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A review by lgpiper
Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather
4.0
The first thing you need to know is that Willa Cather wrote this book. That is really all you need to know. That means, of course, that this book is a GoodRead. As nearly as I can tell from Wikipedia, this is Cather's first "novel", although perhaps novelette would be more apt. It's fairly short. She published it as she was closing in on 40. She had published short stories and a bunch of magazine thingies previous to this book, but no novels. Those many delights for us readers came from her later life.
The book is about an engineer who is famous for his bridges. But there's very little about the bridges and rather a lot about Bartley Alexander, his wife, Winifred, and his first love, an actress named Hilda Burgoyne. I don't think I'll say any more. Like all Cather books, this one is not a riotous adventure, so if you're looking for dragons, stud-muffin sword wielders and hotty archer chicks, you won't find them here. What you will find is an engaging exploration of the human condition, in this case a man who feels like there two different people living inside him (not such an unusual feeling, as nearly as I can tell).
The book is about an engineer who is famous for his bridges. But there's very little about the bridges and rather a lot about Bartley Alexander, his wife, Winifred, and his first love, an actress named Hilda Burgoyne. I don't think I'll say any more. Like all Cather books, this one is not a riotous adventure, so if you're looking for dragons, stud-muffin sword wielders and hotty archer chicks, you won't find them here. What you will find is an engaging exploration of the human condition, in this case a man who feels like there two different people living inside him (not such an unusual feeling, as nearly as I can tell).