PattyMacDotComma's Reviews > Brooklyn

4★
“She could not bear to look at her two fellow lodgers, afraid that she would see something of her own gawking unease in their faces, her own sense of being unable to look as though she were enjoying herself.”

Eilis is boarding in a house in Brooklyn with several other young women who have taken her to a local dance. Two of them seem to know how to dress, how to behave, and how to flirt, and on top of that, they have arrived with two young men.

Eilis, on the other hand, is with two girls who are as awkward as she feels. She’s a young Irish migrant whose family has sent her to New York to join the many Irish already there who are seeking better lives. Her older sister Rose has a good job at home, and her two older brothers have left home and work in the cities.

“Until now, Eilis had always presumed that she would live in the town all her life, as her mother had done, knowing everyone, having the same friends and neighbours, the same routines in the same streets.”

She didn’t really have any ambitions for herself, but Rose and their mother and a Catholic priest, Father Flood, have made all the arrangements. Before she knows it, she finds herself sea-sick on a ship, sailing to meet the priest and the Irish community he serves. She’s excited and nervous and really at the mercy of everyone she meets.

She is ripe for advice, which the other boarders and Mrs. Kehoe are happy to give. Mrs. Kehoe is the widow who owns the boarding house and runs it a bit like a home for wayward girls. There are strict rules of behaviour and dress codes.

Miss Bartocci is her boss at Bartocci & Company, a department store, and spells out the company policy.

“‘Brooklyn changes every day,’ Miss Bartocci said as Father Flood nodded. ‘New people arrive and they could be Jewish or Irish or Polish or even coloured. Our old customers are moving out to Long Island and we can’t follow them, so we need new customers every week. We treat everyone the same. We welcome every single person who comes into this store. They all have money to spend. We keep our prices low and our manners high. If people like it here, they’ll come back. You treat the customer like a new friend. Is that a deal?’ Eilis nodded. ‘You give them a big Irish smile.’”

She is determined to succeed. She has always wanted to live up to her big sister, Rose, who knows how to use makeup and what to wear. Rose plays golf with friends, and seems to be set to have a career at the company she works for.

This is the early 1950s, so there are a lot of references to what people look like and where they come from. She acquires a boyfriend, Tony, an Italian whom her friends seem to approve of, but they do talk about “the Italians” as if they are a uniform group. Of course they pigeon-hole everybody.

Tony takes her to baseball and the beach at Coney Island, and she learns how to wear a swimming suit without shame and says the ocean is warmer than in Ireland. She is becoming content with Tony and thinks less often of home, when she suddenly receives news from Ireland that will test her allegiances.

I don’t know how the author got into the head of a very young Irish woman – a girl, really – and portrayed her feelings so well, but it never occurred to me this wasn’t her story. The characters are described in the third person but seen through her eyes.

I found the first part slow, as she left home and was finding her feet. But when she settled and became more assertive, she also became more interesting. Then, when she was pulled two ways, I had no idea what she was going to do.

All in all, I enjoyed it and can see why it made the 2009 Booker Prize longlist, among other awards.