The NY Times review of this subtitled it "The Reluctant Immigrant" and that captures the book. And perhaps a long-standing group of Irish immigrants. Maybe more than a few Italians as well, if the scenario in "The Golden Door" are to be believed. The premise is that 1950's Ireland is unable to sustain the population it has, that the opportunities for education are minimal and that even the educated can't find jobs within Ireland that utilize their education, and that someone from every family has to go even further away than England to find work and support the family. Eilis is just such a person from her family. She is not going to anything and she is not escaping anything--she is unlike the early waves of American immigrants. She is hard-working and smart, taken under the wing of a Catholic priest who not only helps her find opportunities to better herself, but doesn't dissuade her from her love affair with an up and coming Italian boy. She is finding a new beginning.
Then the homeland beckons her. She returns after her sister suddenly dies, and is very easily swept up in the life she left--until her secrets from America come creeping up to haunt her and she returns there. Not so much because she misses it, though, but because she has made choices that don't allow her to stay in Ireland. The book has a bittersweet tone throughout, which I think captures the mood of those who leave a place they love and where they are loved in turn--but feel they have to go.
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