I read this book a couple of years ago when it was published, but I wanted to give the audiobook a listen after finding out it was done by Jessie Buckley, an actress whose voice I find very appealing. Last year I did a similar thing with Toibin’s Brooklyn, listening to the new edition of the audiobook narrated by Saoirse Ronan. What won’t I do for talented and lovely Irish women?
Brooklyn is one of my favorite novels, and listening to it in Ronan’s voice was an excellent reminder why. Long Island was a novel I really liked with some pretty clear reservations, and similarly, listening to the audiobook reminded me why I felt that way. The story follows up on Brooklyn’s protagonist, Eilis Lacey, twenty-something years after the events of the first book. (Spoilers ahead.) Brooklyn ended with Eilis choosing to return to America and her Italian plumber husband, Tony, rather than stay in Ireland with her mother and a promising romance with local pub owner Jim Farrell. Long Island starts with an unpleasant encounter for Eilis, as a man calls at her home to let her know that his wife is pregnant with her husband’s child, and that he will be dropping the baby off with her family as soon as it arrives.
Tony’s infidelity rocks Eilis to her core, as does the slow realization that her in-laws all know about the baby already and have been making plans for it without consulting her. The thought of having the baby in her home, or having it in the family at all, is anathema to her. She decides to return to Ireland, ostensibly to see her mother and celebrate her 80th birthday, but also to clear her head and figure out what to do about the whole mess. While there, Eilis runs into her old friend Nancy Sheridan and her potential lost love Jim Farrrell. Not knowing that these two have been considering marrying each other, Eilis’s arrival threatens to blow up the lives they had planned.
Toibin is an insightful, empathetic writer, remarkably capable of writing very finely-tuned human drama. Nancy, Jim and Eilis are all likeable characters who nevertheless manage to make bad choices that hurt other people, with or without their knowledge.
The chief problem with Long Island is that Toibin diminishes his own effort with a rushed, abrupt ending leaving the reader with far more questions than answers. In interviews, Toibin has indicated that he doesn’t know whether he will continue the series and is, at any rate, in no hurry to do so. It would be a shame if the ending of Long Island was the end of this story. Readers deserve to see what kind of an ending Toibin can devise for these characters.
