4 Stars
This novel
won the 2009 Costa Book Award, was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and was
shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award.
A film version is currently receiving rave reviews and nominations for
awards.
Eilis Lacey
is a young woman living in Enniscorthy in the early 1950s. She is encouraged to immigrate to Brooklyn
since there are few opportunities for her in southeast Ireland. Just as she is adjusting to life in New York,
she is summoned home and is then faced with a decision about where to make her
home.
In many
ways, the book is a character study of Eilis.
She has several dominant traits; she is unsophisticated, incurious, and
wants to please. She is passive,
allowing others to make decisions for her.
She and her sister Rose are foil characters: Rose is lively and decisive and she takes an
interest in the world around her whereas Eilis, though diligent, accepts a
rather dull life, happy to be more of an observer than a participant in life. Eilis reminds me of the protagonist in the
short story “Eveline” in James Joyce’s The
Dubliners: a passive young woman living
in a stifling environment who chooses duty above her personal desires.
It is Rose
who arranges for Eilis to go to the United States; that is not something she
would have chosen for herself. Eilis, in
fact, would have been happy with a conventional life: “Eilis had always presumed that she would
live in the town all her life, as her mother had done, knowing everyone,,
having the same friends and neighbours, the same routines in the same
streets. She had expected that she would
find a job in the town, and then marry someone and give up the job and have
children. Now, she felt that she was
being singled out for something for which she was not in any way prepared . . .
“
Once in
Brooklyn, Eilis remains docile and lets others make major decisions for
her. Father Flood arranges her job and
evening courses, and her landlady changes her room in the house without Eilis
raising an objection. Her relationship
with Tony is directed by him; she just goes along with his wishes. In virtually all instances, she takes the
path of least resistance. When she
returns to Ireland, Eilis allows her mother to dictate how she spends her
time. Her behaviour with her friends there
might seem perverse but, once again, she just goes along with plans made by
others. She has reservations about those
plans but allows herself to be lead in directions she would not have chosen for
herself.
Some people
have suggested that Eilis becomes decisive at the end, taking her own destiny
into her hands, but I would argue that, again, the decision is made for her by
the decisive actions of someone else, actions which leave her little
option. She remains totally consistent
in behaviour, choosing duty above her feelings, just as she chooses to emigrate
from Ireland because she feels it is her duty and returns because “her duty lay
in being at home with her mother.”
The
inability or unwillingness to express one’s feelings is a major theme. Eilis, Rose, and their mother all have
difficulty communicating: “they could do
everything except say out loud what it was they were thinking.” Though she does not want to leave Ireland,
Eilis never mentions her misgivings: “She
would make them believe, if she could, that she was looking forward to America,
and leaving home for the first time. She
promised herself that not for one moment would she give them the smallest hint
of how she felt. . .” Eilis’s letters
home are full of omissions and Rose certainly keeps a big secret from her
entire family. Eilis meets with her brother
Angus before she departs for Brooklyn, and he too refuses to discuss his
feelings of homesickness. When Eilis
returns to visit, her mother asks her not “one question about her time in
America, or even her trip home.”
Tóibín’s
style is understated. The tone is
restrained and the diction is simple, but complex emotions and complicated interactions
are depicted. My one reservation about
the book is its portrayal of the immigrant experience. Eilis seems to have few hardships; other than
experiencing seasickness (a wonderful metaphor for the upheaval of her life)
and homesickness, she adapts surprisingly easily. She
quickly earns sufficient money to support herself and even treat herself. And should she have any problems, Father
Flood, her landlady, and her employers are very understanding and supportive.
This author
seldom disappoints. In his books, he
excels at portraying the emotional lives of ordinary women, and this novel is
no exception.
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