Though Eilis appreciates the help, she cannot help but notice that Miss Fortini makes every excuse to touch her, and that her eyes linger on Eilis’s body in more than a casual way. She books a ticket to Brooklyn, and tells her mother the dreaded news. But she makes it through with the help of a more seasoned transatlantic traveler named Georgina, who also helps her to prepare to pass through immigration and present herself in this new country. Of course, it also helps that she meets a fella named Tony. He says that they can have a more public ceremony when Eilis returns. They spend much of the day in the water, where they hold each other closely under the waves. On the day of the Coney Island trip, the beach is packed, and Eilis and Tony have to carve out a place on the sand. I’m working my way through my three book choices and last night finished reading one of them, Brooklyn. Book Review: A Happy Ending in Brooklyn? Eilis is torn, but the decision is taken out of her hands when Miss Kelly—her former boss in Ireland—reveals that she knows Mrs. Kehoe, and that Mrs. Kehoe told her about Eilis' marriage. Tony is an Italian-American charmer, and he and Eilis quickly spark a romance. © 2020 Shmoop University Inc | All Rights Reserved | Privacy | Legal. He invites her to spend the holidays serving meals to the poor at the church in an effort to keep her involved in the community. She knows that however she might feel about Jim, he will never accept that she is already married, and will need to get a divorce in order to be with him. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. She has greater ambitions and moves to Brooklyn, New York, leaving her mother and sister, Rose (Fiona Glascott), behind. GradeSaver "Brooklyn Summary". He tells her that he and his brothers have bought land on Long Island that they plan to develop. He is thrilled, literally jumping up and down. There she moves into a boardinghouse run by an Irishwoman named Mrs. Kehoe and gets a job at Bartocci's Department Store. This ends up complicating things a great deal, as Eilis sparks a romance with Jim Farrell, a kid she had met before moving to Brooklyn. In 2019, 20 years after its publication, Motherless Brooklyn was released as a film directed by Oscar-nominated actor Edward Norton, who played Lionel Essrog. Fast-forward a few weeks and suddenly our young heroine is on an ocean liner heading straight towards big city Brooklyn. By Christmas time, Tony takes another important step in their relationship. Brooklyn is set in Enniscorthy, Ireland in the 1950s. The movie differs significantly from the book, which Lethem explained as "It’s as if the book was a dream the movie once had and was trying to remember it, you know? Tony brings Eilis to a Dodgers game with him and his three brothers, and though she does not understand the game, she is charmed by his passion and excitement. During that summer, Tony invites Eilis to Coney Island, where they can go to the beach. The change is overwhelming, and once the excitement wears off, Eilis finds herself more and more depressed. He tells her he loves her, but she does not know how to answer, and so she says nothing. But, unwilling to tell her family and friends about Tony, she hardly has a reason to refuse. Eilis, in turn, finds it hard to broach the subject, and especially to tell her mother about Tony. For one thing, she must navigate the issue of race, which was hardly a problem in the homogenous Enniscorthy. Eilis tries some on at Bartocci’s after work, and Miss Fortini sizes her up, advising her to shave her bikini line and watch her figure. Eilis’s happiness is soon disrupted by devastating news. When her mother asks her whether she would be returning to Brooklyn had she not been married, Eilis can only say that she does not know. Father Flood arranges for her to work at a department store called Bartocci’s. Soon, they are attending every dance together, and going to the movies every weekend. [8] It was not successful at the box office, with Slate's Marissa Martinelli summarizing "Norton’s film often feels less like an adaptation and more like a work of fan fiction 20 years in the making, with Norton borrowing Lethem’s protagonist and the broad strokes of his plot to create something almost entirely new. Tony tells her about his Italian family, his work as a plumber, and his family. She goes swimming with Jim, which she had sworn to herself that she would not do, and she allows him to embrace her in a photo they take together.