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I’m the type of person who tends to squirrel away books that are hyped up, even if I don’t always read them right away. I figure I’ll get to them eventually and hey, sometimes I really do! So here is a book that I’m about eight years late to the hype on but I really ended up enjoying!
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Eilis is a young Irish woman living in a small town with her mother and her older sister Rose. Her father is dead, her brothers have gone to England to find work, and she has no future in her hometown. When Rose arranges for Eilis to go to Brooklyn, where she’ll have a job and a chance to study to become a bookkeeper, Eilis feels that she can’t say no to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, even though she wishes she could stay. Once in America, she’s horrifically lonely and homesick, but slowly she begins to build a life for herself, and then she meets Tony, an Italian American. But just as her future feels certain, tragedy calls her back home to Ireland.
I’m not always a fan of literary fiction because I like plot and can get bogged down in too much description, but this book reminded me of why I find literary fiction compelling when I discover a book with apremise that really hooks me. The writing is gorgeous and moves fluidly from one moment to the next, not always lingering where you expect it might. I enjoyed that uncertainty and surprise, and even as I got to know Eilis, I always felt like there were new and interesting layers to her personality to discover. The descriptions about what life was like in the 1950s in both Ireland and Brooklyn were totally engrossing, and I appreciated how the author was able to paint a distinct picture of the various characters through dialogue and spare scenes. I found the relationship between Eilis and Tony compelling, in part because for much of their courtship you’re never quite certain how Eilis truly feels about him. The decisions she makes shortly before leaving Brooklyn and when she returns home to Ireland had me on the edge of my seat. It’s not quite the romance that the marketing of the book and subsequent movie adaptation promises, but the tension the author builds as you wonder which life Eilis will choose was truly excellent—so much so that I am still thinking about this book two weeks later.
Bonus: The movie adaptation is really lovely, with a few small but key changes from the book. Definitely don’t miss out on either.
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Happy reading!
Tirzah
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