Brooklyn: A Novel
by Colm Toibin
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Book Reviews of Brooklyn: A Novel
Book Review: Subtle
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This is my first exposure to this particular author and I will be seeking out his other books based upon what I read here.
Eilis Lacey was born in a small Irish town and is suffering through the lack of job and life opportunties of the depressed Irish economy following WWII. Her family and a Catholic priest make arrangements for her to pursue opportunties in the United States (Brooklyn) by acquiring a job and going back to school to further her education. We follow her life from the time she was in Ireland, through the crossing to the United States, and then observe how she settles into her new home. We share her fears and frustrations as she experiences in this totally foreign world. The call to return to Ireland is strong and as the novel unfolds, the reader finds out if the pull back is strong enough to override her developing comfort with life in Brooklyn.
I used the word "subtle" to describe this novel because it fits it perfectly. The beginning of the book moves slowly and not much appears to be happening when I eventually realized I was totally drawn into the story and mesmerized. The writing is relatively simple and straightforward but manages to convey to the reader absolutely everything the reader needs to know - therefore, subtle. In a novel of this sort, it would be easy to over-write and to become verbose and flowery -- that doesn't happen. My only real complaint is with the character of "Tony" whom she meets in Brooklyn at a dance and he becomes a main character as the book moves along. He didn't ring true for me and seemed just too perfect. Not three-dimensional to me.
The book reminds me a lot of "Empire Falls" by Richard Russo in the keen observation skills and sharp analysis of the place and time. Since "Empire Falls" is one of my all-time favorite novels, that is a strong endoresment.
Book Review: A wonderful book -- in spite of a maddening ending.
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
The writing throughout this novel was beautiful and lyrical as it tells the story of Eilis, a young girl who leaves her home in Ireland, alone, for a life in Brooklyn in the 1950s. Eilis didn't want to leave Ireland; she left because her financially strapped widowed mother and older sister wanted her to go and Eilis wanted to make them happy. She never expressed her own feelings or once told them she wanted to stay.
That set the tone for Eilis's character, a young woman who couldn't say "no" and would not tell people what she wanted or felt if it might make them unhappy. Her new life was planned for her by her mother, her sister and an Irish priest in Brooklyn, who arranged for her passage to America, a job, a room in a boarding house, and classes at Brooklyn College. It was all a bleak existence to be endured, except for the classes. She enjoyed the classes.
It's unfortunate that Eilis came of age at least a decade before women's assertiveness training became the thing to do, because if anybody ever needed to learn to assert herself, Eilis did. She had every opportunity to mature and develop her independance in America, but Eilis remains weak to the point of martyrdom.
I have to say the ending made me so mad that I wanted to throw the book across the room then walk over and stomp on it. I began to appreciate it only in hind-sight, as I realize the author has kept Eilis true to character to the end.
Even with a protagonist I wouldn't be able to tolerate in real life (unless I could slap some sense into her), I have to highly recommend this book. It's so beautifully written, I had every intention of giving it five stars until its abrupt and unsatisfying final few pages, and the author has done an amazing job of getting inside Eilis's head.
Book Review: Oversimplified and shallow
Summary: 2 Stars
This is a simple and gentle story about a young woman's immigration to New York from Ireland in the years after WWII. Much of the novel contains her personal thoughts and her analyzing her future and decisions and life in general. It has an easy pace with lots of descriptive elements and a vast array of characters.
I really wanted to love this book, but it just seemed oversimplified. I think virtually anyone could have thought up the plot if they were given the basic elements (girl alone in big city, first real job, meeting new people, family crisis). In fact, at one point it felt like an After School Special.
While Toibin depicts the female brain very well in some areas, there are other things that don't ring true. For example, other than her work and classes, the main character seems to have no curiousity about the world in general, or about the exciting new country she has come to. In subjects such as racism and the Holocaust, not only does she know nothing but she has no interest in learning more. And while we hear much of her thoughts, some subjects she doesn't even visit mentally: when her female boss makes a sexual pass at her, she feels uncomfortable but never ponders it again. Yet she ponders so much more trivial stuff all the time throughout the book (what to wear or where to eat)
.
Additionally, while there are some tragic events, overall there doesn't seem to be enough conflict to make the story interesting. All the other characters are almost too good to be true, some crusty or cranky but all of them (excepting Miss Kelly) are big hearted and generous. Money is never really an issue, and things go amazingly smooth for such a huge life change. Again, that seems incredibly unrealistic. And the strange behavior of her fiance's moodiness, her mother's unpleasantness, and her landlady's suspicions are never really explored.
I intend to read more of his work (I have ordered the Blackwater Lightship) and I hope things become a bit more complex and realistic.
Book Review: A Beautiful Story
Summary: 4 Stars
Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin, is a story that centers around a young woman named Eilis Lacey. Eilis lives in a small town in Ireland, along with her recently widowed mother, and her older sister Rose. Where Rose is fun-loving and out-going, Eilis is quiet and reserved. In Ireland, Eilis is studying to be a bookkeeper, and although she is doing well with classes, she has difficulty finding a decent job in Ireland, like her sister Rose.
When Father Flood, a priest visiting Ireland from the United States, meets Eilis and her family, he offers to sponsor Eilis in the US. Father Flood has a small parish in Brooklyn, and he promises to find Eilis, a good job working in a store there, as well as a place to stay with other women her age. Shy and afraid to leave the life she is comfortable with, her sister Rose encourages her to go, and tells her it would be a wonderful opportunity for her. She reluctantly agrees.
On the boat to America the nervous anticipation of the unknown quickly sets in. Once she arrives and gets settled at the boarding house, she soon begins getting letters from home, which make her even more homesick. Father Flood keeps her busy with work, suggesting she enroll in classes at the local college, and attending parish dances. At one of the dances she meets a young Italian man named Tony, who is immediately attracted to Eilis. They soon start spending time together and enjoying each other's company. When bad news arrives from Ireland, Eilis, decides she must return home for a while, but not before, she fulfills a secret request to Tony.
I really enjoyed this character driven novel from beginning to end, and without giving spoilers, I thought the ending was great. The author does a great job painting a vivid picture of 1950's Brooklyn, New York. What it was like for immigrants in America at that time, and the discrimination experienced by Jews, Blacks, Irish, Italians etc. This author is new to me, but I now plan to read more by him soon. RECOMMENDED
Book Review: A Young Woman, Stuck Between Two Worlds
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Brooklyn begins with Eilis, a young Irish woman, preparing to leave her small town in Ireland in the early 1950s to emigrate to Brooklyn. When Eilis arrives in America, she is overwhelmed, by the size of New York, the different types of people, and her new life. As she slowly adapts to her dull job as a shop clerk and her night classes at a local college, she begins to feel comfortable in this new life and her life in Ireland feels distant and strange. She even meets and falls in love with Tony, a young Italian American. When Eilis is suddenly recalled to Ireland after a family tragedy, she is re-confronted with her old life and must choose, is she the old Eilis or the new?
Although Brooklyn is a slow, quiet novel, and it took me a while to get into, in the end I loved this book. Toibin has a great way of capturing the everyday details of life and making them poignant and often beautiful. Nothing extraordinary happens in this book, but Eilis does have to make a huge decision that will alter the course of her entire life. The way Toibin presents this choice feels authentic without being overwrought, which is what makes this novel so good. In the end I was sad to see this novel finish, and I wished I could glimpse just a bit more of Eilis' world.
The novel also does a suburb job of capturing the attitudes and prejudices of first and second generation immigrants in Brooklyn in the 1950s. The changes that are about to fundamentally change America are beginning to take route, and Toibin addresses them quietly, as subtle changes in the everyday lives of his characters. Toibin's attention to these issues made the novel feel very authentic, and added to its quiet charm.