Longlist Debate

Have you read this title?

I'm glad to see Toibin make the list but I don't think this is his best book.

I agree with Ang, it's not my favorite Toibin novel by far. I did enjoy the first two-thirds or so, I thought it was delicately written and engaging. But the ending fell flat for me and overall I don't feel like I carried much away except a vague sense of frustration.

It is a Toibin so it had to be on the longlist despite the fact that it is possibly his weakest novel to date.
There's not much wrong with it but it just doesn't shine. I found it so instantly forgetable that I read it for a second time and I still can't remember much about it.
Again I wonder if the jury had not known who had written it would it have made the longlist? I'm not sure it would.
Still think it will win though.

This was my first time reading Toibin and I really enjoyed it, especially the way that he brought Brooklyn to life. I agree with Heike though, I felt frustrated at the ending. Not only did it seem a little contrived but to me, it also seemed rushed.
I am definitely keen though to read more of his books!

I think the comments above speak volumes: for those new to Toibin this book will be a delight; for those who have read him before, particularly The Master, it will seem slight and unambitious. But it still probably deserves its longlist place (and will probably go further because it is the sort of book which nobody on the panel will hate even if no one absolutely adores it.)

I liked Brooklyn somewhat more than most people did on first reading -- but still thought it did not come up to The Master. That was a couple of months ago and I would say that time has made the book better for me. Mainly that is because I probably was expecting something like The Master when I read this book -- but it is a very "different" kind of book. And I can't help but think that the feeling that Eilis could have been made into a more complete (or at least challenging) character is going to be a pretty universal one from most readers.

I liked "Brooklyn" when I first read it (despite feeling immediately that it was a significantly lesser work than "The Master"). But it's a novel that has dimmed and faded in memory.

A poster here (forgive me, I can't recall exactly whom) made the wonderfully astute observation that "Brooklyn" owes a big debt to "The Portrait of a Lady" -- particularly in the ending. (Those who disliked the ending should have a look, or re-look, at the Henry James novel, and then it might not seem so abrupt and unsatisfying.) But I would also suggest that another big influence here is the fiction of Alice Munro (Toibin himself has admitted his great admiration for her). The more I think about it, the more her presence is felt all throughout the novel; from the transitional scenes between provincial and city life, to the working scenes of Ellis at the department store, to that character's sexual initiation, and, finally, her romantic ambivalence.

However, Munro's great gift is her ability to take very ordinary, quotidian, largely domestic, subject matter and infuse it with a sense of ineffable, unfathomable mystery -- giving the reader the feeling that something urgent and essential has happened, despite not always knowing exactly what it is. Toibin, unfortunately, doesn't really have this knack (at least, not when he's writing about a heterosexual, female central character -- I think he was closer to achieving this in "The Master" and "The Story of the Night"), and, as a result, the novel often feels kind of flat-footed and, occasionally, dull.

I quite enjoyed it. It is beautifully written, and I felt that Eilis's initial sense of alienation in New York came across well. However, in the end iI fould it rather underwhelming.

I was that poster ("Portrait of a Lady"), but I have to own up that I in turn got the hint from the Observer review. I continue surprised at the general sense of disappointment that pervades the comment on this site about "Brooklyn". I believe it is masterfully written (pun intended), a piece of spectacularly controlled writing. I was on the edge of my chair hoping/knowing that Eilis would make the right decision to return to her Long Island Italian. This leap for freedom is hilariously counterpointed with the possibility that she might have chosen to live the rest of her life above a pub with a tweedy, righteous, increasingly boring and authoritarian Irishman.