Long Island by Colm Toibin- spoilers

[Whosawake]

I loved this, so invested in the story but found the ending really underwhelming- anyone else?

I've been trying to get hold of a copy but our library hasn't got one, yet.

Tbh I was underwhelmed by Brooklyn and Nora Webster, and don't want to spend money on a copy. I was just curious to see how he'd continued the story. I'm in no rush, though, to read it. If spoilers come my way, I shan't mind!

Definitely interesting how he continues the story! I did really like Brooklyn and Nora Webster though. If you weren't that into those I'm not sure I'd recommend Long Island- in fact, Nora Webster makes a cameo in Long Island too :) The ending is just frustratingly inconclusive, and apparently he has no plans to make it a trilogy either.

It's kinda open-ended, open to interpretation. I'd say unlikely Jim will follow her to US....

His ultimate book for me is blackwater lightship and nothing has compared since 😂

I've just listened to it on the R4 Sounds app.

Enjoyed it but agree the ending was underwhelming, but I also felt that about Brooklyn.

I ’m listening to the full audiobook via my Spotify subscription. I’m loving it so far at about a third of the way into it. The main character, Ellis is pretty so ambiguity isn’t surprising. I’m leaving this thread now before in case more is revealed.
I know there was a spoiler warning, but I couldn’t resist haha.

I was so disappointed by this book. I love Brooklyn both the book and the film and I found this sequel completely underwhelming.

I agree, you can feel him becoming more and more trapped by the situation. What a miserable marriage to Nancy that'll be. At least she'll get her bungalow though :) I thought the biggest question was whether Eilis divorced Tony, frustrating not to find out. It felt like she wouldn't but hard to imagine her tolerating having the child around. The sexism from Tony's family was breath-taking: not one of them criticised the husband for refusing to bring up a child that wasn't his, while at the same time expecting Eilis to do exactly that. You wonder how much things like that really did happen in the past, wives having to bring up their husbands' illegitimate children. In my own family there's a rumour of it happening at least once.

Open ended, too many open ends and a very blunt ending. Didn't lead up to the ending. I have no idea what happened. Hope her Mother went home with her and I was thrilled that her Mom kept all the pictures of the grandkids in a special order.

Gosh I hope she divorces Tony! what a b

That’s a great novel, and one I must reread, though I think my favourite CT is his short story collection The Empty Family and his Henry James novel.

I read Long Island as soon as it came out, and while I found his reticence interesting (there’s so much he doesn’t say — we don’t really know whether you’d class Ellis’s marriage as ‘happy’, or how she really feels about Tony, and there’s far more detail on how she feels about her ILs than about her husband, plus more about her absolute opposition to the baby being raised within the family than discovering Tony has impregnated another woman), I know friends who are also fans of his work found this too reticent.

I certainly found the ending a cop out, and I generally like a suspended, inconclusive ending. I think it was because the ending of Brooklyn (as distinct from the film adaptation) also ends inconclusively in a sense ( Eilis has decided to return to the US but we don’t see her arrive) AND again we have a character, Jim this time, going along with two separate, incompatible scenarios, marrying Nancy in Enniscorthy or a life with Eilis in the US. AND we have Nancy forcing his hand by going public about their engagement, like Mrs Whatsit in the shop discovering Eilis’ marriage in Brooklyn. I think it felt frustrating because we’ve got to meet a much less passive version of E in this novel, and the ending means that choice is taken out of her hands, thereby placing her back in the passivity of her younger choice.

I thought it was wonderful. I think the reason nothing is said explicitly is because it's there subtlety. Eilish both loves Tony, but misses Ireland and Jim, she loves her children, but they are American and belong more to the Italian side by looks and upbringing. She had an adventure, but lost so much. It felt so wistful to me, like a heartbreak waiting to happen. Everyone wanted to be loved and cared for, Nancy really still loved her dead husband, Jim never got over Eilish and she loved two men really.

I thought the ending worked because you could decide what you wanted to happen, Jim could follow her, or will he honour his previous intention to Nancy? Will Eilish leave Tony and live in her new house, maybe with her mother. So many possibilities.

Woke up too hot and took out my book loght to finish this. I was so disappointed with the ending but your philosophical take on it really helps! Thanks. I thought it was beautifully written until that point and kept turning the last blank pages 😭

Imagine Nancy reacting as she did! Impressive and sad really.

I think it felt like a step back to a more passive, earlier version of Eilis, though — her decision is taken out of her hands, finally, as though the independent spirit that made her go back to work, refuse to accept the baby, and leave for Ireland was suddenly nullified (to an extent) again.

And I’m just not sure you can pull a similar ‘suspended ending’ narrative trick in the sequel to a novel that did something very similar in its own ending…?

I heard the serialisation on Radio 4 not long before I read the book (reserved from the library well in advance). So I was a bit frustrated by the ending, but have thought since, that in a way the ending was never going to be that conclusive or satisfying, and that a sudden tacked on happy ending wouldn't really have fitted or been convincing. Jim and Eilis might always wonder what might have been, but perhaps there is another future for her in the US - as portrayed in Colm Toibin's novels, Enniscorthy seems very stifling, somewhere that everyone thinks they know everything about everyone (even if that is not really the case).

I too kept turning the last blank pages hoping there would be closure @mikado1

I recognised a couple of names in the book and know someone closely related to them.
Ireland is like a village

I was also very disappointed - I listened on the BBC before reading and I was convinced there was another episode they'd forgotten to load - it just stopped! It also felt like her life was very different from the way I assumed it would turn out, probably more influenced by the film than the book though. I was shocked by how poorly she got on with her in laws - I remember it being a good relationship in the book, if not as glowing as the film?

I just finished Long Island for the second time because I read it so long ago I didn't remember it. The ending made me mad. Tony's entire family totally disregards Eilish's wish not to even see the baby, then they go behind her back to adopt it. She figures out a way to get out of the situation, and then her mother intercedes, throws a wrench in the works, and Eilish is trapped into going back. At least that's what it seems. I would never return to Tony's house, and if her children don't understand, then they'd just have to grow up. I definitely don't think she should give in to them. And what's up with her mother? They all need a lesson in boundaries. There were too many people manipulating others to get what they wanted. Jim should have been honest with Eilish-she might not have been a wrecker of her best friend's romance if she had known.

I've just finished Long Island, so was interested to read this thread. I think the ending was the only one possible. They none of them are able to say what they feel - everything is a proxy for something else - so them all missing what they truly want is inevitable.
Nancy doesn't really love Jim, but she's lonely and she doesn't want to run a chip shop any more; Jim is comfortable with Nancy, though maybe he doesn't really love her, but he can't bear to be alone; Eilis' thinks she loves Jim but she doesn't really know him (think about it - they had a few weeks when she was young and about 4 encounters this time), she loves her children and she really doesn't like Enniscorthy any more. But she's also lonely in America, probably because of her inability to open up to others.
Maybe her mother will help her stand up to Francesca; maybe she'll make it worse for her (though what a fantastic character!).
Real life doesn't have neat and happy endings. With this, you're left mulling over what might happen, how each possibility might reveal itself, and what you might learn for your own relationships, even your relationship with yourself. I thought it was great.

I re-read Brooklyn just before Long Island and in the book, she's a bit ambivalent about the in-laws. She likes them, but she starts to realise that Tony prioritises them over her (he clearly tells them that they're married even though he promised her not to) and she's quite overwhelmed by them. Eg she chooses to help at the church Christmas dinner rather than spend it with them. The one she seems to like more is Frank, which is why she feels so betrayed by him in LI I think.

That’s a really good point about the church Christmas dinner - I had forgotten that part of the book. I think I need to reread Brooklyn and then Long Island to better appreciate the latter.

I've just finished it and was really interested to know what happens so it was a sudden shock when it ended.

I think Eilis will go back to the US and move out into a house bought by her brother. I thought Nancy was so believably written - she could only see a future with Jim and she was not going to let that go. I could not imagine Jim - who seemed to have led such a sheltered and uneventful life - actually moving to the US, although I would have liked him to. He and Nancy would have provided each other with companionship.

I would have liked to have known more about how the mother of the baby having been to give here away like that - would she ever see the baby again?