작가 클레어 키건의 단편 소설이지만 최근 단행본으로도 출간되었습니다. 아일랜드 남자에 대한 신랄한 통찰이 담긴 이야기로 동시대 남성과 여성의 의식 차이에 대해 많은 생각을 하게 만듭니다. 클레어 키건이 인터뷰에서 이 작품에서 말한 내용에 따르면 작업 당시 이 작품의 제목은 “Misogyny”였다고 합니다. 클레어 키건은 여성 작가지만 남성을 화자로 쓴 작품이 많습니다. 어떤 의도를 갖고 쓴 글일지 함께 읽고 생각해 볼까요.
“She said things may now be changing, but that at least half of men your age just want us to shut up and give you what you want, that you’re spoiled and become contemptible when things don’t go your way.”
“Is that so?”
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 then the moment passed and she turned her head away. That was the problem with women falling out of love; the veil of romance fell away from their eyes, and they looked in and could read you.
But this one didn’t stop there.
Athena's Owl 