I'm not a big fan of the "literary novel." In fact, with few exceptions, I tend to steer clear of them. My taste in literature trends toward the more...inane.
I stumbled across Colm Toibin's Brooklyn, the story of Eilis Lacey's journey from Ireland to Brooklyn and the new life she makes for herself there, quite by accident. And for the first 50 or so pages, I wasn't sure I was going to stick with it.
But somewhere along the way, Eilis' story captivated me in a way that I wasn't entirely prepared for.
Eilis' prospects in her hometown of Enniscorthy are few and far between. So when her older sister, Rose, meets Father Flood, a Brooklyn-based priest visiting home, at the golf club, a plan is put into motion for Eilis to move to Brooklyn. Once there, her life begins to flourish in unexpected ways. A job, an education, and a romance all begin to transform Eilis from a meek girl into a capable young lady.
Toibin captures not only the essence of the Irish immigrant experience, but also the development of our young heroine from girl to woman. I'm not a big fan of male authors writing female characters, but Toibin does so with great skill.
A short read at only 262 pages, Brooklyn is well worth the investment of time it would take to read it.
