Monday, February 01, 2010

More About Brooklyn

Recently I find myself revisiting and rethinking some of my blog posts. Here's something I want to add to what I said earlier about Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin. I liked a lot of things about this book, but the most interesting was Toibin's depiction of early 1950's Brooklyn. He obviously did a lot of research, and I enjoyed reading about Eilis's life in a boarding house, and her job at a Brooklyn department store.

My complaints about this book had more to do with it not living up to the hype, rather than anything to do with the story itself. The book is not boring, and is definitely worth reading, especially if you like stories about Irish village life, and New York in the 1950's.

2 comments:

Astrid (Mrs.B) said...

I understand what you mentioned about the hype surrounding a book. Many bloggers didn't like the Little Stranger by Sarah Waters because of the hype surrounding it and it being shortlisted for the Booker. I avoided reading reviews and waited for the paperback and I loved it. I honestly think it's her best work to date. I think it helped that I wasn't caught in the hype. I probably would have expected more then.

Cath said...

Oh, oh, I was worried about the hype issue, too. I think I still might give it a go, though, because I am a sucker for all things 50s!

Post a Comment