Brooklyn

The first thing that struck me about Colm Toibin's novel, Brooklyn, was how young his protagonist is to sail away from her small Irish existence to Brooklyn, NY, all on her own. This book takes place in the 1950s (I'm pretty sure) and while there's a rich tradition of leaving your home and starting life in a new place, this book was the first to make me realize what exactly that would mean to a young woman (who might be twenty, but I'm not sure) in a time that lacked easy transatlantic travel, let alone communication systems.
Encouraged by her accomplished (but single) older sister, and aided by a Brooklyn-based priest with local ties, Eilis leaves the narrow comfort of home that offers little hope for a future, to begin life as a single young woman working in a big department store in NYC.

Her trip across the Atlantic is perfectly depicted as absolutely horrible. Sure, in the great tradition of such novels, she's befriended by an older, wiser woman, but that doesn't help for seasickness combined with homesickness. Eilis makes the mistake of eating food her first night on the ship and is very ill. She is prevented from using the shared bathroom by the calculated thoughtlessness of the neighbours and she resorts to using a mop bucket in the hallway her first night. Later, her bunkmate retaliates against the neighbors which is funny, but doesn't help Eilis feel less sick. After another night of constant retching, Eilis was exhausted: the liner seemed to hammer against the water. But then the sea became calm and Georgina [the older and wiser woman]...met the couple in the adjoining cabin and made an agreement with them that neither side would prevent the other from using the bathroom, but they would instead attempt to share it in a spirit of harmony now that the storms were over.

This is the sort of thing that Eilis, a relatively sheltered young woman, has to deal with on her first time away from home. It is easy to imagine that it's only to get worse when she starts her new life. I think I would have cried every night. Even though Father Flood has arranged her arrival, her job, and her home in a boarding house. Eilis has left everything she knows and expected of her future for a new and unexpected world. She seems surprisingly brave throughout.

But this is not a depressing novel and Eilis gets on fine--helped by many--and life in Brooklyn seems pretty good, apart from the homesickness. Eilis deals with the different personalities at her boarding house, advances in her studies and her work, and starts to fall in love (I think). Here begins the only flaw I found. First of all, I will say I'm impressed by how well Toibin captures a young woman's voice. That is usually hard for a man to do properly and I was convinced. But every time he gives Eilis some gumption, I think he's moving her forward as a character, and then, no, she sinks back into a passive sort. The Italian she begins dating seems perfect in many ways--though there are some mysteries about him that are never explained--and yet, Eilis holds her feelings back. She seems to go along for the ride, even though she seems happy and, um, active in her relationship. When she brings Tony home one night, the landlady (understandably for the time period) is furious with her. The other girls try to find out what is wrong with their landlady's humour:
"What's biting her?" Patty asked.
"I think I know, " Diana said, looking at Eilis, "but as God is my witness I heard nothing."
"Heard what?" Patty asked.
"Nothing," Diana said. "But is sounded lovely."
I thought that was a really sweet exchange, both period-appropriate and a reminder that not everyone was a prude back then.


So, anyway, things seem great with Tony, and Eilis adjusts well to American life, and all seems good, and then, as things do in Irish novels, tragedy strikes at home and Eilis has to make a life-altering decision or two.
Except that she doesn't make any decision. I wanted to kick her. It didn't seem fair of the author to have Eilis grow up so quickly and become so interesting and resourceful, only to stuff her back down into a child-like "it-was-all-a-dream" state. Choices are hard, but you have to make them or you're not living.


The writing is great, though, and the characters are well-drawn and there's a great sense of the Irish community in "the new world". It was nice to read something Irish that wasn't about poverty and bad luck. It's more a story of chosen immigration rather than one of despair. Toibin wonderfully captures the emotions of being torn between two countries or even two cultures. I just wish his character hadn't ended so flat even while the ending to his novel was good.