5 Thoughts I Had While Reading "Long Island" by Colm Tóibín

The ultimate love triangle book.

Jun 28, 2024

5 Thought I Had While Reading…. is an ongoing series I’m doing, where I jot down of 5 thoughts that crossed my mind while reading a book. Today’s book is Long Island by Colm Tóibín.

It’s no wonder Oprah picked Long Island as her 105th book club pick, the book is magnificent! It’s about Eilis Lacey, an Irish woman in her forties who is married to an Italian American man living on Long Island, on the same cul-de-sac as his three brothers, their wives and children. Oh— and his mother and father too. Phew! Talk about family poking their nose into your business. If that isn’t enough fodder for a book, the story starts off with a strange man who appears on Eilis’s doorstep to tell her that her husband has gotten his (the strange man’s) wife pregnant, and that he’ll be depositing the baby on her doorstep as soon as it’s born.

For the writers in the room:

1. This is the perfect example of where and how to start a story.

There’s no cushioning, no preamble, Colm Tóibín gets right into the meat of it on the first two pages. A strange man arrives on Ellis’s doorstep, claiming that her husband has gone and got his wife pregnant. And so the story begins. There’s so much a writer can learn from this book— how to write interiority; how to tell a story from different points of view; what to do if you’ve married into a family that think it’s their right to interfere with every aspect of your life… wait… wrong point… I got carried away (see next thought). What I meant to say is, if you want to learn how and where to start a story, read this book.

2. Colm Tóibín gets in-laws who are all up in your business.

An example from pg 122 and 123:

One day, a few weeks before she had left for Ireland, Tony's father appeared at the garage. Eilis saw him and Mr Dakessian speaking to each other as though they were involved in a conspiracy. It was all gestures and whispers and Tony's father narrowing his eyes and smiling at Mr Dakessian who followed what he said with close attention.

And then…

Quickly, she realized that he had come here deliberately and his performance had been worked out in advance. His visit was a message of support. What she did not know was whether it had been inspired by her mother-in-law as a way of flattering her, embracing her, snaring her further in the great family net, or whether Tony's father was speaking on his own behalf, not having consulted anyone on the content of his most effusive outburst.

I married into a large family, so I know one when I see one if you know what I mean, and this author writes them to a T. It’s the worst feeling to have to second, third and fourth guess what someone’s intentions are. Did this ever have me rooting for the main character!

3. The second POV character comes as such a surprise.

And he brings her in on pg. 53, in Part Two of the book. I wish I could go deeper into this thought without giving away any spoilers. But just in case you haven’t read the book yet, I’d hate to take away the ‘reader’s jolt’ you get at the introduction of a new and unexpected POV. Enough to say that it came as a surprise to me. And I thought to myself: what an interesting character he’s chosen to start Part Two with; why has he chosen her? Little did I know that it would introduce a whole new conflict to the story. The love triangle conflict.

Although the story starts off with the question of what Eilis should do with the case of her husband’s transgression and the pending baby, it continues, plotwise, with the problem of the love triangle (which can I say, her husband isn’t part of!). What I love so much about Colm Tóibín’s take on a love triangle in this book, is that only the reader knows it’s a love triangle. The characters themselves don’t realize until the endish, setting the perfect heightened end of story pace a book needs.

While we’re on the topic of POV, even though Long Island is Eilis’s story, there are two other POV characters. Colm Tóibín inhabits all three of his characters so brilliantly (he goes as far as showing us the same event from two character’s POV without even the tiniest dip in pace), I sometimes forget there’s one and not three main characters. The story becomes their story too. I end up wanting to root for them, but not being able to, because if I did, it would be in direct contradiction to what the main character wants— and I want her to come out of this a winner. Oh, he is such a master story teller!

4. Creativity will always find a way to show itself no matter the circumstances.

What she loved doing most now in the morning was making tea and toast and fetching the artist's sketchbook that she had bought in Dublin with some rulers and plastic triangles and T-shapes and coloured pencils, and making a plan to scale of the house she hoped to build.
When the doorbell rang, she looked at the clock and saw that it was almost eleven thirty. She had become lost in measurements and drawings. The morning was practically gone. There were several deliveries due and she went downstairs in the expectation of seeing one of her usual suppliers. Instead, there was a woman at the door who broke into a laugh when she saw her.
pg. 65

The character certainly doesn’t have the means or time to live as a full-time artist (she’s a widow and runs a chip shop on her own), yet creativity doesn’t let that stop it. We are creative beings whether we admit it or not; it will always find a way in.

Also: details like these make me love the book so much. What a masterful way of showing a character’s wants and needs.

5. Colm Tóibín certainly knows how to keep the reader guessing until very end.

He doesn’t give away a single clue about Eilis’s decision (will she return to her husband or will Jim follow her back to Long Island) until the very end (or maybe he does and I didn’t pick it up). Bottom line, he made me wait until the second last page. And— I felt sad at the choice she did make. Part of me wished she would have chosen differently. In my eyes, it wasn’t a happy ending. But, and this is the brilliant part, it could very well have been the right ending in another reader’s eyes.

I have to tell you this: exactly at the mid-point of the story, after having had a longish reading session, I gave myself a break and turned to the front flap. I sometimes like to see how an author writes their back cover copy. I was thrilled and confused, after reading half the book, to find out that this was a continuation of Brooklyn! I knew Colm Tóibín wrote both novels, but I somehow missed the fact that this one was a continuation of the first. I haven’t read the first (of course, otherwise I would have known better).

Please let me know if you’ve read Long Island, I’d love to know what you think. And if it’s on your list— enjoy!