Janette

I enjoyed reading it. I also have reservations. The reader is thrown straight into the action and Eilis faces a major dilemma. Her immediate decision is to retreat to Ireland, away from the subterfuges of her husband’s family. Of course she meets Jim (from the previous novel, Brooklyn). They are attracted to each other but he has a dilemma, too. The story picks up. It becomes more complicated. Then it ends. Just ends. No resolution. No tying up of any loose threads. It’s written like a TV series end-of-season cliffhanger and although readers might guess ‘what happens next’ and although we might no longer care, given Jim’s increasingly pathetic passivity and indecision (or cowardice?), we still feel cheated of a definitive conclusion. The situation in Ireland and the mess in New York are still there— unresolved. Time for part three of the series? Perhaps… but it feels like a cop out.