It is a poignant tale of reminiscence, as well as a subtle commentary on current issues ... The book is a master study in emotion sans wordiness. Josse’s selection of the medium of journal writing for her anguished storyteller allows him to express these 'deeply troubling' memories in a safe space as they bubble up at the end of his Ellis tenure ... There’s subtle wit at play here, too ... Mitchell’s viewpoint is particularly interesting since it is that of an author from the other side of the Atlantic who chose to focus not on the immigrants themselves but rather on a character observing the passing tide of humanity ... a meditation on memory, but also a timely narrative on an unending condition.
The harsh realities of immigration are filtered through a man’s experiences in Gaëlle Josse’s novel, The Last Days of Ellis Island ... Ellis Island is as much a character as any of the people in the book. It is home to John, safe and familiar. But to the immigrants who pass through it on their way to Manhattan, it is a frightening, unpredictable gauntlet. John relays both perspectives with tender details ... The Last Days of Ellis Island is an absorbing novel in which beloved dreams are fast to shatter.
Gaëlle Josse’s intimate novel, winner of the European Union Prize for Literature and skillfully translated by Natasha Lehrer, is a powerful reflection on exile, immigration, and one’s sense of home ... [the protagonist] gives us a complex—and often painful—insight into the bleak conditions and harsh poverty that have driven people to seek out a new home, while also reflecting upon his own career and the people he has worked with, culminating in a very personal reflection on choice, regret, and what makes life meaningful ... What continues to fascinate, however, is the narrator’s continued choice to remain on Ellis Island, markedly contrasting with the forced detention of its inmates ... In this way, the novel is deeply psychological and moves beyond the wider context of the period to reveal the entrapment that can result from a certain way of living—with fears, with regret ... Josse masterfully creates a detailed world from what has been excluded ... complex and conflicted, beautifully capable of capturing simultaneously the varied spectrums of courage, suffering, and hope.
... evocative but too-abbreviated ... At barely 200 pages of large-size type, The Last Days of Ellis Island is so short that the sparseness must have been deliberate. Yet the brevity is ultimately dissatisfying. If Mitchell was so wrapped up in Ellis Island during his 45 years there, he certainly should have memories of more than three immigrants and two fellow employees. What was the daily routine in that self-contained world? How did they cope when storms stranded the ferries? What were Mitchell’s feelings at each step downward, as his beloved facility slid from importance? Instead of getting those insights, the book spends six precious pages on the World War II combat death of his nephew, an interlude that feels tacked on to show Mitchell in a wider context. Luckily, the brief portrayal of Mitchell that exists is pungent and often lyrical.
Already the winner of the European Union Prize for Literature after its publication in France, Josse’s slim novel contains the somber reflections, in diary form, of one man’s 45 years of service as a gatekeeper at what once was the door into the United States for millions of immigrants ... In the tale of this fictional bureaucrat, Josse powerfully evokes the spirit of the 'huddled masses' who landed on America’s shores while creating a memorable portrait of a man torn between his commitment to his difficult job and the longings of his heart.
French novelist Josse’s melancholy English-language debut looks at the last few days in 1954 before Ellis Island was officially shuttered as a port of entry into the U.S ... Lehrer’s translation is both limpid and lyrical, as Mitchell sees himself being put out to pasture ... Josse’s powerful work finds the human heart within a career bureaucrat.
