald Dahl, Somerset Maugham, or O.Henry, and you'll get my point. All the contemporary fiction I read, without exception, be it in English, German, French or Dutch, is long-winded, tedious and downright lacking in imagination. Is the heyday of Western storytelling over, or is this a languorous lull?

(Rooney Prize for Literature (Ireland - 2000.)I am totally hypnotized by this author's writing! She has been compared to many familiar authors. Her tales are magnetic, imaginative and pure. This was her first book of short stories and it quickly earned awards. The scope and variety of her characters and places encompass a broad, wonderful range.It would be difficult for me to choose a favorite among these remarkable stories. One which stands out for me is , Sisters , an account of two siblings...

I started with Foster then read Small Things by which time I was besotted with Claire Keegan's prose.Antarctica is her first set of published short stories and they're magical. They're not what I would call nice but they are not quite Shirley Jackson disturbing. She writes beautifully. When she describes a place or person or smell, you feel as if you are standing in the same room. I've only her second set of short stories to read now. After which I shall, no doubt, get withdrawal symptoms. Highl...

In this collection Keegan writes stories based in America. On two occasions she unnecessarily brings up race. In one story it is suggested that a black man might have raped a white woman. In another a dad dreams that his daughter disappeared and it is a black man who took her away. Why do this? Why use criminal black man trope when there is no story with a good black man? I take away two stars mostly for this reason. Plus the collection was a little boring compared to her "Walk the Blue Fields"