Brooklyn and Long Island should be read together, as they follow the life of Eilis Lacey, native of Enniscorthy, Ireland, and emigrant to Brooklyn, NY. Eilis reluctantly leaves Enniscorthy when her sister Rose and her widowed mother make clear to her that her prospects in Ireland are bleak, as there were few jobs for a young woman there. We follow Eilis’ experience in Brooklyn of the 1950s, finding work in a department store and studying book keeping at night. Eilis begins a romance with Tony Fiorello, a local plumber. When Rose unexpectedly dies, Eilis must return for the funeral, but not before she secretly marries Tony, who was afraid she would not otherwise return. His fear proved justified, since she has a brief romance with Jim Farrell, a pub owner’s son from her home town. When someone in the village reveals that she is aware of her secret marriage, she quickly returns to New York.

Long Island picks up twenty years later from where Brooklyn left off. Eilis lives in the home built by Tony, where she has raised their children and kept the family’s home, on a cul de sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, surrounded by the homes of her in-laws, and two of Tony’s brothers and their Italian American wives and children. Eilis and Tony have two children: Rosella, who is months away from going to college at Fordham University, and Larry, a high school student. Eilis keeps the books for the brothers’ plumbing business.

Toibin drops a bomb into this happy domesticity: Tony has an interlude with the wife of a customer, during a plumbing service call. Upon learning of his wife’s pregnancy and the plumber’s part in it, the husband goes to Tony’s home and angrily declares to Eilis that when his wife gives birth, he is leaving the baby on Eilis’s doorstep. We see the inner turmoil Eilis goes through, as we learn that she has long coped in this manner, feeling as though she is taken for granted, her feelings not of anyone’s concern among her extended family, always doing what is expected of her, completely loyal and causing no problems. This is a circumstance too far, and she makes it know, plainly and with no drama, that she will have nothing to do with the baby, and finds it unacceptable to even be subjected to having the child live with the grandparents.

Eilis uses the fact that it is her mother’s eightieth birthday in August to plan an extended visit to Ireland. Her children express interest in going as well, and Tony’s brother Frank makes the trip financially possible. He is a successful Manhattan lawyer, and also offers to pay Rosella’s college tuition. Frank is aware of Tony’s situation, and feels it is owed to Eilis to partly fund the trip, as she has not visited these twenty years, and he can understand her need to escape the situation for awhile. It is clear to Eilis, Tony, and indeed Tony’s family, that Eilis is distraught and may not return to the US.

This novel is a study in the inner life of the immigrant experience, as well as a life where feelings are not discussed, but deeply felt. The people of the Enniscorthy closely observe each other, talk behind one another’s backs as they try to understand their motives and behavior, but never discuss their feelings with each other, up front and personal. It is Eilis’s way to ponder, but never openly discuss, even the most personal situations and relationships. I suspect this is a trait of the Irish, as I witnessed this in my own family. Discussion of feelings was rare to never done. We watch as Eilis struggles with her situation, caring for her mother and visiting children, the eyes of all in the village upon her, and finally, resolving the past with Jim Farrell.

I greatly enjoy the writing of Colm Toibin, its calm surfaces and deep, turbulence underneath. It is very real, honest, and reveals the truth of selves and relationships, of life choices. I highly recommend these two novels.