I confess I expected more from Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn, especially as it is – apparently – ‘now a major motion picture’. Tinsel Town must have worked its magic to turn something so slight into something ‘major’.
Not that I have a problem with little really happening (a lot of life’s like that after all!), but I struggled with the main character, going from feeling sorry for her to deciding she deserved the mess she’d gotten herself into. And it seemed to me that there were at least two plot opportunities which Tóibín let wither rather than make the most of them. Doing so would have changed the narrative of course, but maybe that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing.
Don’t get me wrong, I like what I’ve read of Tóibín’s work, but can’t see what all the fuss is about when it comes to Brooklyn.
Ian Gouge - Writer 