RLGADOFGQDQ R @?M JRUG SGJMJMWIG S?IRJQDQ
SGJMJMB V?PMNGP F? DFGI , IGEDALMPQ G IRJQROR PHILOLOGIST JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE, LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES
V/2012 N>UK> HOFQFH> Dilek 8nan UDK 821.111.09 Bal ckesir University DOI 10.7251/FIL1205096I COLM TÓIBÍN’S BROOKLYN: CAUGHT BETWEEN HOME AND EXILE
Abstract: This paper is an analysis of the Irish novelist Colm Tóibín’s recent novel Brooklyn (2009) in which the author explores a string of intricate relationships between people and place while depicting the story of Irish emigration in 1950s. Tóibín employs simple expressive sentences in order to mirror his characters’ struggles in understanding the distance between the inner and the outer selves. As he grippingly portrays the strange- ness of a new place, the central character in Brooklyn is dislocated in time and space creating a sense of melancholy and depression. The heroine’s loneliness in an unfamiliar city is pictured so vividly that she represents the immigrant experience caught between two worlds. Key words: Colm Tóibín, Brooklyn , home, exile, place.
1.Introduction is a master of depicting melancholy, grief, orn in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford in and loneliness. However, his novels justify Ireland in 1955, Colm Tóibín has a more careful response than mere despair. Bbeen an acclaimed writer of novels, He discovers very vividly the di culty of travelogues, essays and newspaper col- the exile and the innerself of the lonely umns. He is the author of six novels with travelers as they try to make sense of their which he has achieved wide international new existences in unfamiliar places. In or- readership: The South , (1990) winner of der to discuss his main concerns which are The Irish Times Literature Prize in 1991; the depiction of Irish society and living The Heather Blazing (1992) , winner of the abroad, Tóibín undertakes the role of the Encore Award for the best second novel in unbiased observer. He believes that “any 1992; The Story of the Night (1997); The writer is an outsider…watching and plot- Blackwater Lightship (1999), shortlisted ting rather than participating.” (Bauch, for the Man Booker Prize; The Master 2009). While Tóibín re ects a breathtaking (2004) shortlisted for the Man Booker air of melancholy and grim sadness in his Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times entire literary creation, he is careful not to Novel of the Year and the Prix du Meilleur dwell on any sense of victory. He con rms Livre Etranger in France and Brooklyn (2009), winner of the prestigious British his mode of writing ction in an interview literary prize Costa Novel of the Year Award by declaring that “Fiction lends itself to in 2009. His novels do not only character- the powerless” and he articulates that “Fic- ize Irish settings, but also places like Spain tion doesn’t really deal with triumph.” and Argentina where Tóibín has been (Meyer, 2010). The process of his creativity drawn on his travels. depends on an understanding of detach- It is fashionable to characterize Irish ment which has become a governing prin- literature as ‘sad’ and ‘miserable’. As a ma- ciple in his achieving a body of impeccable 96 jor and distinctive Irish writer, Tóibín, too, writing. Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn : Caught between Home and Exile In Brooklyn , Tóibín portrays a series line who is also trapped within the con n- of opportunities and consequences of emi- ing setting of Ireland. In contrast to Eilis, gration and gives an account of a long his- her sister Rose is the breadwinner of the tory in order to depict Irish plight through family and she is always exposed as vigor- the experiences of a powerless female char- ous, glamorous, and stylishly-dressed. acter and traces her development from in- While Eilis accompanies her mother at nocence to experience. Irish people have home and helps her with the housework, left their hometowns and emigrated to the Rose is picked up by friends to go to golf United States or to England to nd work club. Most of Rose’s friends are married and better living. In consequence the Irish but although Rose has several boyfriends, have become a sub-class in England before she has remained single as she thinks that the arrival of the Indians. Confronting ra- she has a better life than her former school- cial integration, they have also been ranked mates who push prams through the streets. as a sub-class with Jewish, Italian, Polish Eilis studies bookkeeping and dreams and coloured people in the hierarchical of working in an o ce. Indeed, because of class structure of America. her “great head for gures” 1 Miss Kelly of- While re ecting facts and presenting fers her a Sunday job at her grocery shop. traumas in relation with Irish emigration, Miss Kelly behaves kindly only to the rich Tóibín is careful enough not to write a doc- and the clergy which shows that Ireland is umentary. On the contrary he dramatizes also divided but in a di erent sense. In this his heroine’s experiences as border cross- small town the only entertainment for ing becomes an identity crossing. Ruth young people is the regular dance evenings Scurr labels the novel as Tóibín’s “most where the girls meet rich young men to get beautifully executed novel to date.” (2009). married. Eilis’s friend Nancy dances with The story begins and ends in Tóibín’s George Sheridan – a rather prestigious act hometown Enniscorthy, a small Irish town for any of the girls in town. However, in the early 1950s where job opportunities George’s friend, Jim Farrell does not ask Ei- are scarce for young people. And the novel lis for a dance. In the evenings when Eilis focuses on Eilis’s sad life, a young woman, tells her mother and Rose every detail, they who lives with her widowed mother and comment on things and laugh together, elder sister Rose. As well as Enniscorthy, without mentioning the brothers’ letters the story takes place in Brooklyn which be- from England which would make them all comes an epitome of a better new world, sad. In those days it is common for Irish full of opportunities for immigrants. people, especially for men, to go to Eng- land and America to work. Eilis’s three 2. Analysis brothers have left home to search for work Eilis, a Celtic name which means in England. God’s oath, is identi ed as “One of the Eilis’s life is to be changed completely most unforgettable characters in contem- when Rose plays golf with Father Flood, an porary literature.” (Dilworth, 2009). The old family friend, who has come back to initial image of Eilis is of a passive recipi- Enniscorthy from America for the rst ent. She is depicted as hard-working, re- time since the war. Rose invites him for tea served, even uninteresting and she is more and Father Flood learns about Eilis’s part- of an observer than an active participant in time job at Miss Kelly’s shop and he ex- life. The opening lines of the novel, which presses shock at Eilis’ pay. On learning portray her as sitting at the window and 1 All parenthesised references are to this edition: noticing her sister walking briskly from Colm Tóibín, Brooklyn (London: Penguin, 1999), 97 work, is reminiscent of James Joyce’s Eve- p. 11. Dilek nan about her quali cations, he assures her of one, has the same friends and neighbours, better paid jobs in America whereas in the same routines in the same streets: “She England she might only get factory work as had expected that she would nd a job in stated by her brothers. Father Flood prom- the town, and then marry someone and ises to nd her work and lodgings in Brook- give up the job and have children.” (Tóibín, lyn whose parts are “just like Ireland, full of p. 28). Although she is content with the Irish.” (Tóibín, p. 23). Brooklyn is described conventional Irish life, unexpectedly she as a land of great opportunity especially for feels almost obliged to embark on a jour- young people. And Father Flood’s parish is ney she is not willing. She wishes all the a safe place lled with lovely people. Eilis is arrangements were for someone else. It is surprised by her mother’s and Rose’s ap- not easy for Eilis to leave the familiar: “She proval of Father Flood’s arrangements for could wake in this bed every morning and Eilis. She has never thought of going to move as the day went on in these familiar America. She knows that many people go streets and come home to the kitchen, to to England and they come back at Christ- her mother and Rose.” (Tóibín, p. 29). She mas or in the summer which has become is almost sure that she will miss the ordi- “the part of the life of the town.” (Tóibín, p. nary and she hates the idea that the rest of 24). However, she also knows that people her life of her life will be “a struggle with who had immigrated to America long be- the unfamiliar.” (Tóibín, p. 30). Eilis is pas- fore the war never come back home on sive and dutiful. She cannot say “Yes” or holidays because of the long journey across “No”. However, she realizes that Rose is in the Atlantic. But on the other hand she has fact sacri cing her life by staying with her heard that the people who have gone to mother, which means that she will have to work in England do “ordinary work for or- take care of her mother and cannot get dinary money” (Tóibín, p. 24), while the married or leave the house as long as her people who have gone to work in America mother lives. can become rich. Similarly, she has come On the day of departure Rose accom- to believe that “while people from the town panies her sorrowful sister in Dublin until who lived in England missed Enniscorthy, she takes the boat to Liverpool where she is no one who went to America missed home. to be met by her brother Jack before she Instead, they were happy there and proud. sets out on her long journey to New York She wondered if that could be true.” and then to Brooklyn. For her, America is (Tóibín, p. 24). After returning to Brook- “utterly foreign in its systems and its man- lyn, Father Flood writes a letter to Eilis’s ners, yet it had an almost compensating mother, telling her about the job he has glamour attached to it.” (Tóibín, p. 32). She found for Eilis. The vacant position is for begins to come to terms with the idea that the time being at a shop owned by an Ital- working in America cannot even be com- ian merchant. However, if Eilis proves sat- pared to working in a shop in Birmingham, isfactory in her rst job, there will be plen- Liverpool, Coventry or even London. Even ty of “opportunity for promotion and very Irish sayings glorify America as uttered by good prospects.” (Tóibín, p. 25). He also ar- Jack in order to console Eilis: “Time and ranges documentation for the Embassy patience would bring a snail to America.” and nds suitable accommodation for Eilis (Tóibín, p. 33). Almost for all the Irish, near the church. Although she is caught in America is the destination, a land of op- a dilemma, in her mind it is clear that she portunities, and a myth of superiority. is nearer the decision to go to Brooklyn. Jack’s descriptions of his life in Bir- Eilis has never thought of a life out- mingham indicate a sense of the Irish na- 98 side Enniscorthy where she knows every- tional psyche. The Irish live in ghettos in Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn : Caught between Home and Exile England: They have their own pubs, and she rediscovers herself and her new sur- they are not integrated in the English soci- roundings. Thus her story re ects the lives ety. However, her brother enjoys his free- of many other people exiled from home. In dom and his job at the car repairs. He de- return, Rose writes to her “how quiet and scribes English people as fair and decent dull the town was and how lucky Eilis was and that they appreciate hard-work. When in the bright lights.” (Tóibín, p. 66). Eilis Irish people get shouted at on the streets of tries not to brood over her life in Enniscor- Birmingham, they learn to pay no atten- thy – “the life she had lost and would never tion. As Eilis learns about his brother’s new have again.” (Tóibín, p. 66). But is she re- life in England, she is more optimistic for ally in the bright lights as Rose has written her life in America. in her letter? On the contrary she thinks On the way to America, Eilis and the that “She was nobody here. It was not just other travelers su er hunger, nausea and that she had no friends and family; it was claustrophobia in a week’s long journey on rather that she was a ghost in this room, in the ship. After a traumatic voyage she ar- the streets on the way to work, on the shop rives at Mrs. Kehoe’s boarding house in oor. Nothing meant anything…Nothing Brooklyn where she will live with ve other here was part of her. It was false, empty.” Irish lodgers. Initially, the weather in (Tóibín, p. 67). She feels locked away, be- Brooklyn bothers her, it is “muggy and hu- lieving that she does not want to spend mid and everyone would move slowly and time in her “tomb of a bedroom.” (Tóibín, wearily in the streets.” (Tóibín, p. 53). Mrs. p. 70). A strong feeling of hatred domi- Kehoe who lives according to the rule of nates her inner self: “She hated this house… catholic correctness is a strict landlady and Its smells, its noises, its colours. She felt “before each evening they stood up sol- like she had been shut away and was emnly and joined their hands and Mrs. Ke- trapped in a place where there was noth- hoe led them in saying grace.” (Tóibín, p. ing. It was like hell.” (Tóibín, p. 70). Father 54). She observes that Brooklyn is a strange Flood enrolls Eilis into a night class in place with many derelict buildings. She bookkeeping and accountancy at Brooklyn starts to work on the shop oor as she has College in order to help her with home- done in Enniscorthy. Eilis’s descriptions sickness. In the bookkeeping course there are an account of Brooklyn with its ethnic are Italians and Jews with dark-skins and neighborhoods which have occurred in the brown eyes who are diligent and serious- years following World War II. Miss Bartoc- looking young men. ci, the shop-owner, explains Eilis her duty Eilis gets to know more Irish people in and how she should treat the customers: the course of time. She learns that many “Brooklyn changes everyday…New people Irish people who arrived in America fty arrive and they could be Jewish or Irish or years ago are all leftover Irishmen whom Polish or even coloured…We treat every- Father Flood sees once a year at Christmas. one the same. We welcome every single The Irish build the tunnels, bridges and person who comes into this store. They all highways in Brooklyn. Father Flood asks have money to spend. We keep our prices Eilis to help him arrange a Christmas gath- low and our manners high.” (Tóibín, p. 59). ering for these Irish people. When serving In that sense, Eilis broadens her view of a Irishmen their “Brooklyn-style” Christmas multicultural life together with improving dinner, Eilis notices that some of them are her professional life. Her employer encour- “so poor-looking and so old, but even the ages the sta to do night classes for which younger ones had bad teeth and appeared she pays part of the tuition fee. Eilis ex- worn down.” (Tóibín, p. 88). Those men re- 99 plains every detail in her letters in which mind her of her father and brothers in the Dilek nan way they speak or smile, “the toughness in ality which functions as dominant concep- their faces softened by shyness, what had tualizations of the material as passive ob- appeared stubborn or hard now strangely ject. Bracken identi es a danger within tender.” (Tóibín, p. 88). Few incidents in such a conceptualization which is high- the novel underline Eilis’s encountering lighted in Father Flood’s proposal that they discrimination in various forms - against “need Irish girls in Brooklyn” (Tóibín, p. Italians, blacks, Jews, and lower-class Irish. 81), which positions Eilis “as an object of Amidst all the vivacity and mobility, exchange between cultures.” (Bracken, Eilis feels a deep sense of depression and 2010, pp. 166-167). homesickness. Fortunately she overcomes Eilis’s night classes at Brooklyn Col- the feeling of depression soon and nds lege have become her salvation in over- friendship and love in her new life. How- coming her despondency. She passes the ever, she is inexperienced in relationships course easily and becomes a quali ed and does not know how to control her boy- bookkeeper. More importantly, she meets friend. Thus the intimate and the intricate Tony, an Italian young man, at a dance or- emotional and physical relationship lead ganized by Father Flood at the parish hall. to a severe blind alley. Ruth Scurr sees Ei- They start meeting regularly on Fridays; lis’s dilemma as “the result of inherited so- rst they go to a diner, and then to the cial expectation, combined with bad luck dance. Tony is “bright and funny” (Tóibín, and failure of nerve.” (2009). While Father p. 135). Eilis likes dancing with Tony espe- Flood, Rose and her mother have plotted a cially when they move close to each other happy life for Eilis, contrarily she is trapped in the slow dances; she also likes walking in a foreign environment nding comfort home with him. She writes to Rose about only in closing her eyes and trying to imag- Tony but tells her with reservation that he ine nothing at all. Tóibín tolerantly builds is a plumber. Eilis suggests that “in Brook- up Eilis’s homesickness and nostalgia lyn it was not always as easy to guess some- while portraying her relations with her one’s character by their job as it was in En- lodger friends, her night classes and her niscorthy.” (Tóibín, p. 140). Meeting Tony’s pleasure in nding a ordable women’s family and passing the exams have lifted fashionable clothes. She realizes that in her spirits: “she began to observe how America there are hierarchies and for the beautiful everything was: the trees in leaf, most part there are Jewish, Italian and Irish the people in the street, the children play- immigrants. ing, the light on the buildings. She had Eilis is modest, but she’s also capable never felt like this in Brooklyn.” (Tóibín, p. and resourceful. She is quick to under- 155). She is overcome with admiration: as stand Miss Bartocci’s requests about treat- Tony tells her about their future plans Eilis ing the coloured customers politely and has realized how practical, serious and sin- with great care. Eilis observes how elegant cere he is. the coloured customers are. There are de- However, Eilis is soon to be devastat- tailed representations related to particular ed by the dreadful news she has received consumerist objects such as the nylon from home. She is perished at learning stockings which coloured customers are that Rose has died in her sleep. Eilis de- keen on to buy, in order to recreate the his- cides to go back home on reading her torical and cultural aspects of 1950s USA. brother’s letter about how lonely their At the same time Barttocci’s shop func- mother is, and that they have to go back to tions as a place to mirror the social change Birmingham to work. She shows the letter in class structures and race relations. Clare to Tony and he understands that “she be- 100 Bracken observes an insistence on materi- longed to somewhere else, a place that he Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn : Caught between Home and Exile could never know.” (Tóibín, p. 184). The which she may not have again ever. Rose’s letter has made him see “where her duty boss, who has refused Eilis before she goes lay”, “that he was crying now for every- to Brooklyn, asks her to work as a book- thing, for Rose who was dead, for her keeper for him. She is puzzled at all those mother who was lonely, for Eilis who would proposals to which Nancy responds by em- have to go, and for himself who would be phasizing that she has changed a lot after left.” (Tóibín, p. 184). Eilis arranges to go Brooklyn: “You seem more grown up and back to Enniscorthy for a month, which serious. And in your American clothes you makes Tony insist that they get married look di erent.” (Tóibín, p. 230). As a matter before she leaves so that it is “something of fact, she enjoys being more self-con - private between the two of us.” (Tóibín, p. dent and taking Rose’s role with a strong 196). In fact it is unusual for an Irish girl to idea of duty. She receives letters from Tony have a relationship with an Italian man. which make her think that everything Nevermore she agrees to marry Tony - a de- about him seems distant. She realizes that cision which once more shows that she everything else that has happened in does not have a strong sense of herself, but Brooklyn appears “almost dissolved” and is she has a strong sense of what others make not “richly present for her” anymore – her of her. room in Mrs. Kehoe’s, her exams, the trol- Eilis comes back home in Enniscorthy ley-car from Brooklyn College back home, only to realize “how little it meant to her.” the dancehall, the apartment where Tony “She had longed so much for the familiari- lives with his parents and his three broth- ty of these rooms that she had presumed ers, or the shop oor at Bartocci’s are but a she would be happy and relieved to step fantasy. She appreciates how much she has back into them, but, instead, on this rst missed the familiarity and the idea of go- morning, all she could do was count the ing back to Brooklyn frightens her. Prox- days before she went back” to Brooklyn imity of Enniscorthy and distance of (Tóibín, p. 204). However, she has had to Brooklyn grow increasingly and the boiling postpone her return ticket to America in heat of Brooklyn, Bartocci’s boring shop order to attend her friend Nancy’s wed- oor, her room at Mrs. Keohe’s and even ding. She goes out on several outings with Tony are almost nothing but a distant her friends and comes closer with Jim Far- memory. From a distance in time and place rell, a rich man who has ignored her previ- Brooklyn appears to be a life of tribulation ously at the dance before Eilis goes to full of “strange people, strange accents, Brooklyn. As she sees her old friends and strange streets.” (Tóibín, p. 232). Jim in En- enjoys their company, she wishes that she niscorthy on the other hand is “a great did not marry Tony “not because she did catch, a young man in the town with his not love him and intend to return to him, own business.” She imagines Tony and Jim but because not telling her mother or her and decides that Jim is “less eager than friends made everyday she had spent in Tony, less funny, less curious, but more America a sort of fantasy, something she self-contained and more sure of his own could not match with the time she was place in the world.” (Tóibín, p. 236). Gradu- spending at home.” (Tóibín, p. 218). At this ally Tony becomes “merely a shadow at the point she feels a split personality in herself edge of every moment of the day and one of whom has struggled with hardship night.” (Tóibín, p. 237). Jim asks Eilis to get in Brooklyn and fallen in love there, and engaged, he confesses that he has always the other who is her mother’s dutiful admired and loved her. Eilis has thought of daughter. But on the other hand she is telling Jim that she is married and asking 101 aware that being at home is a great chance his help in order to tell her what to do. Dilek nan However, she changes her mind, because experience to experience as she moves be- Jim is conservative. He likes his position in tween an Irish small-town and an alluring the town, and it is important to him that multi-cultural Brooklyn. he runs a respectable pub and comes from As a central character, Eilis is rather a a respectable family. This is the turning conventional and unremarkable heroine point when Eilis decides that there is only and Tóibín explores her struggles in a quite one way out for her which is to go back to conventional structure without experi- Brooklyn to Tony because she knows that menting with di erent forms. In an inter- divorce is a big step in those times in Ire- view the author emphasizes that his main land. She is indeed actively deceiving oth- issue is not the tone which is rather tradi- ers by not saying anything to others. She tional, but he is more interested in the lev- feels strongly that she has to go back and els of secrecy and silence that go beneath con rms her return ticket before telling words. In that sense, he argues that a sen- her mother that she is married to Tony. She tence which might seem quite simple actu- wishes her mother were angry with her. As ally is concealing a lot. (Galvin, 2009). she leaves Enniscorthy early in the morn- Similarly Tóibín has declared that he has ing, she stops at Jim Farrell’s and drops a bene tted from the power of secrets and note for him, saying that she has to go back that he has the ultimate control of point of to Brooklyn. view. He is careful to imagine “a psycholo- gy rather than a topography, a character rather than a time and place.” (Toibin, 3. Findings 2009). Indeed, behind many simple sen- The choice in the end is painful and tences, Christopher Tayler emphasizes a di cult. No matter however hard Eilis powerful sense of humour in the novel’s tries to distinguish between the real and grim feel which the author deliberately re- the fantasy, she chooses to go back to an presses (Tayler, 2009), especially the scenes unfamiliar world because of her despera- where Eilis entertains her mother and Rose tion in a narrow-minded environment while explaining them what has happened where divorce is almost impossible. Much at Miss Keohe’s shop. In terms of under- of the novel is devoted to portray the pow- scoring the power of secrets Tóibín is very er of the immediate place in which one skilful in dramatizing the secrecy of do- lives. Indeed, Eilis is involved greatly in the mestic relations in Ireland: “what happens instant environment either in Enniscorthy within the family remains so secretive, so or Brooklyn, making the closer place real painfully locked within each person that and the further one a mere fantasy. Simi- any writer who deals with the dynamics of larly, Liesl Schillinger of the New York family life stands apart.” (Wiesenfarth, Times highlights that in Brooklyn , Colm 2009. pp. 1–27). He deals relentlessly with Tóibín “quietly, modestly shows how place lack of communication between the family can assert itself, enfolding the visitor, stak- members. In one scene when Eilis nally ing its claim.” (Schillinger, 2009). decides to go back to Brooklyn, her mother Tóibín pictures Eilis’s duality and her does not tell her that she will be missed. deep attachment to Tony straightforward- Again in the beginning of the novel, Eilis is ly. The novel discreetly o ers both an ac- not able to tell her mother and Rose that count of “an immigrant coming to terms she does not want to leave Enniscorthy. In with life in her new land and an equally ap- this context, Tóibín noticeably re ects the pealing story of one young woman’s grasp Irish women’s reservation in being frank to of a hard-won maturity.” (Freedenberg). In each other: “They could do everything ex- other words, it is a story that traces a cept say out loud what it was they were 102 change in a woman’s development from in- thinking.” (Holton, 2009). Similarly, Rose Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn : Caught between Home and Exile never reveals the fact that she is ill and Ellis sularity. Tóibín reproduces, through mem- never discloses her secret marriage. ories, Eilis’s self-re ection, her con ict be- Overall Eilis’s life is representative of tween personal freedom and responsibili- the experiences of the Irish immigrants in ty, together with the emotional content of the United States. The novel deals with the a young woman’s life in a Proustian narra- unchanging Irish identity in a foreign land tive. He carefully gives minute details in emphasizing a sense of great homesick- order to describe Eilis’s life which is mainly ness even though they try hard to become determined by homesickness and loss. American. Once back in Enniscorthy, Eilis While exile is almost expected of the obe- has become the centre of attraction with dient daughter, Eilis’s family inadvertently her new self. And before she faces a choice has caused sadness and bitterness in her between the old life and the new, it is clear life. Tóibín skillfully avoids sentimentaliz- that America has made her glamorous and ing Eilis’s understanding of either Ireland desirable. Tóibín is fascinated with the or America. Her quest for home starts at character of the “powerless woman” who is the moment when she accepts to leave qui- also very present in Jane Austen, George etly which also creates an occasion for the Eliot ad Henry James’s novels. It is impera- author to illustrate Irish people’s glowing tive for him that he capture the powerless view of America. heroine’s sensitivity as “she watches the Ireland possesses a distinguished world with a mixture of unease and notic- body of literature about home and exile, ing everything,” (Arana, 2009) an aptitude and Brooklyn is, beyond doubt, more than that a man is not in possession of. Similarly a remarkable contribution. The writer ex- Robert Hanks emphasizes a sense of clari- cludes any sense of sentimentality from ty, simplicity and elegance in Tóibín’s writ- the mainstream immigrant novel and em- ing. Indeed Eilis’s ordinary life is so poi- phasizes a feeling of immense emotional gnantly presented and her homesickness is force as he rede nes the immigrant novel so realistically illustrated in a mode of to signify that “to emigrate is to become a “American openness and Irish respectabil- foreigner in two places at once.” (Bookre- ity.” (Hanks, 2009). The control of the third view, 2009). Thus Tóibín ends Brooklyn be- person narration draws an objective pic- fore Eilis embarks the ship back to Ameri- ture of a small-town attitude whose power- ca, leaving her as dispossessed of both ful traditional values restrain the denizens. lands in a state of being caught between Thus Eilis faces continuous apprehension home and exile. between her inner thoughts and outer ac- tions in an environment of incessant con- References formity which is determined by strict tra- ditions. Tóibín keeps a sense of ambiguity 1. Arana, Marie (2009), „A Conversation very tactfully in Eilis’s tragedy of choice with Colm Tóibín“, until the end of the novel whereby con- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- trary to expectations, Eilis decides to go dyn/content/video/2009/05/04/ back to Brooklyn because she realizes that VI2009050402122.html?sid= she has nothing left to go back to in Ennis- ST2009052202340 (Accessed 10 July corthy and she knows that “nothing she 2011). could do would be right.” 2. Bauch, Chelsea (2009), Colm Tóibín Turns the Page on Brooklyn , Exclusive, 20 May. 4. Conclusion 3. Bracken, Clare (2010), Estudios Irlade- Brooklyn is a sad story of Irish emigra- ses: Irish Studies Round the World , (5), 103 tion in an impression of post-war Irish in- pp. 166–167. Dilek nan 4. Dilworth, Sharon (2009), http://www. 10. Scurr, Ruth (2009), „Colm Tóibín’s bea- post-gazette.com/pg/09186/981437- utiful Brooklyn“, The Times Literary 148.stm (Accessed 12 June 2011). Supplement , 29 April. 5. Freedenberg, Harvey (Online) Avail- 11. Schillinger, Liesl (2009), „The Reluc- able: http://www.bookreporter.com/ tant Emigrant“, http://www.nytimes. reviews2/9781439138311.asp (Accessed com/2009/05/03/books/review/Schil- 8 June 2011). linger-t.html?pagewanted=all (Ac- 6. Galvin, Annie (2009), „An Interview cessed 10 June 2011). with Colm Tóibín“, Washington City 12. Tayler, Christopher (2009) „The coun- Paper , 13 April, http://www.washingt- try girl“, The Guardian , 9 May. oncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk 13. Tóibín, Colm (1999), Brooklyn. Lon- /2009/04/13/an-interview-with-colm- don: Penguin. toibin/ (Accessed 6 July 2011). 14. Tóibín , Colm (1999), „The Origins of a 7. Hanks, Robert (2009), Brooklyn: Re- Novel“ , Washington Post, 6 May. view, The Telegraph , 07 May. 15. Wiesenfarth, Joseph (2009), „An Inter- 8. Holton, Carlotta G. (2009), „Book Re- view with Colm Tóibín“, Contemporary view: Brooklyn By Colm Tóibín“, Writ- Literature , 50 (1), pp. 1–27. er’s News Weekly , 88(3). 16. “Bookreview” The New Yorker , 1 June 9. Meyer, Angela (2010), „Exquisite re- 2009. http://www.newyorker.com/ straint, maximum expression: an inter- arts/reviews/brie ynoted/2009/06/01/ view with Colm Tóibín“, Literary Mind- 090601crbn_brie ynoted1 (Accessed 11 ed , 4 July. July 2011).
BROOKLYN IMJK? QM@GL? : GFKDaR CMKMAGLD G DBFGJ?
O
O !; " 8 I Q 8 (Colm Tóibín) Brooklyn (2009), " 8 "! ! "8 1" ;" 8 ! !;< & 8 %8 !$ XX 8 . Q 8 - ! 8 ! & % ! ! 8< $! ! % 1" " "! '< ;'< = . C !; !"1 ! 8 ! , % 8 " ! " " < 8; $ 8 8 . " < " ; ! " ! " !; 8 ! - ! " ! "$= 1" 8! .
104