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Diane Barnes's Reviews > Long Island
Long Island (Eilis Lacey, #2)
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8 years ago I read Brooklyn, loved it, and considered it one of my favorite books of the year, so needless to say I was really looking forward to this one. We meet Eilis Lacey after 20 years of marriage, 2 teenage children, and, in the first chapter, an unforgivable betrayal. Her husband has gotten another woman pregnant and that husband shows up at her door saying he will leave the baby on her doorstep since it isn't his. When Eilis decides she will have nothing to do with it either, she goes home to Ireland to visit her 80 year old mother.
There she reconnects with an old love, Jim, who is secretly involved with her former best friend. He's playing both ends against the middle and gets snared in a web of lies. There are a lot of lies in this novel that quickly becomes a comedy of errors.
In this follow up, I could not come to care for any of these characters and I felt like the dialogue was stilted and unreal. Whether it's me or whether it's Toibin I'm unsure, but I'll just move on.
There she reconnects with an old love, Jim, who is secretly involved with her former best friend. He's playing both ends against the middle and gets snared in a web of lies. There are a lot of lies in this novel that quickly becomes a comedy of errors.
In this follow up, I could not come to care for any of these characters and I felt like the dialogue was stilted and unreal. Whether it's me or whether it's Toibin I'm unsure, but I'll just move on.
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Reading Progress
January 28, 2024
– Shelved as:
to-read
January 28, 2024
– Shelved
May 22, 2024
–
Started Reading
May 24, 2024
–
Finished Reading
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rated it 5 stars
May 24, 2024 11:57AM
Oh that’s really too bad. I got an Amazon GC so treated myself to both Brooklyn and Long Island on my Kindle. I read Brooklyn years ago and I’ve got some plane travel coming I thought these would help pass the time.
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Reading right now - good review
Poor characters and poor dialogue - yuck. On to the next 5-star read!
Yes, and when you add disappointment to the mix it really stinks. So much for expectations.
I am really looking forward to reading this one Diane. What a shame it sounds as if I might be disappointed 😥
A lot of people loved this Angela, you might be one of them.
How disappointing! I have this on hold at the library. I loved Brooklyn so much that I “was� looking forward to this one. I’ll probably still read it, but it sounds like he should have left well enough alone.
I read some good reviews in the press so you never know, as you say Diane we all react differently x
You should both read it, Antoinette and Angela. The 5 star reviews outnumber the 3 stars, and a lot of critics are raving about it. My point of view may not match yours.
This one fell short of Brooklyn for me, as well, and I wondered if it was because of my high expectations. Your point about the stilted dialogue is a good one and one I didn't think of until I read your review. That may have played a part in why I was not as emotionally invested in the characters as I was in Brooklyn.
Good to know someone else feels the same, K Pike .
I’m at part 4 and will stop here. The dialogue is so mundane I can’t read any further. The characters are not interesting to me.
I did not read Brooklyn, but I loved Long Island. I thought it was beautifully written and I felt connected to the characters in Ireland…so different from Italians. I come from an Irish and Italian family and felt like I could envision so many of these people. I kind of wish I knew there was a book before Long Island. I would have read it first!
You should read Brooklyn, Kim. It's a wonderful book, and you'll recognize all these characters. I'm glad you liked Long Island so much.
Jan, I only finished to see what would happen.
It's not you. I agree with all you said
Jan, I did finish and wish I'd stopped at Part 4. You don't really get to see what happens because the book just stops without any questions being answered. I'm sure it's just a device to get people to read a subsequent book, but I'll pass, thank you. The characters were all too over the top, and I have no desire to find out what happens to any of them.
Oh Diane, what a dirge this one was. I am not going to read #3 either. I nearly made this a DNF about 75% point. I wish I had. I don't care who Jim picks- they both deserve the twit.
Agree Jeanette, Jim was a total loser all around.
Sorry I missed your comment Norma. I don't care either, they will have to go on without me.
I am about 50 pages in and on page 12, I paused and said to my husband, who talks like this. Certainly not a 26 year old. Stilted to say the least. � My shoes are perfectly clean, but I have left them outside the door. And I need to listen to the radio. I will be in my room if anyone is looking for me. �
I meant 16 year old, not 26!!
I saw you were reading this. I'll be waiting for your final opinion.
Diane~Excellent Review. You captured my feeling of this book perfectly.
I was disappointed with this book. It just seemed to be on a continuous loop going nowhere. Loved Brooklyn...Long Island not so much.
She is written very oddly. Much different from Brooklyn which was a triumph. It seemed as though she never knew what she wanted and was being very flippant about everything. Also underreacted to the baby BUT I can forgive that somewhat as a catholic woman in that era didn’t have much choice
