Brooklyn: A Novel
by Colm Toibin
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Book Reviews of Brooklyn: A Novel
Book Review: Brooklyn: a one-dimensional disappointment.
Summary: 3 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Did you ever get a book that you really wanted to like, but found yourself slowly pulling away from it the further that you read? This was the case for me with Colm Toibin's Brooklyn: A Novel.
And it's even worse when you hate giving the works of an author a bad review.
Had read many of the major newspaper reviews of this book prior to ordering it, and felt that it would be an interesting read. One reviewer had made a positive allusion to George Eliot's classic Silas Marner while describing a passage, and another called it "hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking." I was looking forward to reading this book for the personal reasons of having been born in Brooklyn and having a smattering of Irish family background.
Maybe it's me, but this book just didn't live up to my expectations. Even worse, the book is so flat in its style that it just kept putting me to sleep. This may be a personal thing, but one that I rarely encounter in most books today.
The plot is simple enough, and I'm outlining here: a young Irish woman named Eilis Lacey leaves Ireland for Brooklyn in the 1950s for a better economic opportunity. One there, an Irish priest finds a sales position for her in a department store, and helps her find a room with an older Irish lady, one who takes in young female borders.
The priest helps her get into Brooklyn College night school in order for her to get certification in bookkeeping and secure a better paying position. She meets and is courted by a young Italian man, and when things seem to be going well for Eilis, a family tragedy happens in Ireland, forcing her to return. Without turning this into a spoiler, a series of events take place which force her to make a critical decision.
My problem with this book is that I found the tale to be monotonous and flat. Eilis seemed quite impassive, and she seemed to only be able to react the decisions of others, and not her own. The more that I read, the more disappointed I became, and it became a harder book to even finish towards the end. As noted earlier, it may be a personal thing, but this one left me wishing that the characters, especially Eilis, had been better developed... more three-dimensional.
The laudatory reviews of Colm Toibin's latest offering are surprising to this reader, and I'll have to think twice or thumb through a library copy before I try to tackle another of this author's books again.
Calling it a 3-star book is the best that I can do with it.
Book Review: Don't give up on it--a provocative ending
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Reading Brooklyn was an unusual experience. Why? Because I had to read the whole book to appreciate it and be gripped by it. The book was like an embryo--rudimentary, unborn. But when I read the last paragraph, I actually got a spine chill. And, later, after shelving it, my thoughts wandered back to the story with a deeper pleasure.
For the first 100 (or more) pages, nothing much happens. Young provincial Irish girl Eilis Lacey travels to America(circa 1950), leaving her sister and mother in the Irish berg. She improves her education, her appearance, and refines her tastes. With the help of a family friend (a priest), Eilis finds a place to live in a rooming house and a tedious job in a clothing shop. She encounters new friends, (all rather shallow), meets a man, has a courtship. It is all very mundane. When she lies in bed after receiving a letter from home, she actually thinks about her mother or sister taking out the envelope, what kind of envelope, how many envelopes. I was exasperated at that point.
Yet I kept reading. Toibin is a competent writer, and I was at least partially engaged, although I remained skeptical of any interesting story emerging. You know how some authors fail to maintain control over their story and characters? Well, Toibin has perhaps too MUCH control. That is how it seemed as I was reading. It plodded along, but rather lightly. I did like Eilis and cared what happened to her, but I wanted something imaginative or inventive to occur. At least one splashy thing. But when something dramatic happened in the last 100 pages, it didn't really affect me too much. It seemed more of a vehicle for other action to take place, for Eilis to enter into decisive conflict and change.
It is so subtle and restrained that I almost didn't know when I became fully engaged. During the last portion of the book, I was in suspense, wondering what would happen, but speculating that it would be predictable.
Full resolution occurs in the final moments. That last paragraph was a titanic moment for me. It undid all my former expectations with its bittersweet irony and unpredictable ending. My three-star rating went up to four-stars. I finished this quick novel in two sittings, but the impact really begins at the end and continues to foment even after you are finished.
Don't give up on it even though it seems that nothing is happening. The whole is better than the sum of its parts--the end was arresting, even astonishing.
Book Review: A quick read with good characters
Summary: 3 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This is a well paced story about a young woman from Ireland trying to make a life for herself in Brooklyn leaving behind her beloved sister Rose and her mother. Eilis Lacey is smart and hard working and has an unflagging advocate in Father Flood, the priest who sponsored her and found her a job and a room in a boarding house for single women.
Eilis is initially homesick in this new environment. Her landlady is bossy and meddlesome, and she has little in common with the other boarders - a couple of uptight spinsters and some party girls. She eventually adjusts to life on her own as she starts taking night classes and meets a young man at one of the parish's Friday night socials. Though happier than she was during those first days, Eilis still finds her new life tedious as she works long hours on the sales floor of a department store. Also, things are proceeding faster than she would like with her new boyfriend, Tony, who is already talking about marriage and children after only a few months. She likes him but doesn't know that she wants that kind of commitment so soon.
The story alludes to the racial tensions of the times as Eilis works in a department store that makes a controversial decision to start serving Black customers. Also, the characters briefly discuss some of the prevailing stereotypes about Irish and Italian people.
Things come to a head after a tragedy occurs back home and Eilis is unable to return in time for a funeral. She decides to go home for a visit and realizes how much she's changed and considers staying there instead of going back to Brooklyn. Her mother wants her to stay. She's been offered a job, and there is a young man who is suddenly very interested in the new Americanized Eilis. Though she is tempted to stay, Eilis made an impulsive decision before she left and will have to deal with that should she decide to remain in Ireland.
Like many young women, Eilis does not want to disappoint anyone and spends a great deal of time trying to make other people happy from her sister Rose, to her annoying landlady to her boyfriend Tony who seems to have their life all planned out and later her demanding mother. In the end the decision to return to America is made for her after a local gossip confronts her about her relationship with Tony who she'd kept secret from her mother. The ending of the novel is a bit unsatisfying because it's rather abrupt. but this was a good book overall.
Book Review: Love, Loss, Personal Freedom and Duty
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Colm Toibin is one of my favorite authors. His stories of Ireland and its history and heritage have given me a keener sense of that land and its people. His new novel, 'Brooklyn' is a veer from his usual path. I have a sense that this novel may be the beginning of an Irish/American tradition.
Eilis Lacey is a young woman living a sheltered life in a small Irish village, Enniscorthy. The period of time is the 1950's and there are two classes the working and the well to do. Eilis has several brothers and an older sister, Rose. Her mother is widowed and keeps the family running. The brothers have gone to Dublin to seek their fortune. It is Eilis' sister, Rose who is keeping the family fed and clothed. She is a secretary and earns a good living. Eilis is very good with numbers and a visiting priest from the United States is asked if he can assist Eilis to find a job. There is nothing available for her in her village, but Father Flood has many contacts in America. And, much to Eilis's surprise Father Flood has offered Eilis a chance for a new life and a job in the United States.
The promise of a new life in America brings many changes, but Eilis copes with her new found friends in a rooming house and her job as a sales girl. She studies accounting at night and writes many letters home. All is as it should be. Rose assists Father Flood with meals for the homeless and attends dances at the Catholic parish. It is here that she meets a young Italian boy, Tony. Love blooms and Eilis's life takes a new turn when tragedy strikes and she is summoned home. Eilis's response to these new life's changes may be surprising.
Colm Toibin has a knack for fleshing out the characters he writes about, and he did this brilliantly with Eilis and the Lacey family and friends in the small Irish village. However, the same cannot be said of the characters in Brooklyn. There was much more that could have been said about Tony and his family. Eilis's time at Brooklyn College and her studies of tax law seemed to fall apart. This is a nice story about a young Irish girl who finds love in a new land. I expected more than this.
Recommended. prisrob 04-15-09
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Book Review: Beautifully written novel about a young Irish immigrant
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Brief summary, no spoilers:
There are no explosions in this book. There are no murders, car chases, scenes with international espionage, or anything that would require its movie rendition to have special effects.
Instead, this beautifully written story is about a young girl named Eilis Lacey, who lives with her mother and with her attractive, vivacious sister Rose in a small town in Ireland. The time period is the 1950s. Eilis is smart and good with numbers but there is not much employment opportunity where she lives, so a priest with connections in both Ireland and New York gets her both boarding and a job in Brooklyn.
Needless to say, Eilis has to learn to live in a new culture and away from the only home she's ever known. Everything is so strange and new, but soon she meets a sweet young man named Tony and suddenly she begins to adjust and flourish.
This is the story of a young, immigrant girl learning to deal with change and adversity and how this makes her grow both intellectually and emotionally. It's also about dealing with disparate cultures, and having your heart and soul divided. Just what is "home?"
That this novel is written by a man is truly stunning - because Eilis comes alive from these pages and her thoughts and reactions generally rang true.
I also want to add that I could not stop reading towards the end because I just had to find out how this was all going to be resolved. And let's just say that this would make a very good novel for book clubs - there are going to be lots of different opinions on the denouement.
My only quibbles? I had trouble with the male characters, especially Tony. In many ways he didn't seem real to me, and if anything, too idealized. In many ways I wish this novel had been longer, and the relationships and personalities had been fleshed out more.
This is difficult to say without a spoiler, so I'll be careful not to - but as stunning as the ending is, I'm not sure it felt right to me. But then again, I'm not Eilis, I didn't grow up with her experiences, and maybe that's the whole point. (Hence, part of why this would be a good book for any book clubs.)
But I do highly recommend this book. Colm Toibin is one of my favorite writers, and he just writes beautifully.