Brooklyn

In this lovely novel Colm Tóibín focuses on the life and loves of a new immigrant to New York City during the early 1950s. The book opens with a family scene of three women: Eilis Lacey, her elder sister Rose, and their Mammy, as they call her. Rose, although only thirty, is the main support of the family. This enables her to make most of the family decisions. Rose and Eilis's three brother have already left for England where they must endure anti-Irish prejudice and sneers in order to earn a living. Eilis, who is only eighteen but very bright, has been taking bookkeeping courses, but the only job available to her is working Sundays after Mass in a grocery for a boss who mistreats her. Father Flood, a local man who moved to America comes home for a visit. He immediately uses his contacts to offer Eilis a chance in New York City: he finds her a job, a landlady, and someone to pay her ship's passage. Eilis always believed that she would spend her entire life in her Irish town, but now must say goodbye to everything and everyone she knows. The boarding house brims with gossipy Irish girls who teach Eilis the ropes in Brooklyn. Her job is in a large busy department store, and they are the first store in Brooklyn to sell nylons for non-Caucasians. Several of her housemates are shocked by this. Fr. Flood begins hosting Friday night dances to raise money for the parish, and at her second dance Eilis meets a handsome blond man. He turns out to be an Italian and to work with his hands: a plumber--two facts that Eilis hesitates to share with her sister and Mom. Still she likes his eager demeanor, his kindness to her, and his interest in learning. After a couple of months in Brooklyn, a fierce homesickness strikes Eilis. The priest, her boss, and the landlady spring into action, enrolling her in night classes to get a bookkeeping degree. Then tragedy strikes back in Ireland. Eilis returns home. While there she must pick between two countries and the two men who love her. Recommended for those who like historical fiction and novels that explore the pull and push of family.