When we left Eilis at the end of Colm Toibin’s lovely Brooklyn, she had just departed the small Irish town of Enniscorthy to return to her husband in New York; the Italian husband that no one in Ireland knew about, even Jim Farrell, with whom Eilis was carrying on a romance. But there are lots of Irish immigrants in New York, and everyone knows everyone’s business in Enniscorthy, so it was bound to happen that eventually someone heard about her New York marriage and confronted her. Faced with public censure, Eilis had run back to America.
Twenty years have passed before we catch up with Eilis again in Toibin’s Long Island, which starts with a shocker. Eilis is comfortably living in her house with Tony and their two teenage children when an Irishman appears at her door, tells her that Tony has been sleeping with his wife, and that a baby is due. He will not have another man’s baby in his house, and when it is born he plans to drop it off at Eilis and Tony’s door.
Tony is repentant and nervous. His family lives right next door, and after weeks of silence, his mother and uncle come to the decision that the baby will initially be looked after by his mother, and then adopted by Tony. Eilis, on the other hand, is adamant that she will not have another woman’s baby in the house. Her mother is turning 80, so she flies back to Enniscorthy so that she will be far away when the baby is born.
Time has passed in Enniscorthy too. Her best friend Nancy has married, had three children, and is now a 46-year-old widow. Jim Farrell has never married and is secretly seeing Nancy, but still carries a torch for Eilis.
As the emigrant, Eilis faces the familiar situation of being not quite at home in either place. In the loud Italian family she is quiet, reserved, but steely; she will not sit silent if she disagrees with the patriarch, to the family’s horror. In Enniscorthy she is restless, irritable with her mother, and wants to change and improve the old house with new appliances. She wonders about the missed romance with Jim, and when opportunity arises, rekindles it. Toibin’s deceptively simple sentences are full of layers, shading in Eilis’ thoughts as well as reflecting the characters and surroundings.
Slowly she understood why her mother did not miss having a fridge in the house. It meant that she had to venture out twice a day to buy groceries, getting some things in Hayes’ in Court Street and others in Miss O’Connor’s opposite, or going further to Jack Doyle the butcher’s […] For every trip to the shops her mother dressed up, wearing her good shoes and putting on a hat and then standing in front of the mirror as she inserted an old-fashioned hatpin.
Unlike Brooklyn, this novel focuses as much on Nancy and Jim as on Eilis, and Toibin makes all three stories equally interesting. Nancy struggled to make a living for her three children when she was suddenly widowed. She is comfortably off now, but has to work hard. Jim worked every night in the pub, and weekend nights were the busiest, so his dating life was seriously circumscribed until the business was more stable.
Every character in this novel is flawed and very human. Eilis is strong and determined, yet one for whom the end definitely justifies the means. Nancy is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of her difficult life, and Jim is well aware of the dishonorable nature of his doings.
Toibin is a master of nuanced, concise prose that nevertheless makes the conflicts very clear. Eilis is faced with the impossibility of separating from her beloved children, but also the impossibility of continuing with Tony as if nothing had happened.
Despite the apparent slow pace of the novel, the reader is always aware of the ticking clock. The baby is going to be born soon. Nancy is planning a future with Jim, as well as a marriage and a new house. Eilis’ children have to return to school and college.
Particularly charming is the way Eilis’ American children adapt to Ireland. Her daughter Rosella is sensitive and appreciative of familial bonds, and she develops a relationship with her Irish grandmother. Her son Larry is brash and loud, but loves the friendly pubs of Enniscorthy.
This is a novel about small towns and their lack of privacy. In Long Island, Eilis lives in a cul-de-sac of four houses, with Tony’s parents and brothers living in the other houses. Their yards are connected, their windows face each other, and Eilis cannot walk out of the house without someone asking where she went. Enniscorthy and its environ are even more intensely focused on each person’s activities.
As he walked back to the car, a woman standing in the gateway of the second house was studying him closely.
“Now, you are the man that has that pub in Enniscorthy,” she said. […] “I am Lily Devereaux’s mother. She used to talk about you. I remembered you because I had seen your name over the pub.”
And of course, the woman tells her daughter Lily, who tells everyone she meets, that Jim was out near the seashore one morning.
Appearances are everything. Eilis’ mother makes sure that everyone in town notices that her children have come for her 80th birthday. When they set out for church, it is a procession:
“No straggling and no smoking”, Mrs Lacey ordered. “I want Rosella on one side of me and Dominick on the other. The rest of you can walk behind. Larry, would you fasten the top button of your shirt and straighten your tie, like a good man.”
This is also a novel about secrets and lies. No one in Enniscorthy knows about Tony’s betrayal and the impending baby. Nancy has her future with Jim completely planned, but doesn’t want to scare him by revealing it. Two-timing Jim, of course, has to go through complex maneuvers to keep his love life secret from the women as well as the town.
Warning for those who like closure: this novel ends on an ambiguous note. One has to hope that Toibin plans to follow EIlis a bit further, but we’ll have to wait to see.
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