A review by cinderellasbookshelf
Long Island by Colm Tóibín

reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this sequel to Brooklyn. I’ve thought about what might have happened to Eilis, Tony, and Jim after Brooklyn, but didn’t expect this. The idea of Tony impregnating another woman was interesting and what becomes of it later that pushes forward Eilis’s return to Enniscorthy, Ireland. 

I liked seeing Jim again and him and Eilis rekindling their romance had me both happy, but also really icky and guilty because they were essentially cheating on their significant other. Jim and Nancy was an interesting choice. I don’t love it, but I get it with Nancy being a widow after her husband, George’s death. The ending feels incomplete in a way, but I think it’s implied that Jim will stay in Ireland, despite his hopes to moving to America to be with Eilis as he would really miss what’s secure and comfortable in his life. Also, Eilis gives him answer to his question about what she would do if he called and said he was in New York for her. Jim would marry Nancy since she told the whole town (speaking of which, I don’t like how she did that but I get it), and Eilis will do what she’s been saying all along - how she’ll focus on settling Rosella and Larry but her marriage will mean nothing anymore. Maybe she and Tony might divorce, but it seems unlikely as she knows her children want things to stay as they are, even though she’ll be unhappy and already feels like an outsider. Perhaps over time she and Tony will rekindle what they had,  but it will be a difficult road.

I like that Tóibín gave us a sequel, but I don’t know how I feel about where he took the characters. I’ve always felt in Brooklyn that Tony kind of forced Eilis to marry him, which is why I wanted her to be with Jim. However, that’s not the story. Brooklyn was about Eilis moving to America and how she finds herself outside of her small town, forging her own identity and her own life. I think Long Island is about regret in a way in the idea of looking back on life now that you’ve lived it. Two ships passing in the night of what could have been. That also makes me wonder if Tóibín wanted to explore Eilis and Jim in their late forties trying to grab what they could have been based on how it ended in Brooklyn. Mhm. I’m still trying to figure out what it all means.