Friday, June 19, 2020

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (audiobook)

genre: historical fiction

For Eilis, Ireland is home. It's all she's known and since her father died, it's just been herself, her mam and sister Ruth at home.  Although the second world war is over now and she's learning to be a bookkeeper, work is hard to find.  When Eilis has an opportunity to travel alone to New York and be a shopgirl, she takes it.  Moving to Brooklyn from a small Irish village is a exactly as hard for Eilis as you'd imagine but from her ladies boarding house to her job to the Saturday night dances at the parish hall, she makes a life for herself that has some happiness in it, if she doesn't overthink it.  But will it ever be home?

 I really enjoyed this immigration story.  Eilis's world is small but full of characters and the common day-to-day troubles that one deals with as one learns how to be an independent adult.  I liked when Eilis chose to take opportunities and stand up for herself, when she figured out what she would put up with and what she wouldn't, even if she sometimes frustrated me with her reticence.  I even appreciated the way she had to work hard to figure out what her heart wanted.  This book transported me to another place and time and I'm looking forward to watching the film now.

1 comment:

Marg said...

I haven't read the book but I did like the movie of this one.

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