I rarely ever want to skip to the end of the book to find out the conclusion but with Brooklyn, I skimmed the last 30 pages. Thankfully it ended the way I wanted, even if it seemed a little far fetched.
On the surface this was a good read, but when I thought about it later it seemed there were a lot of loose ends where Toibin would start a new part of the story and then drop off. The plot is about a young Irish girl, Eilis, whose family sends her to Brooklyn where there's a chance she can find work. I had hoped 1950's Brooklyn would have been more of a character, but it was only briefly mentioned at times. Toibin would bring current events in, like desegregation of the store Eilis worked in, but it wasn't developed. The same with references to WWII and the holocaust. Two small scenes mentioned it and showed Eilis ignorance to the Holocaust and how it deeply affected her boyfriend. I kept waiting for Toibin to develop it a little more to show how these current events affected the 1950's American landscape, culture, and this young Irish girl, but it never happened. ( )

I have a number of sources for discovering new writers. One fertile source is the Booker Prize, given annually to the best novel of the year. I have come to know many fine authors – Anne Enright, John Banville, and Ian McEwan to name a few. These prize-winning authors have given me many hours of pleasure, but the “also-rans” should not be neglected. One such author frequently short-listed for the prize is Colm Tóibín. Blackwater Lightship became my first experience with this wonderful Irish writer, who is currently a visiting professor at Princeton University. I have read three of his books, and Brooklyn represents a 180 degree shift from the tone and story-line of his previous works.

Eilis Lacey has just finished vocational school, and she has a knack for figures. She helps out in a small shop in Enniscorthy, Ireland. Eilis lives with her mother and older sister Rose. Unfortunately, she cannot find a permanent job in her town, so when a priest visits the Laceys, Rose tells him about Eilis’ plight. He offers to get her emigration papers for America, with a promise of a job and a room in a respectable boarding house. Eilis seems unsure, but she knows her options are limited, so she decides to take the plunge and leave the Olde Sod for the new world.

“New” is quite an understatement for Eilis. She finds herself on her own for the first time in a strange and wonderful land. She adapts well to her land lady, Mrs. Kehoe, and her roommates, who take her dancing. She makes new friends, and gets along well in her position as a counter girl at a department store. Set in the early 50s, she has all the innocence and sense of peace and happiness of that decade. A short bout of homesickness hardly slows her down at all.

Unlike some of his other work, Tóibín does not delve into the dark underside of life and its difficulties here. Rather, his warm prose weaves a serene tale of life in rural Ireland and Brooklyn, NY. Eilis matures quickly, and develops a relationship with young man she meets at a dance.

Tony is a gentleman in every sense of the word. On page 148, the first negative thing happens to Eilis. While walking Eilis home from her night classes, he spins a tale of American Baseball and his love for a particular team. Tóibín writes, “’You know what I really want ?’ he asked. ‘I want our kids to be Dodger fans.’ He was so pleased and excited at the idea, she thought, that he did not notice her face freezing.” Eilis was shocked at the speed Tony has pushed the relationship. As she does throughout the novel, Eilis turns the situation over and over in her mind, figuring from every angle how she should respond. When she does confront Tony, she does so perfectly. He understands and backs off.

The best thing about Tóibín’s novels, however, is what can only be described as lovely prose. Eilis returns to Ireland for a visit, leaving a distraught Tony behind. Eilis thinks of him often, but doesn’t tell anyone. Tóibín writes, “not telling her mother or her friends made every day she had spent in America a sort of fantasy, something she could not match with the time she was spending at home. It made her feel strangely as though she were two people, one who had battled against two cold winters and many hard days in Brooklyn and fallen in love there, and the other who was her mother’s daughter, the Eilis whom everyone knew, or thought they knew” (226).

Don’t mistake this novel for a romance. It is a sensitive and detailed portrait of a young woman coming of age and dealing with many changes in her life. Will she go back to Tony? Or stay with Jim Farrell in Enniscorthy? I won’t tell. You will have to float through this beautiful novel to find out. 5 stars.

--Jim, 12/7/09 ( )

Sometimes books are quiet and emotional, like still waters. Brooklyn is one such novel. Colm Toibin maintains a masterful even tone throughout this story of innocence and loss. The book is the story of a rite of passage for an Irish girl Eilis Lacey and it is a captivating insight into the experience of emigration. This is a tender and affecting book and well worth reading. ( )

This book reminded me so much of my mom's journey from Ireland to New York in the '60's. I enjoyed the writing, and especially the characterizations of people from different parts of Ireland, ( )

Good story, good character development, thought-provoking. I didn't like the writing style very much. ( )