The Song Behind Today’s Review Title

[For the past several reviews I’ve picked a song lyric as the title of my review post. It’s been fun looking for songs that reflect the book I’ve read, and I hope it gives you the reader a bit of fun too, and a catchy tune to take with you through your day.]

Secrets are a big factor in the plot of today’s book, which revolves around the heroine of Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel Brooklyn, a story that went on to become a movie of the same name. In the new book Eilis Lacey learns of a secret that sends her back to Ireland, where she (and those around her) keeps many secrets as she sparks an old flame.

The title for today’s review comes from the 1995 song Secret Garden by Bruce Springsteen. The song is sung from a man’s point of view and highlights the risks of falling for a woman who keeps secrets. Springsteen warns that the woman’s “secret garden” may have everything a man wants and needs, but she’ll always keep it “a million miles away.” The gentle pace of the song along with its lyrical impact is a perfect fit for today’s book.

Secret Garden was featured in the hit 1996 movie Jerry Maguire which caused the tune to chart for a second time in two years, climbing to number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. This YouTube video of the song features scenes from the movie.

Eilis (pronounced “Aye-lish”) Lacey was the main character in Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel Brooklyn. A young Irish immigrant to New York in the 1950s, Lacey fell in love and married Tony Fiorello. The book (and the movie made from it) detail events in young Eilis’ life - her arrival in America, her return to Ireland, and the men she loved on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Long Island takes place twenty years after the events in Brooklyn. Eilis and Tony have two children and are settled in an “enclave” on Long Island surrounded by extended family, the homes of Tony’s parents and those of his two brothers and their wives.

Tony works as a plumber. Daughter Rosella is finishing high school bound for college in the fall while her younger brother Larry is bright but not as scholastically motivated as his sister. Eilis works taking care of the books at a local garage.

Into this 1970s suburban American story steps an Irishman - a neighbor - appearing at Eilis’ front door with news. His wife has hired Tony to do plumbing at their house. Now she is pregnant. He’s not the father, Tony is. The Irishman says, in no uncertain terms, that he will not have the baby in his house, and once it’s born, he will deliver it to her doorstep.

And so begins the sequel. With one secret revealed the plot slowly unwinds as more secrets, by more characters, shape the narrative.

Tóibín is an excellent writer. His prose is direct and succinct. He tells you what you need to know, and not more. Yet he includes enough detail to fill in the blanks, and to build the mental picture of events in your mind. And not just of events, but of relationships and personalities. You get a clear sense of the personalities of Eilis and Tony, their two kids, his parents, his brothers, and their wives, all flowing naturally out of events as the story progresses.

Eilis makes it clear to Tony that she will not have the baby in her house either. Much is said, but more is unsaid between the two. Secrets and silences begin to assert themselves in this story. The news from the Irishman leads Eilis to decide it is time to go back to Enniscorthy, her hometown in Ireland, in time for her mother’s 80th birthday. The kids will follow later. She is again clear that the baby cannot be in the house, nor in Tony’s mother’s house, when she returns.

Back in Ireland she of course runs into her old friend Nancy and eventually her old flame Jim. It’s a small town so it would seem inevitable. Neither Nancy nor Jim tell her they are now seeing each other. A tangled web ensues.

Again I have to say that Tóibín is an excellent writer. All of this tangle builds slowly, without much actual drama. There isn’t much in the way of displays of emotion - between Tony and Eilis, or Eilis and Jim, or Jim and Nancy. In each relationship this event happens, then this next event happens. What it means to the characters is revealed when Toibin takes us into their thoughts, which they don’t share with each other. Assumptions get made. Secrets and silences build.

While I marveled at Tóibín’s ability to propel the story forward without it becoming maudlin or sentimental, the sheer number of secrets it took to do so became a frustration. And it’s every character in the story - they are each shown to be keeping secrets from one or more other characters.

So, secret-keeping is apparently part of the point Tóibín wants to get across, but there’s just too much for me to suspend disbelief. Look, I know that folks of my parent’s generation didn’t speak their minds in the way we do today but COME ON ALREADY.

That was one frustration as I neared the end of the book. The other was the end itself. Tóibín takes us to the edge of the metaphorical cliff, but we don’t go over. There isn’t an end really, even a cliffhanger. The story stops rather than ends.

To sum it all up: Beautiful prose. Great character building. Wonderfully painted word pictures of 1970s Long Island and small-town Ireland. Frustrating number of secrets between the characters. Unsatisfactory ending. A love/hate relationship between me and this story.

RATING: Four Stars ⭐⭐🌠

RATING COMMENTS: I loved Tóibín’s sparse and evocative writing but frustrated at the characters inability to NOT keep secrets, and at the unsatisfactory ending.

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I listened to the audiobook which I checked out from my local library through the Libby app.