News Details (Posted: November 30, 2009):

Book Discussions: Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Full Description:

We invite you to join our monthly book discussions on Wednesday evenings at Bill Library at 7:00 p.m. We always welcome new participants and provide evening refreshments.

December 16, 2009
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Colm Toibin's engaging new novel will not bring to mind the fashionable borough of recent years nor Bed-Stuy beleaguered with the troubles of a Saturday night. Toibin has revived the Brooklyn of an Irish-Catholic parish in the '50s, a setting appropriate to the narrow life of Eilis Lacey. Before Eilis ships out for a decent job in America, her village life is sketched in detail. The shops, pub, the hoity-toity and plainspoken people of Enniscorthy have such appeal on the page, it does seem a shame to leave. Toibin's maneuvers draw us to the bright girl with a gift for numbers. With a keen eye, Eilis surveys her lonely, steady-on life: her job in the dry goods store, the rules and regulations of her rooming house and finding appropriate company to keep.