Dale Harcombe's Reviews > Brooklyn

Two and a half stars.
After reading Nora Webster by this author, I was keen to read this novel, which some people ahead assured me was better. It is the story of Eilis, who leaves Ireland in the 1950s and travels to New York to work. Her move is organised by her local priest and her board is arranged in a house with several other young women under the watchful eye of the landlady. It is not a novel with a lot of action but a character study of a young woman away from her family and adjusting to a new lifestyle and new people. Filled with small details of her changed circumstances, I kept reading thinking maybe the problem was with me having read this book so close to Nora Webster, who rates a passing mention in this novel. I rarely read books by the same author close together. But in the end I decided that wasn’t the problem. It was simply I never became fully engaged with Eilis or any of the characters.
The ending when it arrived seemed more anticlimactic than anything else. For me this was a disappointing read since I was expecting more from this author. However I know others who loved this book. I wonder if it depends on age group or what has been read before it? So maybe the best idea is to read it and judge for yourself. For me it was just an okay read.