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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
Mijn recensie op Tzum: http://www.tzum.info/2015/03/evan-s-connell-mr-bridge/
These are two separate books written 10 years apart. I read them as such but it's easier to review them together. Mrs Bridge was written first in 1959, Mr Bridge followed in 1969. Some events overlap but their lives are also very distinct. Set in the years leading up to WWII, it is a story of an upper middle class family in Kansas City told as a series of vignettes rather than a narrative.
I loved the writing style. Things are learned without being written, quiet tableaux hinting at undercurrents. I would have loved to see this same world through the eyes of their children but we get some good glimpses. The portrayal of Mr Bridge is so different from one book to another. I found I could really identify with him as I read from his thoughts. He even helped me to understand Mrs Bridge better. The depth of unspoken love, manifested in such unfulfilling ways was sadly moving.
This is a great character study. I may have to see the movie. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Should be good!
I loved the writing style. Things are learned without being written, quiet tableaux hinting at undercurrents. I would have loved to see this same world through the eyes of their children but we get some good glimpses. The portrayal of Mr Bridge is so different from one book to another. I found I could really identify with him as I read from his thoughts. He even helped me to understand Mrs Bridge better. The depth of unspoken love, manifested in such unfulfilling ways was sadly moving.
This is a great character study. I may have to see the movie. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Should be good!
A companion novel to Mrs Bridge, Mrs Bridge was published eleven years after. And you do really need to read Mrs Bridge first to get the full benefit of this. Mr Bridge is a bigot and a racist, a product of his time who is unable (much like his wife) to reflect on where his opinions come from and whether they are correct. It's hard to like him, but he does feel fully rounded. The most fun though is with his interactions with his son, Douglas who is always butting up against his father, and these scenes are often very funny. Highly recommended, just read Mrs Bridge first.
When I first read Mr. Bridge along with its companion novel Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell, I read Mrs. Bridge before Mr. Bridge. For some reason, I read them in the opposite order when re-reading them, which may have contributed to how I felt after finishing them.
::: The Original Workaholic :::
Walter Bridge is a successful attorney, determined to leave his past behind and carve out a comfortable life for himself, his wife, India, and their three children. He goes through life (in the context of this novel, the 1930s and 1940s) with this single-minded purpose, attending to other issues only as they pop up and demand his attention, from giving his wife the attention she seems to crave to dealing with his possibly wayward eldest daughter, Ruth, to acknowledging his ever-present and hard-working secretary.
Mr. Bridge is so focused on his goals that he seems to march through life like an automaton, except for the rare glimpses we see of his personality in social situations and in dealing with his wife. Lunches out with friends and professional acquaintances showcase his prejudice against Jews and just about every other nationality other than the white-bread, white-collar world of Kansas City he lives in, and his feelings about possible desegregation at any point are made abundantly clear, from discouraging his middle child, Carolyn, from a friendship with the gardener's daughter to his dealings with the family's cook/maid, Harriet.
Every instance in his life where someone requires personal attention seems painful to him. His wife, remembering the days of their courtship, is rebuffed when she asks him to read to her again from "The Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayyam, and he also dismisses his secretary in what he feels is a fit of hysteria after she confronts him about the simple fact that he can't even remember the anniversary of the date she began working for him, a fact he that doesn't even register with him even after she confronts him.
::: The Undesirable Companion :::
Connell has written Mr. Bridge in the same concise style as its companion novel, with short chapters often less than a page long, that give the reader snapshots of a life without the entire picture. The two books together definitely make a whole, but getting through Mr. Bridge was excruciating for me. I am not sure whether the novel has become dated or if the character of Mr. Bridge is just too one-dimensional for my tastes. He's a bigot. He's conservative. He is so buttoned into his comfortable life that he can't even deviate from routine by buying a different style shirt, and becomes obsessed with an acquaintance's colored socks.
Mr. Bridge is the sort of "family man" that was stereotypical of the age: go to work, make a living, and leave everything else up to the little woman at home. Even when all signs indicate that his wife is depressed, he can't step outside his comfort zone enough to remember why he married her, or to provide her any reassurance. He believes that he loves his wife, but shows it only with increasingly extravagant gifts that she really didn't want or need.
I found the character of Mr. Bridge so completely unsympathetic that it literally took weeks of reading one or two chapters at a time to force myself through the book, and it may have contributed to the sadness I felt when reading Mrs. Bridge. I was left with the feeling that Mr. Bridge was so caught up in a role that he had long ago lost the person, trapping his entire family in a never-ending role play. I'd recommend it only as a companion to Mrs. Bridge, but other than that, it lacks the richness and complexity of its twin.
This review previously published at Epinions: http://www.epinions.com/review/Mr_Bridge_by_Evan_Connell/content_183086386820
::: The Original Workaholic :::
Walter Bridge is a successful attorney, determined to leave his past behind and carve out a comfortable life for himself, his wife, India, and their three children. He goes through life (in the context of this novel, the 1930s and 1940s) with this single-minded purpose, attending to other issues only as they pop up and demand his attention, from giving his wife the attention she seems to crave to dealing with his possibly wayward eldest daughter, Ruth, to acknowledging his ever-present and hard-working secretary.
Mr. Bridge is so focused on his goals that he seems to march through life like an automaton, except for the rare glimpses we see of his personality in social situations and in dealing with his wife. Lunches out with friends and professional acquaintances showcase his prejudice against Jews and just about every other nationality other than the white-bread, white-collar world of Kansas City he lives in, and his feelings about possible desegregation at any point are made abundantly clear, from discouraging his middle child, Carolyn, from a friendship with the gardener's daughter to his dealings with the family's cook/maid, Harriet.
Every instance in his life where someone requires personal attention seems painful to him. His wife, remembering the days of their courtship, is rebuffed when she asks him to read to her again from "The Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayyam, and he also dismisses his secretary in what he feels is a fit of hysteria after she confronts him about the simple fact that he can't even remember the anniversary of the date she began working for him, a fact he that doesn't even register with him even after she confronts him.
::: The Undesirable Companion :::
Connell has written Mr. Bridge in the same concise style as its companion novel, with short chapters often less than a page long, that give the reader snapshots of a life without the entire picture. The two books together definitely make a whole, but getting through Mr. Bridge was excruciating for me. I am not sure whether the novel has become dated or if the character of Mr. Bridge is just too one-dimensional for my tastes. He's a bigot. He's conservative. He is so buttoned into his comfortable life that he can't even deviate from routine by buying a different style shirt, and becomes obsessed with an acquaintance's colored socks.
Mr. Bridge is the sort of "family man" that was stereotypical of the age: go to work, make a living, and leave everything else up to the little woman at home. Even when all signs indicate that his wife is depressed, he can't step outside his comfort zone enough to remember why he married her, or to provide her any reassurance. He believes that he loves his wife, but shows it only with increasingly extravagant gifts that she really didn't want or need.
I found the character of Mr. Bridge so completely unsympathetic that it literally took weeks of reading one or two chapters at a time to force myself through the book, and it may have contributed to the sadness I felt when reading Mrs. Bridge. I was left with the feeling that Mr. Bridge was so caught up in a role that he had long ago lost the person, trapping his entire family in a never-ending role play. I'd recommend it only as a companion to Mrs. Bridge, but other than that, it lacks the richness and complexity of its twin.
This review previously published at Epinions: http://www.epinions.com/review/Mr_Bridge_by_Evan_Connell/content_183086386820
A friend recommended that I read this book because I love the film so much and I will always be grateful to him. It was nearly perfect. There are two books set in the early part of the 20th century - Mrs Bridge, written in 1959 and Mr Bridge, written in 1969 - and they tell the story of two lives lived at the same time and in the same home. The characters are revealed to the reader through short vignettes, incidents seen through the narrators eyes. They don't tell you who they are, they show you, uncovering themselves through their worries, their thoughts, their actions and most of all their bewilderment. It's beautifully done.
A very well constructed and well written book. The author made it interesting even though Mr. Bridge is a thoroughly unlikable character. It is an interesting portrait of a family between the wars. A sad story of a man so constrained by his vision of what is and what is not socially acceptable that he is able to take no true enjoyment from life.
I read Mrs. Bridge before this and found the portraits of the children in that book more sympathetic. In Mr. Bridge the children are as unlikable as the father.
I read Mrs. Bridge before this and found the portraits of the children in that book more sympathetic. In Mr. Bridge the children are as unlikable as the father.
Mr. Bridge sees himself as a measured, deferential, and non-appetitive man. Yet his efforts to hide his disgust are weakly feigned. He imposes his disgust voraciously on his family. He hates ostentatious yellow socks and Mrs. Bridge’s wobbly gravy boat. Mr. Bridge is largely untroubled, aside from his intermittent blazes of self-consciousness. These moments are quickly suppressed. Yet one can not help but sympathize with Mr. Bridge. His love is lawful—it is distanced but unyielding. A beautifully written bittersweet portrayal of masculinity.
I was a bit surprised when I picked this book up just after finishing the first one, and found the print was half the size. Usually books that are part of a set look the same within and without, but I guess it was done so that the two could be made to fit together. Still, it was a bit jarring.
As to the contents of the book, I remain impressed. There's a lot more politics in this one compared to the first (probably because Mr. Bridge moves around in the world a bit more, and is much more conscious of current affairs), but in spite of those differences it still feels like a companion to Mrs. Bridge. It's also a great example of the kind of double-think that allows people to possess and act on prejudices they refuse to be conscious of. Connell's skill at producing a multi-faceted character who is at once full of natural inconsistencies but always feels constant is more on show in this volume (simply because Mr. Bridge is more complex in that way). I was originally a bit concerned that this book would just be a re-hashing of the first one, with the focus on a different point of view, but I needn't have worried. There's enough variation and focus on different details and incidents to make this a separate story worth telling, which expands the view of the world while discussing a shared life.
As to the contents of the book, I remain impressed. There's a lot more politics in this one compared to the first (probably because Mr. Bridge moves around in the world a bit more, and is much more conscious of current affairs), but in spite of those differences it still feels like a companion to Mrs. Bridge. It's also a great example of the kind of double-think that allows people to possess and act on prejudices they refuse to be conscious of. Connell's skill at producing a multi-faceted character who is at once full of natural inconsistencies but always feels constant is more on show in this volume (simply because Mr. Bridge is more complex in that way). I was originally a bit concerned that this book would just be a re-hashing of the first one, with the focus on a different point of view, but I needn't have worried. There's enough variation and focus on different details and incidents to make this a separate story worth telling, which expands the view of the world while discussing a shared life.
Evans Connell passed away quietly in an assisted-living facility about seven years ago. He was truly a genius. His encyclopedic knowledge was captured by the poem Notes from a Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel. If he wanted to show off, he could have. But the Bridge novels are simple, plain, uneventful. Yet the flatness precisely demonstrated a masterful grasp of the extraordinary details of the ordinary.
Indeed, Mr Bridge probably represents the very best of contemporary writing in English. The language is precise, crisp, yet full of subtlety. There is almost no redundancy. It is incredibly easy to read, for the lack of rhetorics; yet it is incredibly hard to read, for the need to digest every single phrase. It is almost like premium Vodka - to be sipped slowly, without much flavor, but intoxicates.
Indeed, Mr Bridge probably represents the very best of contemporary writing in English. The language is precise, crisp, yet full of subtlety. There is almost no redundancy. It is incredibly easy to read, for the lack of rhetorics; yet it is incredibly hard to read, for the need to digest every single phrase. It is almost like premium Vodka - to be sipped slowly, without much flavor, but intoxicates.