{"id":11860,"date":"2010-02-09T11:36:02","date_gmt":"2010-02-09T15:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=11860"},"modified":"2018-02-23T17:47:44","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T21:47:44","slug":"claire-keegan-foster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2010\/02\/09\/claire-keegan-foster\/","title":{"rendered":"Claire Keegan: \u201cFoster\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Foster”<\/strong><\/span>
\nby Claire Keegan
\n<\/span> from the\u00a0February 15 & 22, 2010 issue of The New Yorker<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"CV1_TNY_02_15_22_10A.fm.indd\"<\/p>\n

[fusion_dropcap boxed=”no” boxed_radius=”” class=”” id=”” color=”#003366″]I[\/fusion_dropcap]t took me nearly the whole week, but I finally finished \u201cFoster.\u201d Luckily, despite the time it took me to read this story, I\u2019m still ahead since this was a double-issue.<\/p>\n

Some of you read it much more quickly than I did, and you loved the story. I admired it, and once I finally started reading it didn\u2019t feel the desire to stop until the end.\u00a0For some reason, though, I didn\u2019t love it\u00a0— perhaps you spoiled it for me by setting up my expectations!<\/p>\n

I did enjoy the story.\u00a0Set in Ireland, it is\u00a0told from the perspective\u00a0of a child whose\u00a0impoverished parents are expecting yet another child. Because they can\u2019t\u00a0— or don\u2019t want\u00a0to\u00a0— take care of this daughter, they send her to\u00a0a childless couple\u00a0who live\u00a0\u201dwhere my mother\u2019s people came from.\u201d She\u2019s filthy when she gets there,\u00a0she possesses no clothing but what she\u2019s wearing, she\u2019s got lice, and she\u2019s terrified to suddenly be in the care of complete strangers. Of course, things get better because they genuinely care, though there is a bit of mystery about why the couple is childless yet still possess\u00a0children\u2019s things.<\/p>\n

It is a very well written story, subtle and nuanced with a clear focus on the characters.\u00a0I think I expected more from it, though. One good thing, though, it\u2019s a story that I think rewards rereading.\u00a0There are a lot of threads that come together toward the end, and it\u2019s nice to see where those threads originated in the story.\u00a0It is particularly nice to revisit the first few pages where the father and mother and the strangers are first introduced.<\/p>\n

Anyway, now that I\u2019ve finished it, please let me know how you felt in more detail.<\/p>\n

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