Small Things Like These

Claire Keegan

2020

December, 2024

4/10

The third-person melancholic writing didn’t work very well for me, but I at least appreciate tone and mood, especially the questioning of things. It just felt forced/out of place at times.

Many moments were better subtly expressed such as the implications of poverty in quotes like this:

When he went in and asked Mrs Stamford if she had a jigsaw of a farm in five hundred pieces, she said the only jigsaws they kept now were for children, that there was little demand for the more difficult ones anymore.

As well as the girl wearing her school uniform which seemed to go unnoticed as for the reason. All the subtleties were well-placed and expressed.

The ending was a good conclusion that left me with the proper feeling. However, I wouldn't call the book memorable or impactful. Maybe it was too short.