Small Things Like These, and Foster by Claire Keegan

[Tricia]

I first heard about Claire Keegan when someone in the Library’s Virtual Book Group recommended her writing – thank you Ken! Having now read two of her novellas Small Things Like These and Foster, I absolutely second Ken’s recommendation. Small Things Like These is set in an economically struggling small town in Ireland in the mid-1980s. Bill Furlong sells coal in town to support his wife and five daughters. Having grown up in difficult circumstances, he is grateful for his life and his family, but his hard-won sense of stability is challenged when he encounters a badly treated girl from the nearby Magdalene laundry. This spare, quiet book touches on a painful chapter of history in a powerful yet hopeful way.

Foster tells the story of a young Irish girl from a very poor family who is sent to live with some unknown distant relatives while her mother has another child. Her family’s circumstances are dire, and the girl (we never learn her name) has been neglected. But with this new couple she experiences the kind of attention and kindness that had been unavailable to her before. Told from the girl’s perspective, it is a lyrical, bittersweet story of a brief but transformative summer.

These are short, beautifully written novellas that focus on people living difficult lives, but highlight the power of empathy. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Medusa’s Sisters by Lauren J.A. Bear

[Tricia]

I love novels based on Greek mythology, from Madeline Miller’s beautiful novels The Song of Achilles and Circe, to the awesome middle grade series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. But an inescapable aspect of the world of Greek mythology is its cruelty and brutality, particularly when it comes to women, and Lauren J.A. Bear’s debut novel, Medusa’s Sisters, puts this aspect front and center. All I knew of Medusa before reading this book was the monstrous gorgon with snakes for hair whose eyes turn humans into stone. I should have known that there was more to her story. The children of ancient deities, Medusa and her sisters Stheno and Euryale struggle to find their place in the world. Neither Olympian nor human, the sisters look human, so they attempt to create a life for themselves in the human world. Medusa the youngest (and only mortal) of the triplets is young, curious, and full of life. Euryale is artistic, competitive, and complicated, and Stheno, the oldest of the triplets, is musical, protective, and loyal. The three sisters are a closely connected unit, despite the usual sibling rivalry. But their attempts at living a “normal” life in the human world are repeatedly thwarted and marred by tragedy as they become pawns in power struggles, both between mortals and between Olympians. We know the inevitable ending in which the sisters are turned into gorgons by Athena, and Medusa is killed by Perseus, but seeing how and why all of this comes to pass is both fascinating and painful. This is a story of sisterhood, survival, hope, and brutality that underscores the importance of who gets to tell your story. A lyrical, powerful, and sometimes brutal reclamation of the story of the gorgons.