Editors Reads Verdict
Sharper and colder than her other work, So Late in the Day reveals a different register of Keegan's talent — her capacity for controlled anger. The title story is one of the finest short stories published in this decade.
What We Loved
- The title story is a masterclass in controlled narrative — a man's dismissal of a woman told through his own obliviousness
- Keegan's prose remains as economical and precise as in her longer novellas
- The three stories work independently and in dialogue with each other
Minor Drawbacks
- Shorter even than her novellas — reads in under two hours
- The emotional register is colder and less accessible than Foster or Small Things Like These
- Readers expecting the warmth of Foster may find the moral universe here more unsettling
Key Takeaways
- → The distance between men and women is often not a failure of communication but a failure of care
- → Obliviousness in relationships is not innocent — it is a choice that has consequences
| Author | Claire Keegan |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Grove Press |
| Pages | 112 |
| Published | September 5, 2023 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Literary Fiction, Short Stories, Irish Literature |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Best For | Existing Keegan readers and fans of her New Yorker work. Best read after Foster and Small Things Like These. |
So Late in the Day collects three stories, the centrepiece of which is the title story, first published in The New Yorker. Where Foster and Small Things Like These are built around protagonists whose fundamental decency is tested by external circumstances, the stories in So Late in the Day are built around a different kind of subject: the failure of that decency in intimate relationships between men and women.
The title story follows Cathal, a man who has just been left by a woman he was going to marry. Over the course of an afternoon and evening, his consciousness unfolds what happened and why — and the gap between what Cathal thinks he understands about the relationship and what the reader understands is Keegan’s subject. It is a technically precise story about a very particular kind of masculine blindness, and it is genuinely unsettling.
The collection is the slimmest of Keegan’s books and the least approachable as a first introduction to her work. Readers new to Keegan should start with Foster or Small Things Like These — both are more immediately emotional and more immediately rewarding. So Late in the Day is best understood as a counterpoint: the same formal precision applied to a colder and more uncomfortable set of questions. Together, the three books represent the full range of what Keegan does.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "So Late in the Day" about?
Three stories — the title story originally published in The New Yorker — examining the space between men and women: what they want from each other, what they withhold, and what the distance costs.
Who should read "So Late in the Day"?
Existing Keegan readers and fans of her New Yorker work. Best read after Foster and Small Things Like These.
What are the key takeaways from "So Late in the Day"?
The distance between men and women is often not a failure of communication but a failure of care Obliviousness in relationships is not innocent — it is a choice that has consequences
Is "So Late in the Day" worth reading?
Sharper and colder than her other work, So Late in the Day reveals a different register of Keegan's talent — her capacity for controlled anger. The title story is one of the finest short stories published in this decade.
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