Tuesday, May 26, 2009

2009 book 112

Colm Toibin's Brooklyn
I hate that the book jacket gave away a bunch of things that happened like 200 pages into the book, so I'll be more vague than they were. Anyway, it's the 1950s and a passive young Irish girl who can't find a job in her hometown is packed off to America by her beloved mother and sister. Reading about her adjustment to a whole new country (and a whole new world of dating) was surprisingly riveting, even though the story had almost a dream-like quality to it (which is certainly not a bad thing, just it's not always as attention-grabbing). I'd never read anything by Toibin before and clearly I've been missing out. A.

2 comments:

christinamerge said...

Just finished this one - Loved it, too! Obviously, I'm working my way through your year end list like a big fat cheater! haha

Eilis was such an interesting character, and I wanted to know more about her sister. I especially liked the way Eilis would sometimes do terrible things to people as if she just had to so that she wasn't the "good" girl they all thought she was.

I had forgotten that I read The Master and loved it - I think I'm going to go back and read that one again now.

Alicia K. said...

I'm just glad someone even looked at my year-end list. :) I've never read the Master but clearly I should.