Eilis Lacey Fiorello, an Irish woman, was first introduced to readers in Colm Toibin's novel titled BROOKLYN. LONG ISLAND, by Colm Toibin, picks up her story twenty years later in 1976. On the surface, Eilis has a good life. She and Tony have two teenage children. They live on a cul-de-sac with Tony's family members living in the houses around them. They have formed a community of their own. There are no secrets. Even though she is rarely alone, she feels a sense of loneliness. One day, a knock on her door from a stranger changes her life and countless others. Facing a situation she had no part in and has no intention of participating in, Eilis returns to her home in Ireland. Her mother is about to turn eighty and Eilis hasn't been home in twenty years. It is time. She is leaving much on the table that is undecided in Long Island. It remains to be seen if she will return to the life she left.
Brilliantly crafted, the narrative is told in three voices: Eilis's, Nancy's, her former best friend, and that of Jim Farrell who played an important role in Eilis's life once. Their innermost thoughts reveal more to readers than their actual dialogue. Nothing is left to speculation as readers get to know them intimately. Complicated relationships develop and difficult decisions have to be made. One big secret is festering and if discovered and revealed to be true, the fallout will be serious, life-changing even. Can anyone step back into a life they left decades ago?
I feel the power of LONG ISLAND comes from the words that aren't spoken. Perhaps some actions do speak louder than words. Thought-provoking and intense, LONG ISLAND is well worth reading. The conclusion is a real shock and I am hoping for a sequel.
Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents, a huge extended family that lives and works, eats and plays together. It is the spring of 1976 and Eilis, now in her forties with two teenage children, has no one to rely on in this still-new country. Though her ties to Ireland remain stronger than those that hold her to her new land and home, she has not returned in decades.
One day, when Tony is at his job and Eilis is in her home office doing her accounting, an Irishman comes to the door asking for her by name. He tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child and that when the baby is born, he will not raise it but instead deposit it on Eilis’s doorstep. It is what Eilis does—and what she refuses to do—in response to this stunning news that makes Tóibín’s novel so riveting.
Long Island is about longings unfulfilled, even unrecognized. The silences in Eilis’ life are thunderous and dangerous, and there’s no one more deft than Tóibín at giving them language. This is a gorgeous story of a woman alone in a marriage and the deepest bonds she rekindles on her return to the place and people she left behind, to ways of living and loving she thought she’d lost.
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