John Weis

I gave Long Island and Brooklyn 4 stars. For a native Irishman I thought his treatment of the book in the US in both works was better than his writing in his native Enniscouthy. In many ways he is a psychological writer using techniques similar to George Elliot; taking pages to describe how a character thinks about something before actually taking action. This creates some tension but leads to dialogue which I can be a bit disappointing. But his main character, Ellis is strong and stays with you for quite a while; similar to Dorothea in Middlemarch, one of the strongest female characters in literature. Unfortunately I read these works after reading Niall Williams’ three works located in Faha which have a lyricism and poetic style that is unmatched by nearly all contemporary writers.