Claire Keegan

Yeah, when I look back now, I was doing my homework for what I'm doing now, but I didn't realize back then that that's what I was doing.

when I was young, we didn't have books in the house.

We didn't have a library and we didn't have access to reading.

And now it just feels like that's something free for everybody.

And I just think it's delightful that you can go online and find all of the Constance Garnett translations of Chekhov stories for free.

And you can go to the library and print them out for free.

And nobody really is without books now if they don't want to be.

And

And also it's so attractive and intelligent.

And I don't know if you've ever seen anybody on a train or, you know, on the bus and they're just lost in a book.

And you instantly find them attractive because they can concentrate.

Mm-hmm.

Yes, it is.

Yes, to just go daily about what you do without regard and in that fashion makes it less likely to confront.

Yeah, that would have given him away, didn't it?

I think he wanted a child.

And it's the next thing he asks her, and he asks her that instantly.

Yeah, to have a baby.

Also, he pulls the curtains after he notices that there were no children.

And there were children in the opening paragraph of this story.