As I had already seen the film version of the story, The Quiet Girl, I knew everything there is to know about the plot beforehand. In fact, I was amazed to find out they had managed to pull an hour and half of film from such a short story. For really, it is a short story. Girl is somewhat under appreciated by her parents back home, goes to stay with a distant (in the film, not the book) aunt and uncle, blooms into a confident young lady, discovers some truths about life, family etc, and is returned back home. A lot can happen in the span of such a comprehensive plot, and it does.
The story is told from the first person, which leaves a lot to the imagination. Cáit is shy, but mostly because of how her parents behave towards her. In the film they make her out to be the runt of the litter, teased by her sisters and bullied by her father. In the book, all of the children are basically mistreated by their parents, not out of spite but because they really have nothing to feed or keep them on. I think the novella has the better premise, as it is easy to show growth in a character that is actively put down, but harder to do in a character that is simply neglected. In fact, in the book we don't even find out her name. It is as though no one sees her. And that is really the only thing that 'the woman' and 'Kinsella' (as Cáit calls them) do; see her. Show her kindness. Show her faith. And she blooms under their attention.
The writing is very good. With so few words available, Claire Keegan had to get them just right. There is no room for extensive descriptions, but the lack of words also asks something of the reader. Because Cáit is clearly not telling us everything, because we get just snippets of her life and stay, we as readers have to fill in a lot of blanks. In that sense it reminded me somewhat of Childhood (Kinderjaren) by Jona Oberski; we as adults can see what is going on but she can only describe what she sees or hears, not knowing the full meaning. The open ending in both the book and the film leaves you wondering for days after; what will have happened to her?
So did I like this novella better? Yes, by a long stretch. I rarely wish a character more happiness in their life after their novel than I do Cáit. This of course is in sharp contrast to all the characters in Keegan's previous novella, whom I didn't care for in the least.
Some parts were a bit on the nose, such as the nosy neighbour telling Cáit the big secret or the story about the two lighthouses being joined by a third, but we can overlook those laboured plot details by the sparse beauty of the rest. If the characters come to life for you, if you feel like you've actually joined their life for a short while and are now sad to see them go, that is when the magic of books works its best.
