Long Island

Colm Tóibín is an acclaimed Irish author known for works of fiction and nonfiction alike. He is the author of such novels The Master and The Blackwater Lightship. As an author, Tóibín often uses real experiences to influence aspects of his writing. Most notably, Tóibín sets many of his works in County Wexford, where he grew up, reflecting his own upbringing: “His father taught history at the Christian Brothers’ school in Enniscorthy, a small town in southeastern Ireland where his family has deep roots” (Serafin, Steven R. “Colm Tóibín.” Britannica). Enniscorthy is the setting of much of Long Island. Furthermore, Long Island’s predecessor, Brooklyn, is a historical novel that explores Irish immigration to New York in the 1950s and further captures Tóibín’s own experience: “it was inspired by a piece of local gossip that Tóibín overheard as a child, about a young woman who returned to Ireland after living in Brooklyn without telling her family that she had gotten married in America” (Serafin). The story behind Brooklyn’s inspiration is explored more deeply in Long Island as Tóibín uses many of the same characters to explore the development of love and emotions over a two-decade period. Jim and Eilis’s relationship in Brooklyn ends when Eilis leaves, but upon her return, both she and Jim learn that their feelings have hardly changed. Additionally, Long Island uses the structure of a love triangle in much the same way that Brooklyn does, though instead of Tony, it is Nancy that completes the shape.