Monthly Archives: November 2012

I personally found Brooklyn‘s language to be rather plain and dull. I did not enjoy it. However’ Colm Toibin did provide some interesting insight on his thought process. Being an Irish immigrant himself, it was quite a personal experience for him. He didn’t simply imagine himself in Brooklyn. He said he actually asked a friend of his in Brooklyn if he could use his house for the book. Toibin went to the house and placed characters in certain places. He said he even met the daughter of this woman he wrote about. I think this workshop was a very interesting experience.

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.

Jerry Cheung

Honestly, it was a waste of time for everyone. The students showed little respect by talking, using their phones, and even their laptops. Some of the people that attended listened but were essentially there because they had to. I personally don’t think it was beneficial to anyone including the author who mindlessly talked about something no one cared about. It sounds tough and unappreciative of the event, however it is what I thought occurred during those hours. To the few who got something out of it, I applaud you for having in interest in what he was saying. However, for the rest of us, we really didn’t care. I also have reason to believe that many of the students didn’t read the book, I included.

Guan here, this workshop starred Colm Toibin, author of Brooklyn, which I’m SURE most of you have read.  So, since all of us were there, or were supposed to be there, there’s no need for me to summarize what he told us about. So it turns out that the idea for his story was based off a real life event, meaning he wasn’t very creative. Not bashing him though, since it certainly takes quite a lot of skill to write about it skillfully like he did. I’m glad he chose to speak about how he wrote the book rather than talking about school-related stuff and encouraging us to succeed.  I found it a rather interesting workshop, at least more than the last one, aside from the questioning session near the end, mostly because I didn’t like the students’ questions. Would have been more enjoyable if it did not force me to stay in school later than I would have preferred.