BookBrowse Reviews Long Island by Colm Toibin

BookBrowse:

Colm Tóibín continues the story of Brooklyn's Eilis Lacey as she returns to Ireland.

Readers last encountered Eilis Lacey in Colm Tóibín's best-known work, Brooklyn (2009). In Long Island, the author returns to his enigmatic heroine in 1976, twenty years after events in the earlier novel. Eilis is now in her 40s, and married with two teenagers. Her house is one of four in a Long Island cul-de-sac, the others populated by her husband's parents and his two brothers with their large families. She hasn't returned to Ireland since 1956, and her mother hasn't visited. Although Eilis finds the closeness of the extended family claustrophobic at times, she's content with her life, working as an accountant from her home office and caring for her husband and children.

All this changes one morning when a man Eilis has never met appears at her home. He claims his wife is pregnant with her husband's child, and when it is born he intends to deposit the child on Eilis's doorstep, as he won't have another man's baby in his house. It's this announcement that sets the plot in motion. Eilis decides her mother's 80th birthday is a fine occasion to visit, and it will allow her time to consider the situation and how she will respond to it. As she returns to Enniscorthy, older and more Americanized, her unexpected reappearance unleashes a torrent of mixed emotions among those who knew the younger Eilis.

Like Brooklyn, Long Island is a quiet novel. Part of what makes Tóibín such a remarkable author is his ability to make his readers care about unremarkable people and situations. There's a richness to his characters, a depth that few other novelists are able to achieve. He captures the interior world of each with amazing realism. As her husband drives Eilis to the airport, for example, they sit in silence while Eilis contemplates the ultimatum she wants to issue (i.e., if he accepts the baby she'll leave him):

"[S]he saw that if she made the threats, she would mean them. And it was that knowledge that was stopping her from speaking. She was not sure she wanted to lose him, not certain either that she wished to bring [her children] from adolescence to adulthood without everything they had been used to, including their father. Her uncertainty almost made her nauseous as they began the last stretch toward the airport."

The author evokes deep empathy for each character he describes, even those that might appear for just a page or two. His work here is masterful.

Tóibín also illustrates universal experiences and feelings in vivid detail, making the plot feel exceptionally relatable. In one scene, for example, Eilis decides to surprise her mother by buying her a refrigerator without asking. Her mother is outraged and insists on leaving it in the hallway to be taken away. Only later does Eilis realize her mother's refusal of the gift is because she enjoys walking to the various grocery stores twice a day to see friends and gossip. This mother-daughter dynamic has played out countless times across generations and is one with which many are familiar.

The other scenes that I found rang particularly true are those that explore missed opportunities, times when the characters should have done or said something but didn't, left to later wonder "what if." It's this type of common sentiment – something that most of us have experienced – that helps readers become profoundly invested in the plot and characters; we genuinely care how the story will play out.

It's not necessary to have read Brooklyn before picking up Long Island; the latter book stands well on its own. That said, I was happy that I had read Brooklyn first, as I appreciated knowing more of these characters' pasts; Tóibín doesn't waste words delving into their backstories or revisiting the earlier work here. I also think Long Island is the superior book, and some may be a little let-down if reading them in reverse order. Don't get me wrong, Brooklyn is marvelous, but Long Island is on another level.

I can't recall another book in my recent reading that I've been so eager to discuss with others, so I have to think Long Island would make an excellent book club selection. Those looking for an outstanding character-driven novel will most certainly want to put this one on their lists. Tóibín is at the height of his powers here, and his fans won't be disappointed.

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in May 2024, and has been updated for the March 2025 edition. Click here to go to this issue.