Archive for Foster

Foster, by Claire Keegan

Posted in Literature with tags , on June 23, 2025 by telescoper

I can’t believe that it’s three months since I splashed out on six books in an attempt to restart my reading habit. Anyway, I took the opportunity of the by train trip down to Cork to read Claire Keegan’s novella Foster, as it was this work that inspired the beautiful Irish language film An Cailín Ciúin which I blogged about here. It’s a very short book, only 88 pages, but is an absolute gem. Keegan’s prose is spare but beautifully crafted and manages to convey great emotional depth largely by what is not said. For once the gushing praise not only on the jacket but also in the few pages of preamble is fully justified. I must read more by Claire Keegan. If there’s anything even more remarkable than the book, it’s how perfectly the film captures its essence.

There’s a line in the book that I remember well from the film

Many’s the man lost much because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing.

Ain’t that the truth.

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In the Good Books

Posted in Biographical, Literature with tags , , , , on March 25, 2025 by telescoper

It seems like eternity since I was on sabbatical and had enough time to get stuck in to some reading not related to work. Since I got back from Barcelona last September I’ve lapsed and haven’t read many books since then. I keep reading reviews in the Times Literary Supplement but that’s as close as I generally get.

It’s been in my mind for a while to rejuvenate my interest in literature but last week I had two specific triggers. One was the news that Amazon has opened a dedicated website in Ireland. I view that as a trigger not in a positive way but because it will make life even harder for our excellent local bookshop in Maynooth so I felt I should do more to support them. The other trigger was that the Irish Times published a list of the “best” 100 Irish novels of the 21st Century. When I saw I had only read a few of them, and feel I should read more contemporary literary fiction emanating from Ireland, I decided I should use the list as a guide to help me get back into a reading habit. Anyway, I went to the bookshop last week and bought these six to start with:

These aren’t the top six, by the way. They’re just the ones that caught my fancy while I was browsing in the store.

I’m going to start with Claire Keegan’s novella Foster, as it was this work that inspired the beautiful Irish language film An Cailín Ciúin which I blogged about here. It’s quite short, so it should provide me with a relatively gentle re-introduction to reading. I have’t decided in what sequence I will read the others. It remains to be seen when I can get another six let alone how long it will take for me to read all the books on the list!

Any comments on these books, or indeed any others either on the top 100 list or not would be welcome!

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