There is a part of me that was fighting liking Claire Keegan’s So Late in the Day. I already had a beef with her because her books are all hardcover, thin, and overpriced, making them all but inaccessible to many people. Perhaps this is more a beef with her publisher. But then the issues deepened when I read Small Things Like These and was astounded that not only was that a paperback book masquerading as a hardcover book, it was a short story masquerading as a novel. (See review link if you want my arguments.) But Keegan is an Irish writer, and I kind of have a thing for Irish writers (I mean, what self-respecting reader doesn’t?), so when Late was offered to me as a free audio file (for a review and, well, my respect as a bookseller, I guess), I went ahead and pushed play.

I was pleasantly surprised against my will.

It didn’t really start that way, though. The first of the three short stories that make up this collection of “Stories of Women and Men” starts slow. It felt very Korean, even, with the whole dysthymic workplace thing going on. I wasn’t that interested, but it’s not like I was on the hook for a whole lot of my life: the audio reader told me I had less than two hours to begin with—even less now. By the end of the first story, I was vaguely impressed. Impressed that Keegan had taken me somewhere interesting eventually. Impressed by her use of language, of course, which you can read other reviewers extol in many other reviews (as being beautiful, sparse, and picturesque). But I wondered how many stars I would give the thing.

Then the second and third stories slipped by, and I felt myself growing more and more amused and chagrined by how brilliantly everything worked together. Because, quite frankly, that fifth star in my rating is all about the interplay between these stories. Which is a little funny because they were originally published in three different places. The brilliance, then, is in putting them together and arranging them in the order they are in. Sure, there’s plenty to be said for, say, the religious symbolism in “Antarctica,” but it’s when the themes and even characters start speaking to one another in the tryptic that things get amazing. In fact, while listening, I assumed the three stories had been written together and even wondered if the unnamed characters in the latter stories were Sabine and then Cathal from the first story (“So Late in the Day”)—if not literally, then in a more spiritual way. I still wonder if that’s what the author or whoever put these together was going for, even though I haven’t seen others talking about it in reviews.

Usually, short story collections or other anthologies don’t blow me away with the way they work together, but this one really did (like Olive Kitteridge, I suppose, but that’s another can of worms). I was thinking back and forth between the stories as Keegan looped back on themes, on moods, and most importantly, a threat of violence that grew from page one and grew (in “The Long and Painful Death”) and grew until the end of story three. I was having a nerdy blast watching it all develop and sing together.

So, yeah, I loved it. I really respect it. I can’t imagine these three stories being separated again for any reason whatsoever. There’s just too much to enjoy, think about, and discuss in tandem and in this specific order.

Note that it is still hardcover, and still something like $21 for three short stories, so sigh.

Also note that these stories aren’t cheery. Nothing romantic about it (as in the romance genre sense). There’s some disappointment, lethargy, some in-the-darkness as well as darkness. Misogyny is the word of the day. Is there any hope for humanity? I mean, Keegan’s Irish, isn’t she? So not so much.

But there’s so much hope for Irish storytelling.