Colm Toibin reintroduces Eiliis Lacey twenty years after her first appearance in the captivating novel, Brooklyn. She has been married to Tony, a plumber from a large Italian family, for twenty years. His family members all live in the same cul-de-sac on Long Island and gather every Sunday for a meal. Her mother-in-law is the acknowledged matriarch who guides them.

The novel opens with a stranger at Eilis' door announcing news of the worst possible betrayal by Tony and the subsequent repercussions. Tony's entire large family is aware of the news, especially his mother, who believes she has the solution. This is devastating to Eilis. She decides to return to Ireland for her mother's eightieth birthday, along with her two children. She has not returned to Ireland since moving to America twenty years ago. Much has changed and much has remained the same in the small village. Her former lover, Jim Farrell, whom she abruptly abandoned is still single and owns the local pub. He is secretly courting a widow, Nancy, with plans to marry. There are many secrets in this village due to the fear of false rumors. Eilis' reappearance is the cause of new choices and their consequences for Eilis, Jim and Nancy.

The ending leaves unanswered questions and the hope for a further sequel in Eilis' life. Colm Toibin has once again written a remarkable novel. ( )

Meh. I didn't read Brooklyn (had to read this for my book club), but I read the synopsis, so have a sense of what happened. I suspect if I had read it, I wouldn't have wanted to read this. Overall, I didn't like Eilis. She seems whiny and indecisive and only concerned about herself. Felt bad for Jim, who'd been pining for her all the while and was left hanging for a second time. And what was that ending??? If there's a sequel, I won't waste my time. ( )

So there is an Eilis Lacey series! I don't remember much about Brooklyn, the first one, even though I liked it. This second book left this reader knowingly frustrated at the end, but it's an excellent yet disconcerting trip from Lindenhurst to Enniscorthy. Eilis is devastated when husband Tony's infidelity results in his fathering a child that will not be accepted by the cuckolded husband, a client of his plumbing business. Tony's act seems to be a one-off, but there is never an adequate explanation of his journey off the rails. Eilis refuses to accept the likelihood of the baby to be brought to her doorstep and also forbids any of her in laws to accept the child. Her scheming mother-in-law works to change her mind, but Eilis uses her mother's 80th birthday as an excuse to return to Ireland after twenty years away. There she encounters Jim, a pub owner with whom she'd had an affair and then fled back to Tony and her family, and their desire for each other has not cooled, especially for Eilis, who is so wounded by her husband's betrayal. Her own mother is a piece of work - a gossiping hypocrite who nevertheless truly loves and appreciates Eilis and Tony's son and daughter, who have made the trip with her. Jim is secretly engaged to Eilis's best friend Nancy, a widow. Jim and Eilis' passivity is brutally evil to Nancy, and no matter what they decide for their future, it's going to have a miserable outcome. There will be a difficult reckoning for the third book, and engaged readers can speculate and name their own adventure for the two families. ( )

This story was a slow burn. The characters were hard to understand and I was stumped by how all they behaved in view of their current situations. I thought Nancy was the smartest one by far and applauded how she handled the drama with Jim her fiancé. ( )

When Eilis Lacey learns that her husband Tony has gotten another woman pregnant, and that woman's husband plans to leave the baby on their doorstep when it's born, she refuses to have the baby in the house. When Tony won't agree, Eilis leaves for Ireland, to visit her mother for her 80th birthday, unsure whether or not she will return to Tony. Eilis' teenage children Rosella and Larry join her for part of the visit; it is their first trip to Ireland, and first time meeting Eilis' extended family, whereas they have grown up surrounded by their Italian-American aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins.

When Jim Farrell learns that Eilis is back in town, he wonders if he should break off his secret engagement to Nancy, Eilis' former best friend, in the hopes of rekindling a romance with Eilis. Eilis and Jim do indeed begin an affair, but Nancy learns of it and makes their engagement public to keep Jim from backing out. Chapters shift from Eilis' perspective to Jim's to Nancy's, and the ending - from Jim's - is somewhat unresolved.

Quotes

Once more, she saw that if she made threats, she would mean them. And it was that knowledge that was stopping her from speaking. (134)

[She imagined] him asking her quietly what it had been like, being away all the years. No one else had asked her this, not her mother or Nancy or anything. (169)

Tony did not even know that Jim existed. And Jim knew nothing about how she lived in America. No one really knew anything about her. (171)

It occurred to Eilis that if she stopped thinking about herself and what she wanted, then everything would fall into place, at least over the next few months. (246) ( )