Antarctica

Love love loved all the stories set in Ireland. Her turn of phrase is exquisite. Some of the American ones weren’t as strong IMO. My favs were Antartica, Sisters, The Ginger Rogers Sermon and Love in the Tall Grass.

An Irish woman who as at some point spent her time in the American south is a treasure trove of brutal and beautiful writing

3.5 - If anyone could've made me a fan of short story collections, I would've thought it would be the master herself. I enjoyed some of these stories, but overall I did not enjoy my reading experience. It took me nearly 20 days to read such a short book, which is very unusual for me. Again, it's not bad and they're beautifully written, but perhaps my standards were too high being such a big fan of the other stories I've read from her.

Uhyre skarpe noveller, og av beste merke. Irske og kreolske landskap, hverdagsmennesker på kanten av normalen, øyeblikk som setter seg fast - viser hvorfor noveller er den mest spennende sjangeren.
Keegan er ekspert på å si minst mulig så flatt som mulig, og likevel skape en stemning som er sitrende.

Til opplysning så er filmen “The Quiet Girl” et resultat av en av hennes andre korte tekster, Foster. Keegan skal jeg lese mer av.

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 been if they hadn't made the choice they made, and after a while, I had the impression that each story was the same. ‘‘Passport Soup'' was a welcome change, it was disturbing and dark.I gave three stars because some of the characters had potential and the three aforementioned stories were marvellously written, but if I wanted to be completely accurate, I would grant 2- 2.5. I am not a fan of family drama and melodrama in general, so I couldn't appreciate this. However, I intend to try my luck with [b:Walk the Blue Fields: Stories 2524702 Walk the Blue Fields Stories Claire Keegan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328822610s/2524702.jpg 1168396] and see how it goes. I hope I found the distinctive, haunting Irish writing that -for me, at least- was lacking here.