Long Island, Colm Toibin, author; Jessie Buckley, narrator
In this sequel to the novel “Brooklyn”, years have passed, and it is now the mid 1970’s. Eilis Lacey unexpectedly discovers that her husband Tony Fiorello has betrayed her. He is a plumber who visits the homes of his customers to make repairs. In one of these homes, he was unfaithful. Now that customer is pregnant, Her child is due in August, and her husband insists on giving the baby to them. He will not raise another man’s child and won’t have his home tainted by its presence. Eilis refuses to have the baby in her home or near her children. She will not raise another woman’s baby. Is this a stalemate?
Unbeknownst to Eilis, Tony and his family were deceiving her even further, since they were secretly consulting a lawyer, Tony’s brother Frank, to have their mother, Francesca, raise the baby in her home. When she discovers this, Frank swears her to secrecy. Eilis is humiliated by their behavior, and she is being treated as if she is the butt of their joke, a joke they find funny, but she does not. The entire family, Tony’s parents, Tony’s brothers and Eilis and her family all live next to each other in a kind of private compound. The baby would be right there, next door, forcing Eilis to witness the child’s presence.
The child is due in August. In order to clear her mind, and to decide what to do going forward, Eilis decides to return to Ireland to visit the mother she has not seen in more than two decades, and to stay at least until the end of August. Her daughter Rosella will start college in the fall and decides to go with her Eilis. Her son Larry wants to meet his other Irish family and will also travel with her. He feels he knows his Italian family and should know her family too. They have never met their Irish grandmother.
Eilis knows that Tony, her husband, does not like to be alone, but she also knows that one of his brothers will take him in while she is gone. She is not at fault. Tony started this. He wants to know if she will return. She seems unsure. She ties up the loose ends of her job working for Mr. Dakessian, and explains she should return at the end of August. He does not know about the child that is being adopted, but she expects the child to have been born by then. She wants no part of this disgrace that has befallen her.
As a young girl In Ireland, Eilis had been in a relationship with a young man named Jim. When she picked up and moved to Brooklyn, she abandoned him. In Brooklyn she secretly married Tony. Now, returning, once again, she wonders about Jim. When she bumps into a former close friend, Nancy, now a widow, she is invited to Nancy’s daughter’s wedding. She does not know that Nancy and Jim have decided to become engaged secretly. He does not know that Eilis will be at the wedding. They have not announced their engagement so as not to detract from her daughter’s wedding celebration. When Eilis and Jim meet again, there are unavoidable sparks between them that rekindle their affection.
Jim runs a bar and has little privacy, but he manages to secretly meet up with Eilis, until it is no longer a secret. He does not tell Nancy about her. Nancy runs a chip shop, but hears gossip from others and begins to wonder about Jim’s odd absences, since Eilis has returned. She simply cannot believe that they have become reacquainted with each other, but her suspicions are aroused.
Jim does not tell Eilis that he is engaged to Nancy. He has always been smitten with Eilis, and he never married when she left Ireland without explanation. He learned later that she had already been married to Tony and was living in Brooklyn. He would like to give up his life for her, and move to New York to begin again, though he has no idea how he would do it. Is she willing?
The lies and the betrayals mount quietly, but the effect is loud and disturbing when Nancy discovers the infidelity and has her own plans to save her relationship with Jim. How she saves him may be considered brilliant by some, devious by others. What does the reader think?
These characters keep too many secrets from each other. If they told the truth, would there be an alternate ending to this novel? Was Nancy too clever by half or brilliant in her deception? Will Nancy save her relationship with Jim or will Eilis lure him to New York to be with her at some point in an uncertain future? What kind of a man is Jim that he can two-time two women at the same time? What kind of many was Tony, as well, who betrayed his own devoted wife? How do the feelings about Eilis change for the reader as the story progresses? Are all the characters equally flawed? Will there be a sequel to this book too? I sure hope so.
The book is written with an underlying wit that makes even the worst betrayals palatable.