Brooklyn
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Review
With this elating and humane novel, Colm Tóibín has produced a masterwork (Sunday Times )
The most compelling and moving portrait of a young woman I have read in a long time (Zoë Heller Guardian, Books of the Year )
A work of such skill, understatement and sly jewelled merriment could haunt your life (Ali Smith TLS, Books of the Year )
Suffused with humane depth, funny, affecting, deftly plotted ... a novel of magnificent accomplishment (Peter Kemp Sunday Times, Novel of the Year )
Brooklyn moved me more than any other book this year (Nicholas Hytner Observer, Books of the Year )
A beautifully crafted work that transformed ordinary lives into something extraordinary (Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year )
No book this year gave me greater pleasure (Nell Freudenberger Financial Times )
Not a sentence or a thought out of place. It takes over as his finest ficiton to date (Irish Times )
Remarkable freshness and immediacy ... with a lovely comedic lightness (Daily Mail )
A lovely, thoughtful book ... alive with authentic detail, moved along by the ripples of affection and doubt that shape any life: a novel that offers the reader serious pleasure (Daily Telegraph )
Tremendously moving and powerful (New Statesman )
The most compelling and moving portrait of a young woman I have read in a long time (Zoë Heller Guardian, Books of the Year )
A work of such skill, understatement and sly jewelled merriment could haunt your life (Ali Smith TLS, Books of the Year )
Suffused with humane depth, funny, affecting, deftly plotted ... a novel of magnificent accomplishment (Peter Kemp Sunday Times, Novel of the Year )
Brooklyn moved me more than any other book this year (Nicholas Hytner Observer, Books of the Year )
A beautifully crafted work that transformed ordinary lives into something extraordinary (Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year )
No book this year gave me greater pleasure (Nell Freudenberger Financial Times )
Not a sentence or a thought out of place. It takes over as his finest ficiton to date (Irish Times )
Remarkable freshness and immediacy ... with a lovely comedic lightness (Daily Mail )
A lovely, thoughtful book ... alive with authentic detail, moved along by the ripples of affection and doubt that shape any life: a novel that offers the reader serious pleasure (Daily Telegraph )
Tremendously moving and powerful (New Statesman )
Product Description
It is Ireland in the early 1950s and for Eilis Lacey, as for so many young Irish girls, opportunities are scarce. So when her sister arranges for her to emigrate to New York, Eilis knows she must go, leaving behind her family and her home for the first time.
Arriving in a crowded lodging house in Brooklyn, Eilis can only be reminded of what she has sacrificed. She is far from home - and homesick. And just as she takes tentative steps towards friendship, and perhaps something more, Eilis receives news which sends her back to Ireland. There she will be confronted by a terrible dilemma - a devastating choice between duty and one great love.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
113 of 121 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
quiet, old-fashioned and brilliant,
By
This review is from: Brooklyn (Hardcover)
Evocative, sparse, yet deeply emotional, the books of Colm Toibin have become some of my favourites. He writes beautifully about landscape, about the weight of the past on the present, but most importantly about people and their feelings. He is particularly good at showing family relationships and how they work.This new book was no disappointment. in the 1950s, Eilis Lacey moves from small-town Ireland to America to work in a department store. In Brooklyn, everything is different: you can even keep the heating on at night, she writes home, with excitement. Her culture shock on arrival is so beautifully written, you feel every moment of her disorientation and terrible homesickness. But then just as she seems finally to be settling in America, she suddenly must return home, and the gap between her two lives is revealed. Anyone who has ever had an intense experience abroad, then returned home thinking 'it seems like a dream now' must identify with Eilis. It's so delicately done, but with enormous power. I would love to know what others thought of the ending, as that was my only reservation, but I will not discuss it here as I hate plot spoilers. Please do read this book, it's quiet, old-fashioned and brilliant.
118 of 133 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Understated. Overrated(?),
By
This review is from: Brooklyn (Hardcover)
This book came to me highly recommended by a couple of people, so I was looking forward to reading it to see what all the fuss was about and I had not read anything by Colm Toibin before either so I was doubly curious.I was not exactly disappointed by the book, indeed I enjoyed reading it very much, but I would say I was underwhelmed by it. It is quite a simple and straight forward story about the experiences of a young woman who emigrates from Ireland in the 1950's to Brooklyn in New York. It is an experience shared by thousands, if not millions of Irish people over the years so there is a lot to relate to here for many people, including myself, especially for those from the generation of the main character Eilis. The story likewise is quite simply told, it is not showily overwritten but is instead rather understated and for me this was the major plus point of the book. I would imagine it captures very well and nostalgically the atmosphere of that time for people of a certain age, women especially. Toibin is quite skilled at drawing female characters, especially the girls that Eilis shares a boarding house with in Brooklyn, and when Eilis returns to Ireland after being in Brooklyn for a couple of years he captures very well the conflicting feelings inside of her at being home after being away, something many an emmigrant can sympathise with. That said I do have to say this wasn't quite the 'outstanding' novel I was expecting. Very competent and controlled, yes, but it didn't blow me away like I was lead to believe. I actually found the character of Eilis quite irritating after a while. She seems to go through the whole novel in a very passive way, it's all 'Eilis thought this, but then thought this but then decided to see what happens' and she seems almost swept along by feelings she does not really give much thought to. of course this is most probably Toibin's deliberate characterisation but its hard to care for and respect a character that seems to have no mind of their own. I found myself waiting for something devastating and dramatic to happen that just didn't arrive, even though towards the end it felt like the narrative was winding up to this. By the time I had finished reading this novel, I almost shrugged my shoulders as if to say 'Is that it?' It seems to me a lot of fuss over nothing that spectacular. An enjoyable, almost light read, but nothing spectacular. Many more people, I think, could write something as good if not a whole lot better based on their actual experiences of emmigration if only they kept it simple like Toibin. And the fact that this book is already being touted as a future Booker nominee can only lead me to speculate it is because it is written by a certain Colm Toibin, who is a well established figure in the literary world, and not on the actual merits of the novel itself.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
compelling to read, very had to put down!,
By Aisling Kelly "Aisling Kelly" (Leitrim, Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Brooklyn (Paperback)
This is my first book to read from Tobin. Slow to start off in the first few pages but then you are hooked! I couldn't put it down! I ended up staying up until 3.30am to finish it and when I did I was almost crying!!! I really want to know what happens to Eilis next!!!!
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