Book Title: Brooklyn
Author: Colm Tóibín
ISBN: 978-1-59921-230-8
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published Year: 2009
Introduction
Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn is a quietly moving exploration of a young woman's journey from rural Ireland to Brooklyn, New York, in the 1950s. The novel portrays Eilis Lacey, an intelligent but shy girl, as she reluctantly leaves her small Irish town to seek better opportunities abroad. The story unfolds in a deeply intimate and introspective way, showing the emotional toll of immigration and the tension between tradition and modernity, home and the unknown.
The novel is divided into three parts: Eilis’s life in Ireland, her time in Brooklyn, and her eventual return to Ireland. Each part highlights the difficulties Eilis faces as she tries to reconcile her past with her present, ultimately having to make a life-defining decision about where she belongs.
Main Characters
Eilis Lacey: The protagonist, Eilis is a soft-spoken young woman from a small Irish town who moves to Brooklyn in search of better opportunities. She is often passive and struggles with asserting herself, but over the course of the novel, she begins to mature and confront difficult choices about her future.
Rose Lacey: Eilis’s elder sister, who is lively, ambitious, and confident. Rose remains in Ireland to care for their mother and plays a significant role in Eilis’s decision to emigrate. Rose’s life and sacrifices are central to the novel’s emotional depth.
Tony Fiorello: An Italian-American plumber who falls in love with Eilis in Brooklyn. Tony is kind and devoted, representing a new and stable life for Eilis in America.
Father Flood: The Irish priest in Brooklyn who arranges Eilis’s job, education, and housing. He acts as a guardian figure, helping Eilis adjust to her new life.
Jim Farrell: A charming young man from Eilis’s hometown who becomes important to her after she returns to Ireland. His presence complicates her feelings about Brooklyn and her future.
Miss Kelly: Eilis’s former employer in Ireland, who is critical and cold-hearted. She symbolizes the small-town mentality and the constriction of opportunities in Eilis’s old life.
Plot Summary
Part 1: Life in Ireland
The novel begins in Enniscorthy, a small town in southeast Ireland. Eilis lives with her mother and older sister, Rose, in a modest home. While Rose has a job in an office and enjoys a lively social life, Eilis struggles to find suitable work, relying on small clerical tasks and part-time jobs for Miss Kelly, a local shop owner who treats her poorly. Despite her qualifications and intelligence, opportunities in Ireland are scarce, especially for women, and Eilis’s prospects seem limited.
"Eilis had no answer for her mother’s questions about the future, no sense of when or how she would ever escape from the drudgery of her life in Enniscorthy."
It is Rose who ultimately orchestrates a way out for Eilis, contacting Father Flood, an Irish priest living in Brooklyn, who arranges for Eilis to emigrate to America. Though Eilis is initially hesitant to leave her family and the life she knows, she is aware that her opportunities in Ireland are limited. She agrees to move to Brooklyn, leaving her mother and sister behind, uncertain of what awaits her.
Part 2: Adjusting to Brooklyn
In Brooklyn, Eilis struggles with homesickness and the overwhelming sense of being a foreigner. She lives in a boarding house with other young women under the watchful eye of Mrs. Kehoe, a strict but caring landlady. Eilis finds work in a department store and enrolls in night classes for bookkeeping, which Father Flood arranged to help her advance in her career.
"The bright lights of Brooklyn seemed to mock her, as though they knew she didn’t belong."
At first, Eilis feels lost and disconnected from the world around her. She longs for home, constantly thinking of Rose and her mother. However, as she becomes more accustomed to the rhythms of life in Brooklyn, she begins to find a sense of purpose. Her job at the department store introduces her to a different way of life, and her night classes give her hope for the future.
Tony Fiorello and Romance in Brooklyn
Eilis’s loneliness is somewhat alleviated when she meets Tony Fiorello, a young Italian-American man who frequents the Irish dances she attends. Tony is immediately smitten with Eilis, and though she is initially reserved, she eventually grows fond of him. Tony is kind, respectful, and devoted to Eilis, and he introduces her to his large, close-knit Italian family.
"Tony made her laugh in a way she hadn’t since leaving home. In his company, Brooklyn no longer felt like a distant and foreign land."
As her relationship with Tony deepens, Eilis begins to feel more rooted in Brooklyn. He represents the possibility of a future—a life of stability, love, and belonging. Tony confides in Eilis about his dreams of building homes in Long Island, and he envisions a future where they will marry and start a family together.
However, even as Eilis starts to build a new life in Brooklyn, she remains haunted by her ties to Ireland, particularly her bond with Rose.
Part 3: Tragedy and Return to Ireland
Just as Eilis begins to settle into her life with Tony, tragedy strikes: Rose dies suddenly of a heart condition. The news devastates Eilis, and she feels an overwhelming obligation to return to Ireland to be with her mother, who is now alone.
"The world she had tried so hard to leave behind had reached out to pull her back."
Tony, understanding her sense of duty, insists that she go but urges her to return to him. Before leaving, Tony asks Eilis to marry him in secret, fearing that her trip to Ireland might make her reconsider their life together. Eilis agrees, though she is unsure of her feelings.
Back in Ireland, Eilis is once again immersed in the familiarity of home, and her mother's reliance on her becomes suffocating. She reconnects with old friends and meets Jim Farrell, a charming local man who seems to embody the life she might have had if she had never left Enniscorthy.
Jim’s interest in her and the comfort of being back in her old world begin to complicate Eilis’s feelings. She finds herself torn between two lives: one with Tony in Brooklyn, where she has carved out a new identity, and one in Ireland, where she could easily fall back into the patterns of her past.
The Climactic Choice
As the days go by, Eilis feels more and more pressure from her mother and the small-town community to stay in Ireland. Miss Kelly, her former employer, discovers her secret marriage to Tony and forces Eilis to confront her true feelings. Faced with the reality of her marriage and her future, Eilis realizes she must make a choice: return to Brooklyn and embrace the new life she has built with Tony, or remain in Ireland, succumbing to the pull of her past.
In the end, Eilis chooses to return to Brooklyn, accepting that her life in Ireland, though familiar and comforting, is no longer where she belongs. The novel closes with Eilis boarding a ship back to America, uncertain of what the future holds but determined to live the life she has chosen for herself.
"She felt a strange mixture of relief and sadness as the ship left the shore, her past and future colliding in the endless stretch of water before her."
Themes and Symbolism
Immigration and Identity: Eilis’s journey from Ireland to Brooklyn reflects the immigrant experience, particularly the feelings of displacement, homesickness, and the struggle to forge a new identity in a foreign land.
Home and Belonging: The novel explores the concept of home, both as a physical place and as an emotional state. Eilis is torn between two homes—Ireland and Brooklyn—each representing different aspects of her identity and desires.
Passivity vs. Agency: Eilis is often portrayed as passive, with much of her life dictated by the decisions of others (Rose, Father Flood, Tony). However, by the end of the novel, she begins to assert her agency, making a conscious decision about her future.
Grief and Loss: Rose’s death and the impact it has on Eilis and her mother highlight the themes of grief, responsibility, and the long-lasting effects of loss.
Tradition vs. Modernity: Eilis’s life in Ireland represents tradition, familial duty, and a conservative mindset, while her life in Brooklyn represents modernity, independence, and the opportunity for personal growth.
Conclusion
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín is a beautifully written exploration of identity, belonging, and the immigrant experience. Through Eilis Lacey’s journey from rural Ireland to bustling Brooklyn, the novel poignantly captures the emotional struggles of leaving home, forging new relationships, and making life-defining choices. Tóibín’s restrained and elegant prose allows the emotional depth of the story to shine through, making Eilis’s internal journey as compelling as the external events of the novel.