"Brooklyn" by Colm Toibin (published 2009)

I loved Eilis, I hated Eilis, I felt sympathy towards the story, I felt frustrated with the story, I didn’t necessarily want to finish the book, but I did, indeed, in two days. This was the course of emotions that ran through me while reading Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. 

The book is entertaining to say the least, and is deeply moving, especially in the beginning and middle parts of the story, and then very shocking towards the end. Things happen to Eilis, the protagonist, that a reader may not (and probably won’t) suspect, and the contradictions of emotion and action within this very particular young woman are told in such a way by Toibin that is economical perhaps of because of how straightforward his writing is. In otherwords, it’s a quick read. However, there is an aura of mystery as well, which makes this story potent for discussion. Toibin will not tell you why things happen in the story, he tells you the events and hints at certain things, while the reader hypothesizes as s/he moves along. What is the real motive behind Eilis’s move to America? Where does Eilis’s heart lie? Does the term “home is where the heart is” ring true in this book? Chances are, by the end of this book, you will have plenty to discuss and think about regarding those questions and more.

The basic plot will be summed up here (no spoilers): Brooklyn is a story about Eilis Lacey, a young Irish woman from Enniscorthy. She immigrates to Brooklyn, New York during the 1950’s, and finds that her life becomes drastically different than the one she knew, in which she lived surrounded by a few close best friends, her beautiful and talented older sister, and her sharp, loving mother. In Brooklyn, she knows practically no one except the priest who sponsored her immigration. Once in Brooklyn, she is set-up to live in a house with already Irish-American young women, so unlike anyone she knew previously. All of them live under the irritable and conventional Mrs. Kehoe, or “Ma Kehoe”, as Father Flood calls her, who is the caretaker within the household. Eilis’s first months are full of a deep homesickness. Despite her new job at Bartocci’s, an elegant and swanky Italian-run department store, she still is quite depressed in her new surroundings. Soon, she in enrolled in college to study American bookkeeping, and her life becomes a little happier, a little lighter – perhaps because of the work’s distraction – but her life becomes even more livable and enjoyable when she meets Tony at a dance. This Italian-American young man falls in love with her and keeps her company through her first year/s in the United States, which includes a brutally cold winter.

An intriguing part of the book is its historicity. This intriguing historicity starts in Enniscorthy, Ireland. Toibin develops this by describing unmistakable personalities in the town as well as their cultural significance in terms of Irish customs and ideologies (The shop owner Miss Kelly, for example, cherishes her more wealthy customers above the “lowly” ones, and, in many parts of the story there are allusions to the Lacey women withholding their heartfelt emotions – are these typical of Irish characters, perhaps?). Eilis’s reactions to this world is one of the enticing factors about the story, and her move to Brooklyn is another opportunity to know her character by how she adapts to Brooklyn, a town of hustle and bustle, mixed ethnicities, and its inclination towards fashion sensibility and education. There is much to learn from Toibin about 1950s stereotypes and observances. 

I recommend this book for anyone who wants a quick entertaining read that is rich in social commentary, for anyone interested in reading about a very unique, and perhaps not as relatable female protagonist, and for any immigrant who wants to hear a story, either similar or dissimilar from their own personal journey. Those emotions mentioned earlier that ran through me while reading the book will perhaps run through you as well, and the only promise to be made is that finishing the book will be well worth the effort.