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Saturday, July 10, 2021

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan


 des
cription:  This is a tale of courage and compassion, of good sons and vulnerable young mothers. Absolutely beautiful.' -Douglas Stuart, author of SHUGGIE BAIN (Winner of the Booker Prize 2020) It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church 

 If you are familiar with the Magdalene Laundry asylums and the subsequent scandals, you will see a connection as well to the abuse of Canada's indigenous children in the resurfacing of the sordid past of the Kamloops Indian Residential School and the many other government-funded and often Church run institutions and victims.

"The Magdalene Laundries were part of an interlocking system of orphanages, industrial schools, “mother and baby homes” for unwed mothers and church-run institutions in which Ireland once confined tens of thousands of its own.

At least 10,000 women and girls are believed to have passed through the laundries between independence from Britain in 1922 and the closing of the last one in 1996." (source)

Small Things Like These, set in Ireland in 1985, deals with the actions of one man when he is confronted with truth of the abuses at the local Magdalene Laundry.  A quiet story of courage and conscience.  In only 128 pages, Claire Keegan illustrates the way various people react to abuses in the Church.  So committed to their religion or from fear of repercussions, most ignored or failed to believe or failed to acknowledge what went on.   Bill Furlong faces what he did not want to be true--and acts.  

It was not until 1996 that these institutions were finally closed.  

NetGalley/Grove Atlantic

Literary Fiction.  2020 & Nov. 30, 2021.  Print length: 128 pages.

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until 1996, pregnant or promiscuous women could be incarcerated for life 

Magdalene Laundries

Irish Mother and Baby Homes 

Three fictional books that use history and fiction as vehicles to remind of us of the roles of both government and Church in the treatment of children:

 Lost by Claire McGowan includes elements of the Magdalene Laundries. 

 Asylum by Jeannette deBeauvoir, a mystery with facts about Canadian Residential Schools that shocked me as I did some research and the U.S., the CIA, and Project MKultra played a horrific role.   Dupleiss Orphans

Stolen Lives by Matthew Pritchard, another fictional account based on terribly real circumstances that took place during the Spanish Civil War during Franco's dictatorship. 

10 comments:

  1. Fiction and real life events that illustrate humankind's ability to treat other humans as "less than" or "other" never stops shocking me.

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    1. And the fact that until something happens, you don't realize it could be your neighbors, who either agree or are happy to ignore the treatment.

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  2. I'm not very familiar with Magdalene Laundry asylums, though I'm aware that similar institutions seemed to occur everywhere back in the day. And when you hear the stories of those imprisoned within it's always so sad! History can be heartbreaking.

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    1. History can be heartbreaking, but every country has plenty of examples of having tolerated this kind of thing. We always tend to point to someone else and facing our own country's historical and current abuses can be disheartening. Sometimes shocking, but necessary.

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  3. It's mind-blowing that it could take so long for the truth of this kind of abuse and exploitation of innocents to be exposed to the world. Even harder to believe that it was still happening so relatively recently. I've known about the Magdalene Laundry system for a few years, largely because of reading novels that explore those days. I have to admit, though, that the recent exposés coming out of Canada shock me even more. I have to think that kind of thing might have Canadians even questioning everything they thought they knew about their country. We are all, I think, more naive than we would ever admit to ourselves.

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    1. Yes, American Indian Residential Schools also have a lot to answer for as well. Although the Kamloop school in Canada is the latest, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established in 2008 as recognition of the abuses became more widely known. In 2015, it released its shocking report, and yet, now we know of more tragic circumstances.

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  4. Oh wow, I didn't know about the Magdalene Laundry asylums. Some parts of history are so heartbreaking. We've gotta start learning from the past and never let anything like this happen again.

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    1. History can be heartbreaking, I agree, we have to face the past and learn from it. All of the books I mentioned have to do with abuse sanctioned by those in power. A sad comment on the institutions we tend to trust without question.

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  5. I've never heard of these either but this is just awful. I really need to learn more. This also reminds me that I have not read much from Irish authors.

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    1. It is one of those examples when reading fiction sends me to research the background or history of the plot. Especially when the events occur in other countries, I don't always catch the news about events. It also makes us realize just how often abuses like these take place, even when we can't begin to understand how they happen.

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