Book Review: Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“There’s pleasure to be had in history. What’s recent is another matter and painful to recall.” ( from the story “Walk the Blue Fields”)

Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan is a collection of seven stories revolving around the themes of loss, regret, missed opportunities, and loneliness. From forbidden love, unhappy marriages and child abuse to gender identity, infidelity and misogyny- these stories explore some of the most complex aspects of human relationships and behavior. The tone of most of these stories borders on melancholic. Few authors can depict raw human emotion with such eloquence as Claire Keegan. Keegan’s characters are real and relatable – in their flaws, in their virtues and their simplicity. At this point after reading so many of this author’s works, I associate Claire Keegan with her clear, elegant and dream-like quality of writing, vivid imagery and deeply evocative stories. I am happy to say that with this collection, the author does not disappoint.

The first story, "The Parting Gift" is about a young girl preparing to leave her home and family in Ireland. As she prepares to leave for America, her memories take her back to a lifetime of abuse and neglect and we know that she will never willingly return to this life. The title story “Walk the Blue Fields” revolves around a priest, unable and unwilling to break his vows for the woman he loves, who ends up officiating her marriage. “Dark Horses” sees a man lamenting the loss of a good woman whom he has driven away with his thoughtless, misogynistic behavior. In “The Forester's Daughter” a man brings home a dog he finds in the forest which his daughter mistakenly assumes is a birthday gift for her.  Another story, “Close to the Water's Edge”, with some variation, appears in Keegan’s “Antarctica”, another of her short story collections. Here we meet a young gay man who celebrates his birthday with his mother and homophobic stepfather – a celebration he exits when the indirect slurs become too much to bear. “Surrender(After McGahern)” is the story of a police sergeant who is unwilling to commit to the woman with whom he has been in a relationship. When she sends him a letter stating her intention to end their relationship, he devours a crate of oranges ( an act of solace or self-indulgence?) before he decides to “surrender”. The final story in the collection, "Night of the Quicken Trees" incorporates folklore, Irish superstitions and magical realism in a tale about an unlikely relationship between a superstitious woman and her neighbor, a loner who lives with his goat.

“Putting the past into words seemed idle when the past had already happened. The past was treacherous, moving slowly along. It would catch up in its own time. And in any case, what could be done? Remorse altered nothing and grief just brought it back.” ( from the story "Night of the Quicken Trees")

I will not rate these stories separately because I found each one to be special in its own way, which is rare in a short story collection. At the end of the book, Keegan includes a brief segment on the folklore, specific terminology and geography featured in some of the stories. I would recommend reading that part before reading the stories.

I absolutely loved this collection of short stories. A must-read for fans of this immensely talented writer.