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Cecily's Reviews > Antarctica
Antarctica
by
by
Cecily's review
bookshelves: death-grief-bereavement-mortality, family-parenting, ireland, landscape-location-protagonist, relationships-twisted-or-sad, solitary-protagonist, usa-and-canada, unreliable-narrators, short-stories-and-novellas
Jul 10, 2024
bookshelves: death-grief-bereavement-mortality, family-parenting, ireland, landscape-location-protagonist, relationships-twisted-or-sad, solitary-protagonist, usa-and-canada, unreliable-narrators, short-stories-and-novellas
Keegan excels at distilling deeply suppressed emotions, seasoned with subtle foreshadowing, in just a few pages. Even when the reader spots casual mention of something that may become significant, it’s not clear why, so the end can still surprise. In several cases, I immediately reread a story to follow the clues and marvel at Keegan’s skill.
Image: Distillation - though these stories are art, not science ()
Many of the characters are nameless and the stories often focus on an adolescent girl. All seem to be set in the last 40 years, and although many are in Ireland, others are in the USA and England. None are happy stories (all the relationships and families are damaged or dysfunctional), but sometimes karma is sweet release.
I’ve loved Keegan’s novellas; these short stories are at least as good. To call them bittersweet is to undersell them. They were published in 1999.
Stories - no spoilers
1. Antarctica, 5*
�Every time the happily married woman went away she wondered how it would feel to sleep with another man.�
An enticing start to a chilling, but non-judgemental, morality tale.
�She thought him the least threatening man she'd ever known.�
The story might be triggering for some, but there are signs enough, should you want to stop reading, even before the meteorological omen:
�Light drained out of that day. Dusk stoked the sky, bribing daylight into darkness.�
2. Love in the Tall Grass, 4*
�A late September dusk of fallen fruit.�
A delicate dance between a tragic backstory and foreboding of imminent disappointment, leaden with gossip and guilt.
�They gave each other things. That was their first mistake.�
Later:
�Time altered, took on unfathomable dimensions.�
After which, the remainder of the story switches to the present tense.
3. Where the Water’s Deepest, 4*
All the characters are defined by role, rather than name. The au pair is plagued by dreams of letting the boy in her charge fall.
�She remembered reading somewhere that a fear of heights masks an attraction to falling.�
It made me ponder the different ways people love and care for children, whether biological parents, adoptive parents, or paid carers. For some, the risk is loving too much; for others, the danger is not loving enough.
Image: Adult on cliff, seeing person falling ()
4. The Ginger Rogers Sermon, 3*
�Now that I am thirteen, I’m sectioned off from men.�
The narrator is the much younger sister (�The Shakings of the [scrotal] Bag�) of two brothers, in a dance-mad family, struggling to get by in rural Ireland. The quotidian sights, sounds, smells, secrets, and tensions are vividly drawn.
�That’s the way it is in our house, everybody knowing things but pretending they don’t.�
5. Storms, 4*
�My mother dreamt things before they happened.�
That could be fun. Watching the stars, barefoot, by moonlight:
�Her� mad words not senseless at all, but sensing what we could not.�
But of course, it isn’t. Dark (not supernatural) things happen. Towards the denouement, the story switches from past to present tense.
6. The Singing Cashier, 2*
Youngish sisters share a house and don’t know their neighbours. It’s some time �after Dad�, and the elder one thinks the younger is unaware of her entanglement with the lecherous postman:
�The voice is treacle-sweet, reaching down the hall as if to grope us.�
It might have been 3*, but the sudden link to a real-life case killed it for me.
Image: Eyes looking through a letterbox ()
7. Burns, 5*
The unease and foreshadowing are less subtle in this, but just as powerful. A man, his three young children, and new wife are confronting their past, on a trial basis, in an isolated and dilapidated house.
�It is dark and starry and there are snakes in the country.�
It tenderly explores abuse, trauma, and, most importantly, healing. (Some unpleasant bugs, though!)
8. Quare Name for a Boy, 4*
This is addressed to �you� a Christmas fling�, so one aspect is predictable, but the actual story is less so. It’s tender, mildly amusing, slightly strange, but very believable.
9. Ride if You Dare, 4*
A blind date between a middle-aged man and woman, who may or may not be single.
�They skirt the conversation around their home lives.�
A white-knuckle fairground ride is an unoriginal metaphor, but the suppressed anxiety, embarrassment, and thrill are carefully drawn.
10. Men and Women, 3*
�I am the girl of a thousand uses� My brother is going to be somebody.�
Another impoverished and somewhat dysfunctional Irish farming family, with semi-secrets they won’t discuss. The weak point was the girl’s implausible naivety: she seemed to be approaching her teens, and I get that she saw things between adults she didn’t understand, but I struggle to believe that she still believed in Santa.
11. Sisters, 5*
�On Sunday morning, Louisa balances their father’s old shaving mirror on the crucifix in Betty’s window and plucks her eyebrows into perfect semi-circles. Betty milks the cow and digs potatoes and gets ready for mass.�
Difference, duty, entitlement, inheritance, and revenge. The broad arc is predictable, but the telling is brilliantly waspish. Louisa married, had a son and daughter, and lives a lavish life in England. Betty stayed home in Ireland to run the small farm and care for her ungrateful father, until his recent death. Betty goes to great effort, and expense she can ill afford, preparing for the annual visit of Louisa’s family. Three of them come, plus dog, and they’re insufferable, rude, demanding, messy, and greedy, resurrecting memories that salt old wounds.
In their teens, Louisa said:
�Try not to smile. You look terrible when you smile.�
And for years, Betty tried not to smile. Now, Betty observes:
�Louisa’s prominent white teeth are too plentiful for her smile.�
Revenge is sweet - and justified - and it’s not about knocking out teeth.
12. A Scent of Winter, 3*
Hanson takes his two kids and their nanny to visit his friend, �a stocky, indecent-looking man� called Greer, who lives in a house painted �the colour of raw liver�. The men go fishing and the nanny gets bored. It gradually emerges that a terrible thing happened a few days ago and the consequences of Greer’s hasty actions are problematic. There’s an interesting issue at the heart of this, but I didn’t find it very believable, and I didn’t feel immersed in the setting.
13. You Can’t Be Too Careful, 5*
This starts with explicit foreboding:
�If only I’d known, I would have��
It’s peppered with clues, followed with asides like:
�I didn’t think nothing of it.�
It’s fun to be smarter than the narrator, but is it made up, or a set-up? Either way, I was left wondering what I would do if I were either of the protagonists.
14. The Burning Palms, 3*
Grandmother’s house has no electricity or plumbing:
�Her kitchen smells of burnt lard, coal smoke, lamp oil.�
The story concerns a tragedy and how and why it happened. It’s cleverly told, and I reread it immediately to join the dots more clearly.
15. Passport Soup, 4*
A girl is missing; has been for a while. Her parents cope (I use the word loosely) in different, distant ways.
�He has become the invisible husband.�
When the wife finally, wordlessly, interacts with her husband, it’s devastating: cathartic for her and cruel to him.
�But Frank Corso feels better. It is a start. It is better than nothing.�
What would you settle for?
Image: Missing child on a milk carton ()
Other quotes
� “When he lathered a flannel, she got up. Water fell off her shoulder and trickled down her legs. He began at her feet and worked upwards, washing her in strong, slow circles. She� raised her feet and arms and turned like a child to him. He� rinsed her off, wrapped her in a towel.�
� “This water is colder than a broken dream.�
� “Hunchbacked clouds slide across the headland� grey-dull clusters gathering momentum out along the cliffs while behind them night discharges darkness.�
� “Stars fall and jingle round their feet like coins.�
� “The strange applause of the wind blowing through the trees.�
� “Tall pines are grooming the wind.�
� “Inheritance is not renewal. More than anything, it keeps everything the same.�
� “He read in the withering light until the print grew indistinct and he had to hold the pages towards the window to see the words.�
More Keegan
See my reviews of these novellas, all 4*:
� Foster pub 2010, HERE.
� Small Things Like These pub 2021, HERE.
� So Late in the Day pub 2022, HERE.
Image: Distillation - though these stories are art, not science ()
Many of the characters are nameless and the stories often focus on an adolescent girl. All seem to be set in the last 40 years, and although many are in Ireland, others are in the USA and England. None are happy stories (all the relationships and families are damaged or dysfunctional), but sometimes karma is sweet release.
I’ve loved Keegan’s novellas; these short stories are at least as good. To call them bittersweet is to undersell them. They were published in 1999.
Stories - no spoilers
1. Antarctica, 5*
�Every time the happily married woman went away she wondered how it would feel to sleep with another man.�
An enticing start to a chilling, but non-judgemental, morality tale.
�She thought him the least threatening man she'd ever known.�
The story might be triggering for some, but there are signs enough, should you want to stop reading, even before the meteorological omen:
�Light drained out of that day. Dusk stoked the sky, bribing daylight into darkness.�
2. Love in the Tall Grass, 4*
�A late September dusk of fallen fruit.�
A delicate dance between a tragic backstory and foreboding of imminent disappointment, leaden with gossip and guilt.
�They gave each other things. That was their first mistake.�
Later:
�Time altered, took on unfathomable dimensions.�
After which, the remainder of the story switches to the present tense.
3. Where the Water’s Deepest, 4*
All the characters are defined by role, rather than name. The au pair is plagued by dreams of letting the boy in her charge fall.
�She remembered reading somewhere that a fear of heights masks an attraction to falling.�
It made me ponder the different ways people love and care for children, whether biological parents, adoptive parents, or paid carers. For some, the risk is loving too much; for others, the danger is not loving enough.
Image: Adult on cliff, seeing person falling ()
4. The Ginger Rogers Sermon, 3*
�Now that I am thirteen, I’m sectioned off from men.�
The narrator is the much younger sister (�The Shakings of the [scrotal] Bag�) of two brothers, in a dance-mad family, struggling to get by in rural Ireland. The quotidian sights, sounds, smells, secrets, and tensions are vividly drawn.
�That’s the way it is in our house, everybody knowing things but pretending they don’t.�
5. Storms, 4*
�My mother dreamt things before they happened.�
That could be fun. Watching the stars, barefoot, by moonlight:
�Her� mad words not senseless at all, but sensing what we could not.�
But of course, it isn’t. Dark (not supernatural) things happen. Towards the denouement, the story switches from past to present tense.
6. The Singing Cashier, 2*
Youngish sisters share a house and don’t know their neighbours. It’s some time �after Dad�, and the elder one thinks the younger is unaware of her entanglement with the lecherous postman:
�The voice is treacle-sweet, reaching down the hall as if to grope us.�
It might have been 3*, but the sudden link to a real-life case killed it for me.
Image: Eyes looking through a letterbox ()
7. Burns, 5*
The unease and foreshadowing are less subtle in this, but just as powerful. A man, his three young children, and new wife are confronting their past, on a trial basis, in an isolated and dilapidated house.
�It is dark and starry and there are snakes in the country.�
It tenderly explores abuse, trauma, and, most importantly, healing. (Some unpleasant bugs, though!)
8. Quare Name for a Boy, 4*
This is addressed to �you� a Christmas fling�, so one aspect is predictable, but the actual story is less so. It’s tender, mildly amusing, slightly strange, but very believable.
9. Ride if You Dare, 4*
A blind date between a middle-aged man and woman, who may or may not be single.
�They skirt the conversation around their home lives.�
A white-knuckle fairground ride is an unoriginal metaphor, but the suppressed anxiety, embarrassment, and thrill are carefully drawn.
10. Men and Women, 3*
�I am the girl of a thousand uses� My brother is going to be somebody.�
Another impoverished and somewhat dysfunctional Irish farming family, with semi-secrets they won’t discuss. The weak point was the girl’s implausible naivety: she seemed to be approaching her teens, and I get that she saw things between adults she didn’t understand, but I struggle to believe that she still believed in Santa.
11. Sisters, 5*
�On Sunday morning, Louisa balances their father’s old shaving mirror on the crucifix in Betty’s window and plucks her eyebrows into perfect semi-circles. Betty milks the cow and digs potatoes and gets ready for mass.�
Difference, duty, entitlement, inheritance, and revenge. The broad arc is predictable, but the telling is brilliantly waspish. Louisa married, had a son and daughter, and lives a lavish life in England. Betty stayed home in Ireland to run the small farm and care for her ungrateful father, until his recent death. Betty goes to great effort, and expense she can ill afford, preparing for the annual visit of Louisa’s family. Three of them come, plus dog, and they’re insufferable, rude, demanding, messy, and greedy, resurrecting memories that salt old wounds.
In their teens, Louisa said:
�Try not to smile. You look terrible when you smile.�
And for years, Betty tried not to smile. Now, Betty observes:
�Louisa’s prominent white teeth are too plentiful for her smile.�
Revenge is sweet - and justified - and it’s not about knocking out teeth.
12. A Scent of Winter, 3*
Hanson takes his two kids and their nanny to visit his friend, �a stocky, indecent-looking man� called Greer, who lives in a house painted �the colour of raw liver�. The men go fishing and the nanny gets bored. It gradually emerges that a terrible thing happened a few days ago and the consequences of Greer’s hasty actions are problematic. There’s an interesting issue at the heart of this, but I didn’t find it very believable, and I didn’t feel immersed in the setting.
13. You Can’t Be Too Careful, 5*
This starts with explicit foreboding:
�If only I’d known, I would have��
It’s peppered with clues, followed with asides like:
�I didn’t think nothing of it.�
It’s fun to be smarter than the narrator, but is it made up, or a set-up? Either way, I was left wondering what I would do if I were either of the protagonists.
14. The Burning Palms, 3*
Grandmother’s house has no electricity or plumbing:
�Her kitchen smells of burnt lard, coal smoke, lamp oil.�
The story concerns a tragedy and how and why it happened. It’s cleverly told, and I reread it immediately to join the dots more clearly.
15. Passport Soup, 4*
A girl is missing; has been for a while. Her parents cope (I use the word loosely) in different, distant ways.
�He has become the invisible husband.�
When the wife finally, wordlessly, interacts with her husband, it’s devastating: cathartic for her and cruel to him.
�But Frank Corso feels better. It is a start. It is better than nothing.�
What would you settle for?
Image: Missing child on a milk carton ()
Other quotes
� “When he lathered a flannel, she got up. Water fell off her shoulder and trickled down her legs. He began at her feet and worked upwards, washing her in strong, slow circles. She� raised her feet and arms and turned like a child to him. He� rinsed her off, wrapped her in a towel.�
� “This water is colder than a broken dream.�
� “Hunchbacked clouds slide across the headland� grey-dull clusters gathering momentum out along the cliffs while behind them night discharges darkness.�
� “Stars fall and jingle round their feet like coins.�
� “The strange applause of the wind blowing through the trees.�
� “Tall pines are grooming the wind.�
� “Inheritance is not renewal. More than anything, it keeps everything the same.�
� “He read in the withering light until the print grew indistinct and he had to hold the pages towards the window to see the words.�
More Keegan
See my reviews of these novellas, all 4*:
� Foster pub 2010, HERE.
� Small Things Like These pub 2021, HERE.
� So Late in the Day pub 2022, HERE.
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Reading Progress
February 9, 2023
– Shelved
February 9, 2023
– Shelved as:
to-read
April 30, 2024
–
Started Reading
April 30, 2024
–
10.27%
"Opened the book only to see it starts at p23.
The title story has been ripped out! 🤬"
page
23
The title story has been ripped out! 🤬"
June 20, 2024
–
100.0%
"To call these stories bittersweet is to undersell them. But wow.
Review to come."
page
224
Review to come."
June 20, 2024
–
Finished Reading
July 10, 2024
– Shelved as:
death-grief-bereavement-mortality
July 10, 2024
– Shelved as:
family-parenting
July 10, 2024
– Shelved as:
ireland
July 10, 2024
– Shelved as:
landscape-location-protagonist
July 10, 2024
– Shelved as:
relationships-twisted-or-sad
July 10, 2024
– Shelved as:
solitary-protagonist
July 10, 2024
– Shelved as:
usa-and-canada
July 10, 2024
– Shelved as:
unreliable-narrators
July 10, 2024
– Shelved as:
short-stories-and-novellas
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by
Laysee
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rated it 4 stars
Jul 10, 2024 08:08AM
Excellent review, Cecily. I thought ‘Antarctica� and ‘Sisters� were particularly outstanding too.
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Laysee wrote: "Excellent review, Cecily. I thought ‘Antarctica� and ‘Sisters� were particularly outstanding too."Sisters was much the longest, and also the most fun. Like you, I found Antarctica scary. There was more variety than I was expecting - which is good - but most are still clearly her voice.
In my (not much😉) humble opinion, Miss Keegan will be a future Nobel Prize, one day. At least, I hope so. I already read everything she wrote, and she is just improving. The titular story, Antarctica, is startling. The first time I read it, it sounded like a cautionary tale for adult women. But after the second and third reading, I start to think I was mistaken, because it just doesn't fit in Keegan's body work style.
I always wonder and try to understand what a writer aim or his/her motivation to write such or such story. Antarctica (the short story) strikes me as something out of the usual CK material. Any thoughts on the subject?
Excellent review, Cecily. As usual...
Great review, I need to read more from her
Outstanding review as usual Cecily. I love Keegan and have added this one to my list thanks.
Paulo wrote: "... I already read everything she wrote, and she is just improving.... Antarctica (the short story) strikes me as something out of the usual CK material. Any thoughts on the subject?"It is different. This collection predates all the other works of hers I've read, but I don't know if the stories in this volume are in chronological order, which would make Antarctica the oldest. I can't find dates for individual ones. It's an interesting thought.
Paulo wrote: "... The first time I read it, it sounded like a cautionary tale for adult women. But after the second and third reading, I start to think I was mistaken..."
I've read that one three times, too. I think it IS a cautionary tale for women, but it doesn't really blame the victim, nor even judge her choices. It shows the risks in believable ways, and I feel I understand why she missed the red flags. What did you think after your third read?
Lyn wrote: "Great review, I need to read more from her"Most people do!
Excellent review as usual, Cecily. How aptly you have described Keegan ability to distilling deep suspressed emotions in just a few pages. I read a few books by her but this collection yet to be read. Thanks for sharing this lovely reminder :)
Glenda wrote: "Outstanding review as usual Cecily. I love Keegan and have added this one to my list thanks."I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Thanks, Glenda.
A beautiful review, Cecily. Antarctica is such a rich place from which to develop a gripping tale.
A great reflection on these short stories, Cecily. Considering that her novels (novelas) are quite short, these stories must be very short! Nevertheless I can see her packing a punch in the least amount of pages.
Gaurav wrote: "Excellent review as usual, Cecily. How aptly you have described Keegan ability to distilling deep suspressed emotions in just a few pages. I read a few books by her..."Everything I've read of hers has been well worth reading. There was one story here that was only 2* for me, but from a collection of 15, when most were 4* or 5*, that's really good. Thanks, Gaurav.
I had only ever seen the small hardback collections prior to now (like So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men) - thanks for this excellent review.
Wonderful review, glad you enjoyed! This one really threw me off when it would jump the the US south haha.
"To call them bittersweet is to undersell them."Great line, Cecily. Yes they have that quality but they are much more too.
I enjoyed your summary of each story. I'm sure I thought I'd never forget them, but there were a few in your list that I had completely forgotten—but also a few I'd never forget!
Lorna wrote: "A beautiful review, Cecily. Antarctica is such a rich place from which to develop a gripping tale."Thanks, although it's not a spoiler to say that Antarctica is more of a metaphor as well as a place a protagonist is interested in. If you want a story set there, have a look at Jon McGregor's Lean Fall Stand: /review/show...
David wrote: "A great reflection on these short stories, Cecily. Considering that her novels (novelas) are quite short, these stories must be very short!"They vary in length. Sisters is the longest at over 20 pages; some of the others are fewer than 10 pages. Thanks, David.
An immediate reread in order to marvel at the skills of the writer says a lot about the quality of the story. Excellent review, as always, Cecily.
We Are All Mad Here wrote: "I had only ever seen the small hardback collections prior to now (like So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men) - thanks for this excellent review."Her stories, and even novellas, seem to be published in a variety of ways, and collections have the title of a single story, which can be confusing! Everything of hers I've read had been worth reading, but if buying, check exactly what you're getting.
s.penkevich wrote: "Wonderful review, glad you enjoyed! This one really threw me off when it would jump the the US south haha."The setting threw me a few times: it was implied, very plausibly, rather than stated, in several cases. Excellent, though. Thanks, Steven.
Fionnuala wrote: "... I'm sure I thought I'd never forget them, but there were a few in your list that I had completely forgotten—but also a few I'd never forget!"As you read this nearly ten years ago, you're allowed to have faded memories. But I am wondering which are the few you'll never forget (for me, I think it will be the title story, and Burns).
Violeta wrote: "An immediate reread in order to marvel at the skills of the writer says a lot about the quality of the story. Excellent review, as always, Cecily."It does say a lot. I hope you find the same when you read her.
Your review brought back so much of how I felt while reading this collection, Cecily! Particularly the title story which was honestly very "chilling"! ;) I thought this was a very solid collection and it made me an instant fan of Keegan. Thanks for sharing this marvelous review :)
Candi wrote: "Your review brought back so much of how I felt while reading this collection, Cecily! Particularly the title story which was honestly very "chilling"..."It was, wasn't it? And she was in her early 30s - at most - when she wrote them!
