From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Brooklyn

Colm Tóibín

Start date: August 15, 2010

Finish date: September 15, 2010

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Al

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Jul 05, 2009 David rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2009

OK, Man Booker award people, listen up! If this book doesn't win this year, you are dead to me, you hear?

I've said it elsewhere on this site, but it bears repeating. Colm Toibin is a genius. This is a man who has, on various occasions brought me inside the heads of:

• a gay man in Ireland suffering from AIDS and the women in his family ("The Blackwater Lightship")
• a compromised Argentine English teacher exploring his sexuality in the time of the fall of the military junta (“The Story of the nigh OK, Man Booker award people, listen up! If this book doesn't win this year, you are dead to me, you hear?

I've said it elsewhere on this site, but it bears repeating. Colm Toibin is a genius. This is a man who has, on various occasions brought me inside the heads of:

• a gay man in Ireland suffering from AIDS and the women in his family ("The Blackwater Lightship")
• a compromised Argentine English teacher exploring his sexuality in the time of the fall of the military junta (“The Story of the night”)
• Henry James in his middle years (“The Master”)
• an IRA gunman turned art thief (“Mothers and Sons”)
• an Irish high court judge (“The Heather Blazing”)
• and, most recently, Eilis Lacey, the stunningly ordinary, but completely unforgettable, heroine of “Brooklyn”, his latest novel.

Where does Toibin’s particular genius lie? Well, there’s the writing, of course. Which is remarkable for being so completely unremarkable. If that seems like a backhanded compliment, let me assure you that it is meant as quite the reverse. I think it takes a phenomenal talent (and a certain gutsy confidence in one’s own talent, which the author most definitely has, and just as definitely has earned) to write as unobtrusively as Toibin does. Nothing in his style draws attention to himself as author. Instead, time after time, he finds the right voice, so that the writing flows in a completely natural way, without a word in the wrong place.

How does he do this? The answer brings us close to the scary heart of his genius, I think. It’s because Toibin lets his characters take over in a way that few other authors manage to do. He becomes them, he channels them. To say they are “fully realized”, “deftly drawn”, that they “come to life on the page” – whatever reviewer’s cliché comes to mind – doesn’t even begin to do him justice. Empathy is surely one of the qualities we expect from any great novelist, and Toibin does empathy like no other modern writer I know. I find his ability to inhabit his characters both fascinating and scary. It scares me because it so exceeds my own powers of imagination. No matter what, or when, I write, I can never get away from being me, a very particular individual, with my own very specific 52-year old history. It’s probably why I have never understood the fascination of online role-playing games, or the ability of others to fabricate alternate online personae – no matter the forum, with me it’s pretty much WYSIWYG all the way.

But it’s one of the reasons I prefer fiction to non-fiction – if only vicariously, I find that truly good fiction has the power to take me out of myself, and to stretch my capacity for empathy, even if it’s only briefly. In his novels, Colm Toibin does this over and over again. I imagine it as being a wholly draining experience for him. But as a reader, my admiration for him is boundless.

I’d like to close this review by offering my congratulations on his upcoming receipt of this year’s Booker prize*. Because if there is any justice at all in this world, this is a man who has it coming.

Read this book. Read all of his books. And see if you don’t agree with me.

*: “Brooklyn” has been ‘long-listed’, I am happy to report.
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Mar 11, 2015 Clifford rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, audiobooks

I listened to the audio version of this book, with appropriate Irish accents for many of the characters, something I would have lost if just reading. I might not have enjoyed the book as much as I did without those accents.

For my full review: ...more

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May 30, 2015 Joyce rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-choice

One of my book clubs chose this because it was mentioned in "The End of Your Life Book Club." For much of the tale, I'm just reading along and not feeling terribly invested. I'm still not sure I have much of an understanding of Eilis, she is so reserved in her interactions. She allows things to happen to her - jobs, relationships, going to America in the first place. But I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with book critic Yvonne Zipp of the Christian Science Monitor, who wrote, "The ending of ...more

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Oct 31, 2009 Jennifer rated it liked it · review of another edition

A young Irish woman moves to Brooklyn in the 1950s. The story is basically about how she feels torn between Brooklyn and Ireland. Not very engaging. Maybe a 2.5 star book.

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