So Late in the Day

So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men by Claire Keegan 

- https://www.amazon.com/So-Late-Day-Stories-Women/dp/0802160859

두번째로 읽은 클래어 키건의 소설이다. 3편의 단편 소설 모음집이다. 3편의 이야기에는 한 명의 여자와 상대방이 되는 한명의 남자가 나온다. 특별히 격정적이거나 매혹적인 이야기가 진행되는 것은 아니다. 다만, 평범한 풍경도 작가의 손을 거치면 매끄러운 무언가로 변화된다. 복잡하고 현란하지 않아도 작은 한켠의 묘사도 잘 다듬어져 있다는 느낌을 준다.

pp. 34
He wanted to deny it, but it felt uncomfortably close to a truth he had not once considered. It occurred to him that he would not have minded her shutting up right then, and giving him what he wanted. He felt the possibility of making a joke, of defusing what had come between them, but couldn't think of anything and then the moment passed and she turned her head away.

pp.83
Achill Island, she wrote, and the date. She stopped then and thought of what she had done with her birthday: how she had crossed the bridge at three in the morning; of the rhododendron hedges gone wild and out of bloom.

 pp. 118
 She watched the clock on the bedside table, the red numbers changing. The cat was watching her, his eyes dark as apple seeds. She thought of Antarctica, the snow and ice and the bodies of dead explorers. Then she thought of hell, and then eternity.