A Review by Zoe Boulton

Continuing with my current favourite reading subject- Irish people in America, I decided to try Colm Toibin’s latest novel- Brooklyn. Set in 1950s County Wexford and Brooklyn. The heroine- Eilis is nineteen years old; she has a good education and aspirations but struggles to find work in her hometown of Enniscorthy. Like many young people of her generation she emigrates and goes to America alone, leaving behind her widowed mother and her glamorous, vibrant, older sister Rose.

Eilis is a passive character, she is quiet, naïve and very unwilling to speak out or cause a fuss. Whilst initially I found her endearing and understood her reluctance to go against the grain, she became frustrating to me by the end of the book, and I longed for her to speak her mind as I didn’t believe that someone could emigrate and not become just a little more forthright. I enjoyed the descriptions of her life in the boarding-house and the dynamics between Eilis, the landlady and the other boarders (all Irish or Irish-American girls). I found it interesting also that Eilis’ world in Brooklyn was so similar to her world back home; she goes to work, goes home, goes to dances, sometimes goes to Church and occasionally ventures a little further afield. I was expecting more of the atmosphere of an iconic town and the sense of being in a vast country, but perhaps this approach is more realistic.

This was a very quick read, enjoyable, but I felt it was a shame it was such a short book.