Reviews

The Bridge by Iain Banks

happycactus's review against another edition

3.0

This review explains exactly what I think about this book. In addition, I think there are too many recalls to politic facts than any non-english reader can catch.
So, really I don't know, it's a novel that I liked, but perhaps not Iain Bank's best book.

janice_72's review against another edition

challenging dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

led's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

hakimbriki's review against another edition

3.0

The Bridge is beautifully written. Say what you will about Banks, but his prose is subtle and very highly crafted. This book had its moments... it's funny, intriguing, and sometimes very thought-provoking. Alas, I found the characters and the setting(s) incredibly dull.

The bridge is a love story with an endearing concept and great moral (hence the 3 stars). The idea that someone you once loved will always be a part of you, even on your deathbed, is soul-stirring, and it would have been more so had the protagonists been more engaging. The love story itself felt mundane and forced. What a shame.

ekortunov's review against another edition

challenging informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Not sure I understood even half of what I should have understood, especially particular connections between the "real", bridge and barbarian worlds, but it was fascinating

jackohagan's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

gingerliss's review against another edition

3.0

At parts this book was difficult to get through. I'm not sure why. I think I just liked some parts more than others, so the parts I liked went faster than the parts I didn't like. Like the dreams of the barbarian were quite difficult to get through because of the way they were written. All in all I did enjoy the book though and I liked the way that connections were made throughout the dreams within the dream and reality. For some reason though I felt like the guy in the bridge/coma dream was old, like as in 50+ so I was seeing him this way the whole time. Until I got to the part in reality and found out it was about a guy who was probably in his late 30's. So that was a bit confusing. I might have to read it again at some point to understand it fully. But interesting read, ready for something a little lighter now though :)

star_ansible's review against another edition

3.0

not his best, extended dream sequence

mark_74's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would. I've read it a few times and each time I do I notice something different, make a new connection. The visual imagery is stunning throughout and I really found myself on the bridge with all it's quirks and levels. Levels, or layers, are good words for describing what you'll find in this book and you can let them take you as deep as you want to go...

iskanderjonesiv's review against another edition

4.0

The man who wakes up in the extraordinary world of a bridge has amnesia, and his doctor doesn't seem to want to cure him. Does it matter? Exploring the bridge occupies most of his days. But at night there are his dreams. Dreams in which desperate men drive sealed carriages across barren mountains to a bizarre rendezvous; an illiterate barbarian storms an enchanted tower under a stream of verbal abuse; and broken men walk forever over bridges without end, taunted by visions of a doomed sexuality.

Lying in bed unconscious after an accident wouldn't be much fun, you'd think. Oh yes? It depends who and what you've left behind.

Which is the stranger reality, day or night? Frequently hilarious and consistently disturbing, THE BRIDGE is a novel of outrageous contrasts, constructed chaos and elegant absurdities.

**

From Publishers Weekly

Orr, the otherwise unnamed protagonist of this Pynchonesque novel, is a successful Scottish engineer who's a bit fed up with life: his work doesn't really interest him anymore; years of doping and boozing have dulled him; his girlfriend has other lovers (he does too, but he would rather she was monogamous). Then one evening he crashes his classic Jaguar into a parked MG. The aftermath is coma and months of amnesiac trance, a condition that Orr apparently comes to prefer. The reader, however, only understands all this towards the end of the novel. Virtually the whole of the narrative consists of Orr's trauma-induced hallucinations. The bridge of the title is a fantastically ramifying construct in Orr's brain resembling an outer-space city in a science fiction movie. Banks's ( The Player of Games ) novel is satire, and its target turns out to be the British Isles' equivalent of American "yuppies." Deploying a wide range of stylistic devices, the narrative condemns fiercely an overly mechanistic society and its self-referential ethos.

Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

An amnesiac searching for his past finds his life dominated by the world of "the bridge," a gigantic structure whose ends have never been seen but which contains a lost library, a host of dreams and nightmares, and the key to another reality. From the expansive, macrocosmic scale of Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games , Banks turns inward to explore the complex, surreal microcosm of the human mind in a kaleidoscopic novel for sophisticated, literary readers of speculative fiction. Recommended.-- JC

Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.