The Other Side of the Bridge
Author(s):
Mary Lawson
Label: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Publisher(s):
Dial Press Trade Paperback
Studio: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Manufacturer: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Binding: Paperback
List Price: $14.00
Our Price: $11.20
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Editorial Reviews
Product Description
From the author of the beloved #1 national bestseller Crow Lake comes an exceptional new novel of jealously, rivalry and the dangerous power of obsession.
Two brothers, Arthur and Jake Dunn, are the sons of a farmer in the mid-1930s, when life is tough and another world war is looming. Arthur is reticent, solid, dutiful and set to inherit the farm and his father?s character; Jake is younger, attractive, mercurial and dangerous to know ? the family misfit. When a beautiful young woman comes into the community, the fragile balance of sibling rivalry tips over the edge.
Then there is Ian, the family?s next generation, and far too sure he knows the difference between right and wrong. By now it is the fifties, and the world has changed ? a little, but not enough.
These two generations in the small town of Struan, Ontario, are tragically interlocked, linked by fate and community but separated by a war which devours its young men ? its unimaginable horror reaching right into the heart of this remote corner of an empire. With her astonishing ability to turn the ratchet of tension slowly and delicately, Lawson builds their story to a shocking climax. Taut with apprehension, surprising us with moments of tenderness and humour, The Other Side of the Bridge is a compelling, humane and vividly evoked novel with an irresistible emotional undertow.
Arthur found himself staring down at the knife embedded in his foot. There was a surreal split second before the blood started to well up and then up it came, dark and thick as syrup.
Arthur looked at Jake and saw that he was staring at the knife. His expression was one of surprise, and this was something that Arthur wondered about later too. Was Jake surprised because he had never considered the possibility that he might be a less than perfect shot? Did he have that much confidence in himself, that little self-doubt?
Or was he merely surprised at how easy it was to give in to an impulse, and carry through the thought which lay in your mind? Simply to do whatever you wanted to do, and damn the consequences.
?from The Other Side of the Bridge
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews
VERY BEAUTIFUL
"They sat on in silence, or almost silence; if you listened closely you could just hear a faint thrumming from thousand of wings. Beyond the dragonflies the sun was sinking slowly, casting its rays across the lake, on either side, everything as far as the eye could see was slowly dissolving into the haze. Ian thought, If I live to be a hundred years old, I will always remember this."
Mary Lawson has done it again in her second novel. Beautifully written, we are introduced into the farming community of Straun in Ontario. The characters are ordinary people but such fine people as we see in patient and long suffering good hearted; Arthur Dunn, his brother Jake; handsome, devious and charming, the complete opposite of Arthur. They, having just suffered the death of their father are left with two big farms to manage. This is no easy job as the World War is on, and as Arthur has just been declared unfit for the army, he decides that he will play his part by at least growing the food that will feed them. He goes by diligently; working morning to evening, so very hard on the farm, marries the most beauteous woman in the world Laura, who bears three lovely children. They live comfortable lives but their private life is about to be interrupted as Jake returns to the farm after years of living in many varied areas of the world and with his wary ways continues where he has left off. Other people are not happy to see him especially his brother. The people who passed through the life of the Dunns, and they themselves will quietly entertain you. I highly recommend this fine work by Mary Lawson.
Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 03/11/08)
A much, *much* better effort than 'Crow Lake'. MUCH.
As my review for her début shows, I was not impressed with the final result there. This however, is a far more accomplished novel.
For one, she got the narrator right; third-person omnicient. First-person was beyond her abilities as a rookie (I'm not excusing her editor in the debacle). Here, she tells the story with a far more confident voice, laying everything out for the reader in a way befitting the setting, and the times.
Her characterizations are richer, are drawn with a little more clearly, and their connections are more finely wrought. There's more opportunities creating for dovetailing and synergy...and she makes the most of these. Finally, her storytelling is coming into its own. Clearly, she does not aim for 'epic', and maybe that's never going to be her goal, but I suspect that were she to take this tack down the road, she'd be up to the challenge.
This was a far more gratifying read, leaps and bounds beyond what 'Crow Lake' delivered. 'Brava!' to the author. I'm looking forward to her next offering.
The Other Side of the Bridge
I really enjoy this author. I have read Crow Lake too. Very well written and interesting backgrounds of the Characters.. This takes place in Canada in the far North, so learning about someplace so far away and different in very interesting to me. I recommmend Other Sisde of the Bridge and Crow Lake.
Unanimous opinion
"The Other Side of the Bridge" was warmly received, not just by me, but by the 13 other women who appeared at the book club meeting at which it was discussed. I can't remember any other book--and there have been many--that was discussed by our book group which received such unanimous approval. It is a heartwarming, interesting, study of human lives interacting in ways both good and difficult, with all warts showing. It stimulates much thinking about what happens to people because of events beyond their control.
Sibling Rivalry?
Mary Lawson is a wonderfully evocative writer. You ache for her characters. You enter into the desolation and into the pull of the hard life in a very small northern Ontario community. I only want to add one thing to what else has been written in these reviews.
Sibling rivalry? yes. A wonderful re-telling of the story of two brothers, one charming, smart, handsome, irresponsible and careless of other people's feelings; the other slow, stolid, uncommunicative and responsible. However doesn't Lawson also show us that the parents are at least in part to blame? Would Arthur been more secure, more able to communicate with other people if his mother had been loving and encouraging of him? Would Jake have been less irresponsible if he had been able to win his father's approval for who he was rather than what his father thought he should be - a farm boy? Lawson seems to suggest that, despite Jake's careless ways, he really did long for his father to accept him for who he was. He wasn't Arthur. Arthur wasn't Jake. Neither parent can really embrace the differences in their sons.
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