So Late In The Day by Claire Keegan, 2022
The magic trick:
Setting up a character who might seem so pathetic as to make the story seem like exaggerated comedy, only to make it clear that it’s more realism than satire
The guy in this story is just the worst. Embarrassing. Helpless. Useless. Selfish. Feckless. He seems to only be interested in getting married for the free dinners. He’s appalled to the point of sudden depression when he sees all the stuff his fiancée brings with her when she’s moved in with him. It’s so bad that my instinct was to think OK, this story’s tone is extreme satire to the point of silliness. It’s a lark.
But a guy reading this story would think that wouldn’t he?
We can’t be as bad as this? Surely?
As you read on and sit with this story and character, it’s less and less silly. It’s less and less satirical. We are that bad. We are that ridiculous. This is simply realism.
And that’s quite a trick on Keegan’s part.
The selection:
“So what is wrong?”
“There’s nothing.”
“Tell me.” She insisted.
“I just don’t know about this stuff, that’s all.”
“Which stuff? My stuff?”
“These things. All your things. All this.” He was looking around: at the blue throw, the two extra pillows, pairs of shoes and sandals, most of which he’d never seen her wearing, poking out from under his chest of drawers.
He himself owned just one pair of shoes.
“Did you think I would come with nothing?”
“It’s just a lot.” He tried to explain.
“A lot? I do not have so very much.”
“Just a lot to deal with.”
“What did you imagine?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Not this. Just not this.”
“I cannot understand,” she told him. “You knew I had to vacate the apartment at Rathgar by the end of the month. You asked me to come and live here with you, to marry you.”
“I just didn’t think it would be like this, is all,” he said. “I just thought about your being here and having dinner together, waking up with you. Maybe it’s just too much reality.”
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