Workshop Two – John Joseph

The workshop was a great experience to hear directly from Colm Toibin the author who wrote our summer reading book “Brooklyn.” Rather than give a simple summary of the events that happened in the book he gave us very interesting insight into his past experiences and the motivation behind writing the book. He spoke about his own immigrant experience from Ireland to America that many in the room could relate through their own experience. I also found it interesting in how much research he conducted into the 1950 time period while writing the novel. One of the main messages that I took from the workshop was to always remember those who have helped you along the way to help you achieve. He often spoke about how he envisioned people who he knew very well going through experiences and how they would respond to certain events. He uses this to help write his novels. In fact the novel Brooklyn was based upon a true story in which a woman who lived in his village in Ireland traveled to the United States and married an Italian man from Brooklyn. The women attempted keep this marriage a secret but eventually everyone in the village found out. Hearing this story as a young child helped encourage Toibin to write the novel. All in all it was interesting.