Introducing May's Book Choice - Brooklyn by Colm Toibin



It is Enniscorthy in the southeast of Ireland in the early 1950s. Eilis Lacey is one among many of her generation who cannot find work at home. Thus when a job is offered in America, it is clear to everyone that she must go. Leaving her family and country, Eilis heads for unfamiliar Brooklyn, and to a crowded boarding house where the landlady's intense scrutiny and the small jealousies of her fellow residents only deepen her isolation.

Slowly, however, the pain of parting is buried beneath the rhythms of her new life - until she begins to realize that she has found a sort of happiness. As she falls in love, news comes from home that forces her back to Enniscorthy, not to the constrictions of her old life, but to new possibilities which conflict deeply with the life she has left behind in Brooklyn.


On the surface this is quite a simple story but there are undercurrents of love and loss. It's had some mixed reviews, so it will be interesting to hear what we all make of it.
I know it's out in paperback in the US, so hope it will be readily available for everyone who wants to get a copy - Happy Reading

This link will tell you a little more about the author

Colm Toibin

I just requested it from the library. I'll let you know what I think.

Same here.

Same!

Well I'm over half way through my copy -can't wait for you all to catch up !!

I got my book at the local library yesterday. It was on the shelf.
Today I was at Barnes and Noble and saw it on a table being displayed as a noteworthy read.
Quite happy about that.

I am still waiting for my copy from the library and am tempted to just buy it at Borders.

I picked up a copy at the library today, too, ND. It was on the shelf, just waiting for me.

Very funny. I ordered mine from the library network and it came from Block Island to my city library!? Imagine, a story about an immigrant who comes over on the boat and the book has to come over on a boat, there's something ironic about that.

Ok, Sassenach, I finished the book and what a great little story. It actually made me think a lot about my mother and how she felt emigrating to America and I wish that she was coherent enough for me to have a conversation with her about it. When Eilis has her bout of homesickness, I could remember my father telling us that after the wedding, which had to be quickly arranged since my mother was a warbride and there was some legal time limit, she cried for almost a week. It must have hit her then and I can't help but think how lonely it had to be here without family or friends and no going back. When Tony tells Eilis that someday their kids won't believe the way that they married, it makes me think about how my sisters and I would talk to each other and say "Can you imagine marrying someone you hardly know and moving to another country, no way." None of us live more than 50 miles from one another and we have roots growing out of our feet, except for vacations.

And here's a little Outlander comparison. Didn't you see a little of Eilis in Claire? Coming to a place without any "people" and marrying a man that you don't feel more than affection and sexual desire. Like Eilis, Claire had her bout of homesickness early on and overcame it by keeping busy.

I was rooting for Eilis to have a wonderful marriage with Tony in Long Island and somehow think that they did. Great book selection especially after the epic Rebels & Traitors which was really good but had a bittersweet ending.

Glad you enjoyed it Pauline - looking forward to more discussions when the book is opened up in the book in the discussion thread.

I finished Brooklyn today and was unsatisfied with the book's ending. I wanted to know what happens next to Eilis, who seems so confused to me. She does remind me a bit of Claire -- a stranger in a strange land -- but she is more fickle and unsure of herself than our OL heroine. Eilis lives in the moment and doesn't seem to have any emotional attachments, maybe due to her strange relationship with her family, especially her mother. I too am routing for Eilis and Tony, like Pauline, and would have preferred to know more about their future together. Their outcome is implied, but it seems so sad instead of promising. Eilis did not realize how fortunate she was to find someone who would love her unconditionally, who accepted her as she was prior to her transformation in Brooklyn.

SPOILER WARNING
OPEN FOR DISCUSSION




It is Enniscorthy in the southeast of Ireland in the early 1950s. Eilis Lacey is one among many of her generation who cannot find work at home. Thus when a job is offered in America, it is clear to everyone that she must go. Leaving her family and country, Eilis heads for unfamiliar Brooklyn, and to a crowded boarding house where the landlady's intense scrutiny and the small jealousies of her fellow residents only deepen her isolation.

Slowly, however, the pain of parting is buried beneath the rhythms of her new life - until she begins to realize that she has found a sort of happiness. As she falls in love, news comes from home that forces her back to Enniscorthy, not to the constrictions of her old life, but to new possibilities which conflict deeply with the life she has left behind in Brooklyn.

Now that some of us have had the chance to read this month's selection, it would be interesting to see what we all made of it. Please post your thoughts, hopefully we'll all have different interpretations of the story.Don't be afraid to discuss, disagree and generally pull the book to pieces.

Happy Book Chat !!

Here are my thoughts :

I thought that it was quite beautifully written with a quiet elegance to it. Colm Toibin never wastes his words unnecessarily and can say in just a few short sentences what it takes some authors pages to write. He manages to convey a sense of place and purpose that carries you along quite succinctly.

I thought that Eilis ( pronounced Ay-lish ) was a remarkable young woman, sent far away from her family with little discussion and then having to make her way in quite a strange environment, away from family and friends, no wonder she was homesick.

I loved the minutae of life in the boarding house with the interaction between the tennants - Mrs Kehoe was the glue that held them all together, and manipulated them in such a clever way.Father Flood recognised the potential in Eilis, and was quietly philanthropic in the way he made things happen for her - he knew that she needed to get away from the stifling environment of Mrs Kelly's shop in Ireland, just as he knew that book keeping would be her salvation in Brooklyn.
I was shocked when Rose died and really didn't want Eilis to return to Ireland as I suspected that her mother would have wanted her to take Rose's place.
There was a lovely naivety about Eilis, she was vulnerable and delicate and yet had the strength of will to survive despite the raw hand that fate dealt her.
The ending was nicely ambiguous - ultimately, I wanted her to be happy, and I'm not sure that she would ever have settled with in Ireland with Jim, without losing a piece of herself.

..."She has gone back to Brooklyn" her mother would say
I hope she was happy there.

Brooklyn is now open for discussion

Find the discussion thread Here

Please join in..... BUT for those who haven't read, or finished the book beware of SPOILERS