Antarctica [Hardcover]

Claire Keegan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 2001

Compassionate, witty, and unsettling, Antarctica is the debut collection of one of Ireland's most exciting and versatile new talents. Claire Keegan, winner of several prestigious awards including the William Trevor Prize, writes stories that have a razor-sharp narrative style and unembellished tone, and move from the cruel, hard life of rural Ireland to the hot landscape of the southern United States. From the title story about a married woman who takes a trip to the city with a single purpose in mind -- to sleep with another man -- Antarctica draws you into a world of obsession, betrayal, and fragile relationships. In "Love in the Tall Grass," Cordelia wakes on the last day of the twentieth century and sets off along the coast road to keep a date, with her lover, that has been nine years in the waiting. In "Passport Soup," Frank Corso mourns the curious disappearance of his nine-year-old daughter and tries desperately to reach out to his shattered wife who has gone mad with grief. Keegan's characters inhabit a world where dreams, memory, and chance can have crippling consequences for those involved. Moving in its quiet intensity, the award-winning Antarctica is a rare and arresting debut.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The chill reaches to the bones of this debut collection of 15 stories by Keegan, an acclaimed young Irish writer whose precisely articulated, clear prose illuminates her native land. In Keegan's Ireland, it is eternally winter, and familial relations provide neither appeasing warmth nor protection. Her mostly female narrators dwell on the cusp of self-knowledge; they have ruefully observed the example set by their mothers, aunts and grandmothers "flat-bellied, temperamental women who've given up and call it happiness" and are slowly feeling out new possibilities for their own lives. Rebellions range from the small and symbolic (a mother takes the wheel of a car and leaves her husband stranded) to the wider-reaching (a woman decides to keeps her illegitimate child). Such victories cannot keep the harshness of the world at bay and are of little help, for example, to the couple whose daughter is kidnapped. Yet Keegan depicts the ascendance of a generation of women who "can butt in and take over, rescue and be rescued" in an Ireland on the verge of a self-generated wave of feminism. The setting of several stories in the U.S. (where Keegan did her undergraduate work) is indicated only by a smattering of details such as baseball hats and fast food; they might as well, and with greater effect, have been set in Ireland. While Keegan's imagery occasionally bears the clear brand of the M.F.A. program, these moments are few and are outweighed by the restraint with which she deploys such imagery, and by her stern refusal to fall back on anything that might resemble a happy ending. (July) Forecast: Keegan is a comer in Ireland, where she won both the William Trevor Prize and the Rooney Prize in 2000. A keen and unflinching observer, she will appeal to fans of Roddy Doyle.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Irish author Keegan's reputation precedes her by leaps and bounds. First published across the pond in 1999, this collection won the William Trevor and Rooney prizes and has been called Raymond Carver-esque by the British press. True, these 16 tales, which range from Ireland to the southern United States, are carried by simple and compound sentences with smatterings of dialog, but, just like the human body, a short story requires more than a skeleton. What's lacking here can only be described as emotional intensity literal blood and marrow; protagonist after protagonist fails to come to life. The title piece sets the tone: a middle-aged housewife visits London in search of Christmas presents for her family and a one-night stand but ends up handcuffed to a stranger's bed. Although the reader wants to experience her terror, they will feel indifferent to the hell she's condemned herself to. Antarctica is a chilly let-down, but followers of contemporary Irish literature should still keep their eye on Keegan. She's young and is currently working on a potentially promising first novel. Heather McCormack, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; First U.S. Edition edition (April 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871137798
• ISBN-13: 978-0871137791
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #915,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Distinguished Company, March 6, 2007

By 

Judith Podell (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Antarctica (Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserving of recognition, October 29, 2006

By 

P.E.H. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Antarctica (Paperback)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A stunning debut, October 22, 2010

By 

RUHU "Eclectic" (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Antarctica (Paperback)

Some of these stories might be described as vignettes. Sharp and swift injections of reality, they are far ranging in setting and character. The collection is somewhat noir in tone, and takes the reader by surprise on every page. Well worth reading.