★★★★★/5 | Goodreads
Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America, she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.
Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.
Guys. I just found one of my favourite book and movie of the year!
I decided to watch the movie Brooklyn on a whim. I just came home from work and it was airing on TV. I had heard a lot of good reviews about it but I had no idea of what the plot was, so I was going in completely blind. I was blown away. I think I pretty much cried about 4 times (if not more) while watching it – it was brilliant!
Obviously when I learned that it was adapted from a novel, I quickly bought the Ebook (because I wanted to have it as soon as possible) so I could read the whole story and I pretty much flew through it. I got so immersed in the story that I even read from my phone while I was at work (don’t do that, kids) 🙊.
The storyline – I read a lot of reviews saying that the pacing was really slow and I was surprised to find that I did not agree. I thought that the pacing was handled very well, the book is separated into various parts and they each represent the evolution of Eilis throughout her journey. I didn’t find one longer than the other and they were all important in their own way for the storyline. The ending was kind of of rushed, I have to admit, and it didn’t quite give me the satisfactory feeling I had when I watched the movie but I was happy about the decision Eilis took. I just wish the book was a chapter longer to get a kind of epilogue so that I would have a sense of closure.
The characters – Eilis is an intriguing character. She questions herself a lot and she constantly torn between many options that could all change her future in different ways. She starts out as a frail girl leaving for Brooklyn into a mature and confident woman by the time she comes back to Enniscorthy. Her character growth was really well-handled. Even though, I had issues with some decisions she took, I loved how she was able to take action into her own hands, as good or as bad it was. At the beginning, Eilis basically had her life chalked down by Rose and other people. And by the end, she was able to break free and create her own path.
I loved Tony. He is quite the opposite of Eilis in every way but I thought that’s exactly what brought out the best of Eilis also. Seeing them falling in love was amazing, you guys should’ve seen me smiling when I would read their scenes together. He was lifting the character of Eilis with such an ease.
I initially thought that if I liked Tony, then automatically I would dislike Jim but I was actually wrong. Both men would suit Eilis for different reasons and it’s hard to blame Jim in the story because poor guy doesn’t know half of the story 😂. I enjoyed more their chapters in the book than their scenes together in the movie. There’s a small backstory that’s omitted in the movie that I found cute and it adds a tiny more depth to Jim, I found.
The movie – I couldn’t exactly put my finger on why I loved this movie so much. Of course, the acting, storyline, everything was perfect but after some quick research, I found that some people who worked on my favourite movie An Education, also worked on Brooklyn. Both of them have parallels and similarities as they are both a coming of age story. Saoirse Ronan and Emory Cohen portray Eilis and Tony to perfection! Their chemistry is undeniably amazing. I was just blown away by everything. I was really surprised by how much dialogue was taken from the book. After having watched the movie a couple of times, I could recognize some sentences when I was reading the book. That made me really happy because I thought Nick Hornby’s screenplay was perfect 😍.
Overall, I recommend recommend recommend, the book and the movie! Pick it up if you can!
THEY USED TO DANCE 