I’ve read a fair amount of Colm Toibin’s novels and essays over the years. Toibin’s latest novel, Long Island, is a sequel to his best selling Brooklyn. I read the book, I enjoyed the movie of the same name in 2015. I read Long Island in order to prepare for this evening of Toibin talking about his work and found I liked Brooklyn better. But Toibin mentioned that negotiations are under way to make a movie based on Long Island.
Of the many Colm Toibin books I’ve read, my favorite is Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce (2018). Toibin teaches a semester long course on James Joyce at Columbia University each year so he knows quite a bit about Joyce’s work and Life.
It’s easy to discern that Colm Toibin is a clever writer because his books are all very clever. But, what I didn’t realize until I heard Toibin speak was that he is a very funny guy. His “talk” seemed complete unscripted and authentic. Later, in the Q&A session, Toibin turned every audience question into a joke filled answer. If you haven’t read Colm Toibin, you’re missing an excellent writer at the top of his game. GRADE: A
I strongly recommend THE MASTER, Toibin’s fictional account of the life of Henry James. I loved how Toibin showed small, seemingly disconnected incidents that James observed and then later incorporated into his work. Because “nothing much happened” on the surface of James’s life (much like in his fiction, lol), it seems that it would be difficult to flesh out an interesting and engaging story, but Toibin did just that.
Deb, I have THE MASTER in my READ REAL SOON stack!
Deb, I’ve been meaning to read THE MASTER since you first mentioned it.
Real soon now!
Jeff, I’ve moved THE MASTER up a level on my READ REAL SOON stack!
I read them both too, George, and I agree that BROOKLYN was a much better book.
Jeff, Toibin was also musing that he might write a third book to make BROOKLYN and LONG ISLAND part of a trilogy.
He probably should have let those characters rest. I have the “father” book sitting on a shelf. I will try it soon.
Patti, BROOKLYN and LONG ISLAND are a decade apart. I’d be interested in a movie version of LONG ISLAND.
Never heard of him! I’ll bet he didn’t even mention I was born in Brooklyn in the book with that title!
Bob, I didn’t know you were born in Brooklyn! I always assumed you were a West Coast guy!
I was a Navy brat until the seventh grade. Virginia, NY, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Louisiana, but not in that order! Moved to California after I got out of the Army in 1969! Moved up here in 1978! Peripatetic, that’s me!
Bob, you certainly get around!
Federal brats got around, too. After my parents met in Alaska, both working for the FAA, they married and had me (poor souls), we moved to Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Hawaii…my parents and sister moved to Virginia, and I rejoined them, to continue college less expensively in the DC area than living on my own in Hawaii. (I’ve since migrated to Penna and NJ. in the Philadelphia area when not proper, with Alice and. in most of those years, our cats. )