This novel had been recommended to me a number of times by various friends, and I nabbed it at the library a couple weeks ago. I hadn't had a lot of interest in it, as I erroneously assumed a lot about the plot without ever reading the synopsis. My friend Sarah gave me the scoop at Book Group a couple weeks ago that I would love this book, and I pretty much never doubt a suggestion from her!
The story is about a young woman in Ireland in 1951 who moves to Brooklyn, a move that is orchestrated entirely by her older sister Rose, a woman who knows exactly what she wanted out of life, and tries to make those things happen for Eilis. She moves into a boarding house with several other young Irish women, works at a clothing shop, and eventually meets a young Italian man named Tony who falls deeply in love with her. She is living a successful life, and blossoming into a certain, sure-minded woman. But when a tragedy at home forces her back to Ireland, she is faced with a desperate longing to stay in Ireland with the familiar, and that knowledge that she has an obligation to Tony to return.
Despite all the growth she seems to make throughout the novel, I was struck by the fact that she never really makes a decision about her life on her own. Others seem to arrange just about everything for her, while she silently internalizes how she would like to do things differently. While I loved the style of Toibin's writing, a very plain narrative with little in the way of dialogue, I was ultimately dissatisfied with Eilis's journey. I never felt terribly attached to her, perhaps owing to the fact that she doesn't really ever open herself up. It's certainly not that I didn't like the novel, because in fact I couldn't put it down, but that I wanted more for Eilis. I think it almost read like a very long short story, where it felt like it could end at any moment and I wouldn't have felt any differently. I am the first to admit my disliking of short stories, and so this certainly influences how I read the book. I am torn! I wanted to love this book as my friends seemed to, but I can't say that I did.
What I did really love was thinking about how I would have loved to have read this book when I was in college. I wrote my senior thesis on Irish diaspora, and this book is just ripe with it! Finding your way as an Irish person in a different country, then the return to Ireland as someone who is now Americanized and other, oh my I would have delved into this novel so deeply!
I definitely would recommend this book to anyone, it was a sweet story, and I really loved the writing and look forward to reading more by Toibin. It is not gritty and deep, but rather a nice journey with Eilis as she comes of age and discovers herself, and is a great look into at least a slice of Irish life in the 1950's.
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