Colm Tóibín is one of my favorite authors and I've been fortunate enough to attend several of his readings. Brooklyn was perhaps one of my least favorite of his novels, although I still liked it. Long Island is a sequel to Brooklyn, picking up about 20 years after the first novel ended. As we near Booker season, I was eager to read Tóibín's latest since his books often make the lists and thanks to XXX, I received an advanced copy. Did I find it to be Booker worthy? Keep reading to find out.
Long Island by Colm Tóibín
Expected publication: May 7, 2024
Rating: ★★★★
Order it here: Long Island
Twenty years after the end of Brooklyn, the readers is brought back into the life of Eilis Lacey, a woman who left her home country of Ireland to come to the United States. Eilis is now in her forties, married to Tony, mother of two teenage children, and living in Long Island surrounded by Tony's brothers and parents. The novel begins as Eilis opens to door to a stranger who informs her that Tony had an affair and child with his wife and that once the child is born, he will bring it back to their house for Tony to raise. The remainder of the novel is focused on the consequences of Tony's affair on the lives of Eilis and the people surrounding her.
Having read Brooklyn isn't absolutely necessary but it does lay a more complete framework for the events in Long Island. I enjoyed this novel all the more for having read Brooklyn. I didn't love Brooklyn and found it a bit too love-story heavy for my tastes. I found it a bit hard to be engaged in the story of 20-year old Eilis and I found her rather bland and uninteresting in the prior book. While the first novel included some emotional pieces, I mostly felt untouched by those sections. In contrast, Long Island hit me more profoundly. Perhaps because I'm in my 40s and much more cynical about relationships (the grand ole love stories where love lasts forever), but I followed the events of Long Island with deep sadness and appreciation.
Long Island is deceptively simple and that is one of Tóibín's great skills as a writer. He has the ability to infuse a lot of meaning and deeper impact inside seemingly simple plots. The novel is about freedom (to live and love) and the constraints placed on those freedoms by our families, obligations, our prior actions and decisions, and ourselves. I felt like my heart was breaking for various characters in the book and my feelings for them were complicated, often vacillating between wanting to shake them for their actions and wanting to hug them for their pain. There is a lot of secrecy in this book and that creates tension for the reader who is fully aware of the backstories and secrets of all the characters.
A worthy novel that I connected with on a stronger level than I did with its predecessor. It is a beautifully written and touching novel with complex and flawed characters. Does Eilis forgive Tony and return or does she forge a new life for herself back in her home country, Ireland? I'll leave it up to you to find out.
I'm not sure I want to make a prediction yet for the Booker list, but it's certainly one that I will be thinking about when I make my picks.
The book comes out tomorrow. You can purchase your copy here: Long Island
We want to hear from you. Did you read Brooklyn? What did you think? Are you looking forward to this sequel? Which other books have you read by Tóibín?
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