'It would make you independent': Immigration, Regret, and Women’s Agency in Colm Tóibín’s 'Long Island'

Colm Tóibín’s 2024 novel Long Island, a sequel to his earlier 2009 work Brooklyn, picks up with Eilis (Lacey) Fiorello, now a mother and a betrayed wife, as she uncannily recreates her return to Ireland 20 years after her first sojourn back from America. Long Island reengages the thorny issues of immigration and Irish identity raised in Brooklyn, such as the roles of silence and home; it tantalizing suggests that Eilis can undo the consequences of her move from Ireland. However, the novel goes on to consider another lingering factor: the specific cultural and financial constraints on women that hampered their agency and opportunities for self-fulfillment. This chapter examines the ways in which Long Island reengages with the social construction of Irish women, exploring not only the cultural factors like silence that condition their choices, but also the lasting financial limitations that affected women throughout the 20th century.

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