Short Stories by John B.Keane

 First of all I am so sorry with Mercier Press for the big delay in reviewing John B

.Keane's Short

Stories. 

I found this little book precious, captivating and interesting. Stories are narrated in great style, dense and filtered with the knowledge of a person in love for understanding customs, behaviors of men and women. 
Short Stories is an unstoppable down book, once started.

Some short stories I loved a lot: 

In Protocol there is the description of a boy stopping by to the house of some neighbors. He stays circa two hours, before to explain to them the reason of the visit. Sometimes you want to ask a favor to your neighbor, but stopping by at first you start to tell current events, and you ask what it is going on in their existence, and you speak of weather and projects. There is no rush and of course the person asking for the favor wouldn't never want to be considered in a bad way by the neighbor.
I found the tale very good.

The Woman who Hated Christmas must be read 'till to the end for discovering what meant to that woman and his man, Christmas. It's a story of addiction. 

I found Faith pretty scaring, feeling a big compassion for that poor people, although very very very interesting for the dynamic generated by that event.... It's a tale so similar to Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. 
In this case, we find  unmarried brothers. They must restore the roof of the house, and one of these brothers once met along his way a sly man called Florrie Feery. Before to accompanying Jack at home the sly man, Florrie, asked to Jack if he would have wanted to stop by in a pub. He knew what he had to do. He said to Jack that he knew an abandoned house where there were wonderful slates. Jack believed him, and paid for the material. Once returned home, he said to his brothers that he had resolved their problems thanks to that man called Florrtie.
You can't understand whart it meant to them the arrival of a car. All the time to them that one was Florrie Feery.
Have you read the book by Dino Buzzati The Desert of the Tartars? Good: the protagonist dies without to see any Tartars: maybe there was an attack from them while he was dying. Same here, for all the rest of their existence these men waited for the arrival of Ferrie (he didnt never arrive in this case, be sure of it!) 
It was a shocking, sad tale, but interesting, in particolar if read under a psychological...way.

Keane hasn't just being a writer, but also a playwright and an essayist. 

Highly recommended book!

Anna Maria Polidori