20.09.2016

Negative review of Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín is definitely a quick reading novel. Vocabulary is really easy. To tell the truth, sometimes rhythm is too quick and you cannot really follow Eilis’s romance. You would expect more details.

Having read the novel after my return from the U.S.A. I expected the story to raise the same emotions I had felt abroad. Indeed the plot lacked of creativity. Eilis, rest to move to New York, cannot find a better future as she got there. Nostalgia and everyday difficulties seem to influence in a negative way the adventures in the new world until, she finds love and a better employment. Unfortunately it will last very shortly: destiny will oblige her to a very difficult decision.

The reader is as frustrated as the Irish young lady and, the ending is really upsetting. Eilis’s decision is an open question and the reader has to find his own judgement.