Brooklyn

Brooklyn is a 2009 historical fiction novel written by Colm Tóibín. The book follows Eilis Lacey as she emigrates from Ireland to Brooklyn in the 1950s, finding a job in a department store and falling in love with a young Italian man named Tony. Despite her new life in Brooklyn, Eilis makes a return to Enniscorthy, the same town Colm Tóibín was born and raised in, when her older sister Rose dies. While there, she keeps Tony a secret and begins falling for a local man named Jim. The novel follows Eilis on this journey as she fights homesickness and confronts the vast differences between Brooklyn and her rural Irish hometown. Though Eilis at times struggles to live away from her family, one of her greatest difficulties is facing the expectations her mother and sister have for her while she attempts to live her life independently. Brooklyn enjoyed critical success, winning the 2009 Costa Book Award and shortlisted for the 2009 Booker Prize. The novel was also adapted for the screen in 2015, starring Saoirse Ronan in the role of Eilis.

This guide references the Scribner paperback edition published in March 2010.

Content Warning: This guide contains references to racism, anti-immigrant bias, and antisemitism.

Plot Summary

In Enniscorthy, Ireland, Eilis Lacey is summoned to Miss Kelly’s shop and offered a job on Sundays because of her reputation for good math skills. As she learns the job, she notices how Miss Kelly treats some customers better than others and withholds some products from people she dislikes. Eilis’s sister Rose and their mother do not approve of the job at Miss Kelly’s but accept it because Eilis has struggled to find another job. After her first full day at Miss Kelly’s, Eilis’s friend Nancy invites her to the local dance, where she flirts with George Sheridan. While there, George’s friend Jim Farrell ignores Eilis and does not ask her to dance.

Miss Kelly begins calling Eilis into the store more frequently and keeping her for long hours, though she never pays her enough. One day, Rose tells Eilis that a priest who grew up in the town and now lives in America is coming to see them. Father Flood comes for tea and tells Eilis that he can help her emigrate to America. Eilis realizes that Rose has planned this, as she wants Eilis to have a better life in America. In the following weeks, Father Flood returns to Brooklyn and secures a job and home for Eilis. Eilis begins preparing, and soon her family sees her off as she begins her voyage to America.

In Brooklyn, Eilis struggles to find a place in Mrs. Kehoe’s boardinghouse, with some girls being very modern and others very conservative. She now works on the floor of Bartocci’s department store, where she will eventually be promoted to the bookkeeping offices when she completes coursework. As the months pass, Eilis enjoys her work, but when the first letters from her family arrive, she descends into a spell of homesickness so severe her floor supervisor, Miss Fortini, contacts Father Flood. Father Flood meets her at Bartocci’s and tells her she will get through it and to help, he will enroll her in night classes for bookkeeping.

Eilis enjoys the classes but does not make any new friends. She continues working at Bartocci’s, and the homesickness abates, the classes helping to give her a better sense of what her life in Brooklyn can be. When Christmas approaches, Father Flood asks Eilis to volunteer at the parish’s Christmas dinner. The dinner is for destitute Irish men, and Eilis recognizes glimpses of her father and uncles in the men, and in one man in particular, who sings as a way to thank her and the other women who serve them.

Mrs. Kehoe offers Eilis the basement room when another boarder moves out. Though she worries about the drama that will come from her receiving the best room in the house, Eilis accepts. The parish begins hosting dances on Friday nights, and Eilis attends with some of the other girls. One Friday, Mrs. Kehoe asks Eilis to take a new boarder with her to the dance. Eilis spends time with Patty, who does her makeup and introduces her to her group. At the dance, Eilis notices a man staring at her, and he eventually comes to dance. His name is Tony, and they dance for the rest of the night before he walks her home and asks her on a date before the following week’s dance.

Tony is Italian and admits to Eilis that he went to the Irish dance because he likes Irish girls. They begin spending more time together, attending the dances, going to the movies, and walking home from class. He quickly tells her that he loves her, and Eilis briefly pulls away. She is afraid to tell her family much about him, and only writes to Rose, though Rose is worried she sees no one else. The next time they see each other, Eilis tells Tony she loves him and he invites her to meet his family.

Eilis eats dinner with his family, meeting his three brothers and parents. The dinner is a success, and after she passes her bookkeeping classes, Tony takes her to the beach at Coney Island. They spend a hot day in the sun, swimming and kissing until they are almost the only ones left on the beach. Tony also brings Eilis to a Dodgers game with his brothers, and for the first time, he pays no attention to her, though she finds herself happy that he can enjoy something as much as he enjoys baseball. Eilis spends Thanksgiving with Tony’s family but does not attend Christmas, once again helping Father Flood. Afterward, Tony tells Eilis that he and his brothers recently bought land in Long Island to build houses and begin a construction company. He asks her to move there with him, and she says yes.

One day, Eilis watches Father Flood enter Bartocci’s and go down to the office. Miss Fortini brings her to him and he tells Eilis that her mother found Rose dead in her room, likely having died in her sleep. He brings her to the parish where she speaks with her mother on the phone. Her mother tells her that Rose hid a bad heart from the family and kept living her life as she wanted. Eilis grieves but continues working. One night, she receives a letter from her brother asking her to come back to Ireland, as someone must be with their mother. Tony cries, worried she may leave and not come back. That night, she invites him in and they have sex for the first time.

Eilis makes Tony go to a priest with her to confess what they’ve done, and she suspects that Mrs. Kehoe heard them and told Father Flood. She goes to see Father Flood, who does not seem to know about her having sex with Tony. Eilis decides to ask for his help in convincing Bartocci’s to let her return to Ireland for a month before she becomes a bookkeeper. He succeeds, and as Eilis prepares to leave, Tony asks her to marry him, saying that this is the only way that he will be confident she will come back to him. She agrees and they secretly marry, going to Coney Island afterward to celebrate.

Back in Ireland, Eilis confronts her sister’s death and her mother’s need for her. She notices that her relationship with her mother is completely different now without Rose to moderate, and her mother blocks her from seeing any friends for almost an entire week. When she finally sees her friend Nancy, Nancy tells her that she is marrying George Sheridan, and though their wedding is four days after Eilis’s departure date, Eilis’s mother RSVP’d yes on her behalf. Eilis changes her date of departure and commits to enjoying Ireland.

Nancy tricks Eilis into going to the beach with Jim, and though Eilis tries to ignore him, his patient charm wins her over. Her mother also volunteers her to do some bookkeeping for Rose’s old company, and her success at the task results in a job offer. She begins spending more time with Jim, and as time goes on, she begins to forget about Tony and fails to set a return date. She, Nancy, George, and Jim go to a dance, and afterward, Eilis and Jim kiss. She attends the wedding with him and everyone suggests that they are the next two to marry.

Eilis begins to believe that she can stay in Ireland and regrets marrying Tony, but when Jim asks if they can be engaged before she returns to Brooklyn, she begins to grow conflicted. One day, Miss Kelly calls her into her store and implies to her that her cousin, who is Mrs. Kehoe, told her that Eilis is already married. Eilis leaves Miss Kelly’s for the post office and books her trip back. When she returns home, she finally tells her mother about Tony and her mother, though saddened by the news of her departure, supports her return to her husband. As Eilis leaves town the next morning, she drops a letter at Jim’s, promising to explain to him why she left in a later letter. With the town behind her, she looks forward to returning to Brooklyn.