Brooklyn: a Novel

Title: Brooklyn: a Novel
Author: Colm Toibin

     Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin, at first seemed simplistic and overdone with the onset of so many stories of small towns of Ireland in books such as Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy. In Part One of the Novel he at first carefully developed the many background characters more so than his main character, Eilis Lacy. We are given great detail of the many different people in Eilis' small town in Ireland including her sister Rose whose almost fun and carefree life integrated well with her ability to diffuse difficult conversations and situations between their Mother. Ms. Lacy and Eilis. It seemed as Rose propelled Eilis into her long journey, that perhaps Rose was the heroine of the story.

     However this is Eilis' story and although at times the reading seemed too detailed until I realized that I the reader was being drawn into her world lending to this story as if it were an Epic Novel spanning across continents, one familiar and so much a part of our main character's life and her new unknown continent. Toibin used both to give us a view of the post-World War II life and its impact on the young women of each continent.

     In America, specifically Brooklyn, New York, Eilis' world is one of deep uncertainty as she learns to navigate around her new surroundings and to understand and even care about people who are so different in not only ethnicity but in enlightenment. For me the beauty of this novel is Toibin's almost imperceptible insertion of mystery into the story as Eilis must choose between her old life and its familiarity with the new life she forged for herself in America.

Fiction; rated 4 out of 5.
Reviewed by Sherry L. Gotbaum