Long Island, by Colm Toibin.
Colm Toibin’s lovely novel ‘Brooklyn’ was the setting
for young Irishwoman Eilis Lacey’s liberating trip to the United States in the
late 50’s, a trip which enabled her to have a new and completely different life
from the predictable, safe but dull village existence she would have had in her
county in Ireland with her boyfriend Jim, being a wife and mum like all of her
friends. Going to the States had changed
that outcome, for she has met young Italian Tony Fiorello and they are both
smitten. Life is more than exciting –
it’s wonderful! And they are both going
to live happily ever after.
Twenty years later, the
happily ever after has produced two teenagers, and the entire family – Tony’s
parents and his brothers, plus wives and kids – have shifted from Brooklyn to a
Long Island town, in a four-house cul-de-sac, almost like a compound, with
everyone dropping in and out when they feel like it. Which is a lot more often than Eilis would
like, but she doesn’t really seem to have much say in the matter. She is now in her 40’s and has come to the
realisation that excitement and wonder have passed her by.
Until she receives a
visit one day from a stranger – an Irishman – who informs her that his wife is
pregnant to her husband. Tony is a
plumber by trade and it appears that he added services to the job that were not
normally required. The betrayed husband
tells Eilis that when the baby is born, he is bringing it to her to do with as
she sees fit, but HE won’t be having it in the house.
And neither will Eilis!
She is appalled at her
husband’s infidelity and it’s not long before the rest of the family knows
about it too, but the worst thing – the
worst thing! – is that her Mother-in-Law announces that she will raise the child, because it is
a Fiorello, after all. Eilis’s feelings
and opinions are worth nothing in the face of family solidarity. Which leaves Eilis little choice but to go
back to Ireland ‘for an extended holiday’ for the first time in twenty years,
ostensibly for her mother’s 80th birthday, but to hide out and plan
her next move. And what sort of
reception will she get back home, especially from her mother, her erstwhile
best friend, and spurned boyfriend Jim?
Colm Toibin has written
another beautifully realised and poignant story of the different reactions to a
massive lifestyle event, where no-one gets off scot-free. There are many unanswered questions at
novel’s end, which must mean there HAS to be a sequel – has to be, or the
literary world will be in a very dark place!
SIX STARS
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