Small Things Like These

I saw Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan recommended on some kind of list and so got it from the library. The book description says, "It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church."

This was kind of a weird read for me because I wasn't sure where it was going and then it was suddenly done. I maybe should have read up on the book more so I was more prepped for what to expect because it is an award-winning and super cherished book. I am clearly missing the boat haha. But I did like a couple of the quotes at the end: "He found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?" and "Already he could feel a world of trouble waiting for him behind the next door, but the worst that could have happened was also already behind him; the thing not done, which could have been -- which he would have had to live with for the rest of his life." I really liked the ending and the message. I saw in a review on Amazon that someone described it as being similar to The Christmas Carol, a meaningful story to read each Christmas. I think I maybe would have moved this to "liked" if I had gone into it seeing it like that rather than reading it more like a typical novel.

Rating: * (1/3 = It was okay)