The collection's range is as diverse as the locales they unfold in. Ms. Keegan's talent is not limited to the land of her birth. She writes beautifully of Ireland, however she also writes as competently of Mississippi. Like all good writers she not only has an eye for detail and the ability to put what she sees on a page, she also has an ear for dialects that she can reproduce with equal skill.

Her stories range from the terribly sad when an event has unbalanced a person, to one who has been second all her life until she takes primacy with a set of scissors, and does so without harm. There are stories of misplaced guilt, respect for the past and those that remain as representatives of it. Her stories are not sentimental; they are uncluttered, and at times uncomfortably direct.

I doubt this is the last work we will see from this lady, and I look forward to reading her work again.


Deserving of recognition   October 30, 2006
This collection of stories stumbled into my notice completely by accident. I am so glad that it did. If you are a fan of the short story, pick up Keegan's book! This is writing at its very best, in my opinion, and I anxiously await her next publication.


Distinguished Company   March 6, 2007
To begin with, Keegan's title story is a killer, a dark classic. She's great, like the Irish all-stars (Roddy Doyle, Colm Toibin), but also some of our Americans, particularly contemporary masters like Edward P. Jones and Mary Hood, with whom she shares that that deep, rueful knowledge of place and people, and habit of telling stories that are rich as novels. Anyone who loves good short stories and/or Irish writers will appreciate Claire Keegan's Anarctica.