Monthly Archives: November 2012

The workshop featuring Colm Toibin, the author of Brooklyn, was an interesting look at an author’s train of thoughts as they work on their books. I’ve never stopped to think about the immense amount of work that goes into writing a book. While it may seem obvious that hours and hours go into writing a novel, in his speech, Colm Toibin made it seem almost as if it was an easy process. This however could just be that he is such a good writer that he makes it seem easy. For example, I found it surprising that he did not use any notes while writing Brooklyn. I also thought it was convenient that he was able to base his characters on real life people. He also based some events in his novel on his own experiences. His hardest challenge, however, was writing a story that resonated so well with the millions of immigrants who go through a similar experience of moving to a new country. Perhaps, because he is a great writer, he executed the story perfectly in that immigrants identify closely with the emotions and thoughts of Eilis. Apart from this, I found that it was great that he was able to joke around towards the end of the workshop in what otherwise up to this point had been a serious discussion. I’ve never felt passionate about wanting to meet an author but this “behind-the-scenes” look at writing Brooklyn was an interesting first and it perhaps won’t be the last for me.

I felt that the workshop with Colm Toibin was a very fascinating experience. It was actually my first time meeting the author of a book I have read so I did not know what to expect, but I have to say that the way he delivered his speech was engaging and funny at the same time. Since I had really enjoyed reading his book over the summer, I was a bit excited to hear that he would be speaking at Baruch. I found it interesting to listen to him talk about his childhood and how he put parts of his own life into the book. Whenever he referred to something in his book, I was eager to listen to him tell the story behind it and how he came about writing that part. I was especially surprised by how he was able to write about homesickness in a way that so many people could relate to the main character. Learning about Toibin’s writing process and personal history gave me insight on how he created such a wonderful masterpiece where readers of all ages can appreciate.

In my opinion, the workshop with the author of the book Brooklyn, Colm Toibin, was a unique experience. Although I did not read the book, it turned out I didn’t actually need it for the workshop. Honestly, for me the workshop was dull and pointless. I thank Colm Toibin for not making it as boring as it could it have been; instead of talking about the book he chose to discuss the factors that played a role in his creation of the book. With the exception of a few students, most seemed uninterested in him talking and more interested in everything else around them. The purpose of this blog is not to disrespect Colm Toibin, he is a terrific writer and an even better author, and maybe he inspired percentage of us, but I feel the last thing this world needs is another book which focuses on the life of an immigrant, simply because it is already somewhat of a cliché.

Eden Goring Fro Blog

I thought the speech the author gave was interesting. I didn’t think that so much effort into writing a single novel. The way he uses his own family members and anecdotes is unlike anything I thought the author would have done. All though the lecture was rather long and vague I found the overall performance very informative. It made me think that maybe I could write a novel for a split second. Than I remembered I would never in a million years do anything like that. I really wish he gave more insight to the development of the story but I guess beggars can’t be choosers.

Hello, my name is Brandon Jimenez. I was born in Costa Rica on April 19^th, 1993. I moved to Long Island at age 15. It was my father’s dream to take us to the US back when he married my mom, but he did not live to see it come true. At age 8, my grandparent asked for my mom and her sisters to come to the US, but it did not happen until 7 years later. It was very hard at the beginning because my stepdad had trouble finding a good job; my family was struggling. After a confrontation with my stepdad I moved out and later moved in with my aunt and uncle. I love living with them, and after a couple of months my older sister moved in with us too. I have a 15 year old sister, 11 year old brother, and a 5 year old sister. I loved Southampton High School, it was great. At the beginning it was hard to get used to, but after my second year I started having lots of fun. I decided to come to Baruch because it is highly rank in business and business is my interest. It is cheap, and since I pay for my own tuition it is a plus. I did pretty well in school, so my scholarships really help me pay for it. I take a lot of care about my health and condition. I workout 6 hours a week or more, I play soccer on Fridays, volleyball in the summer, I ride bikes, run, eat very healthy stuff, and just take a lot of care with my physical shape. I love many genres of music, but house music is my absolute favorite. I have a careful eye for clothes and shoes. I love quality materials, and details in everything; I am a perfectionist. I am a speed fanatic, I love cars, bikes, and any type of engine powered vehicle. I like my jobs; I am a Barista at a coffee shop, and sometimes a manager at a gallery owned by my uncle. I want to be a business owner; I am not sure what kind of business. A coffee shop is something that I would like to own.

I thought the workshop was interesting, although I only read about half of the actual book. While I obviously didn’t understand many of the references he made, I liked how he was down-to-earth and eager to answer any questions we had. I did read SOME of the book, so the parts he mentioned that I knew about, I enjoyed. I really liked how he got the idea for the story – it’s very cool how one incident can spark inspiration and wind up becoming a best-selling novel. I want to be a writer, so I was very interested in the tips he gave and the points he made on his writing process itself, mainly the part about setting aside time to write, and becoming all-encompassed in your writing. That part spoke to me because, as a writer, it makes me seem less crazy for devoting time to working on finishing a piece.

It was very interesting. When the workshop started it seemed as if it was going to be worse than the workshop we attended before, but it was not. As he developed his presentation, I started to understand where he was going with it. I love reading because it  takes you to places you have not seen. And Brooklyn did that just well. I can connect myself with the plot in Brooklyn because I am also an immigrant that endured hard events; however, with a pretty successful story so far. It was great to see him talking about specific parts of the book because I am currently reading the book, and he mentioned a part that was a page behind my progress. I like fiction books, and his is pretty unique because it is based on a not complete true story. I would like to read a second part to it, it will be interesting.

First off, I wasn’t expecting much from the workshop. This is entirely due to the fact that the previous workshop just did not do it for me, so i set up this unconscious bias against any and all future workshops. However, the most recent workshop swayed my opinion.

Colm is a wonderful orator. He has excellent tone to his voice, which kept me interested to the point that i decided to pull out a notebook and write down a couple of memorable phrases of his. Admittedly, i didn’t read his book. I wikipedia’d the piece before the start of the lecture and found it to have a somewhat interesting plot. This enabled me to get just that little bit more into the presentation- i find it interesting that he wrote the book from a woman’s perspective. Brooklyn seems like it would be interesting, but in my heart of hearts i know i won’t get around to reading it anytime soon (or at all). His accent was a nice touch, though!

Hearing some insight into the novel “Brooklyn” was definitely a memorable experience. It was nice to connect a face to the story, and hear Toibin’s inspiration for writing this novel. Something I found interesting was that Toibin stayed in a friends home in Brooklyn while writing “Brooklyn”. To go all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to write a book shows alot of dedication. Even though Colm Toibin was rather dull, putting me to sleep, I appreciated the opportunity to delve into the mind of a prolific writer.