http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14806290 - When life gets particularly stressful, I picture myself in my "happy place." It's a small town, and I live in a little cabin in a wooded area on a lake. There's a porch with adirondak chairs. I sit out on the porch on warm but foggy mornings, with a hot cup of tea and a big wool blanket. And I read - big fat books with lots of characters and backstory - sometimes about people who travel the world, but mostly about people who live their lives right at home. Now, in an effort to perfect my happy place, I can picture myself reading Bridge of Sighs. Russo, who won the Pulitzer for his last novel Empire Falls, loves to tell the story of the man living in the small town. This one is about Lou C. Lynch (nicknamed "Lucy"), growing up in a small town with his set-in-his-ways father and his wiser-than-you'd-guess mother. He has a best friend named Bobby, and later falls in love with a girl named Sarah. The book begins with Lucy and Sarah married, retired, and about to take a trip to Italy, where we later learn Bobby has settled as a world-renowned painter. The chapters go back and forth between the present and the past, where we learn about how Lucy and his parents grew up - and the intricate family lives of Bobby, Sarah, and the other kids in the class-divided neighborhood. It is a story about how people never change, and whether it's better to follow your heart or to accept what's best. Russo explores a number of complex issues along the way - the treatment of African-Americans in the town, marital abuse and infidelity, the decaying industrial town, the threat of big business and "progress", homosexuality (which I feel is quite central to the novel, but comes out in ways I haven't quite put together - I will research this more on the internet), and countless metaphors for life and relationships. Many of the reviews I have read of this book have not been entirely favorable. There is a consensus that Russo has a gift for story-telling, but perhaps that there is too much left unconnected in this one. There are certainly implausibilities and little scenarios to nit-pick, but overall, I fell in love with this book and the small town boy who, while naive and almost ignorant, tries his hardest to find the best in everyone and everything around him -- even, or perhaps especially, when it really doesn't exist.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14806290 - When life gets particularly stressful, I picture myself in my "happy place." It's a small town, and I live in a little cabin in a wooded area on a lake. There's a porch with adirondak chairs. I sit out on the porch on warm but foggy mornings, with a hot cup of tea and a big wool blanket. And I read - big fat books with lots of characters and backstory - sometimes about people who travel the world, but mostly about people who live their lives right at home. Now, in an effort to perfect my happy place, I can picture myself reading Bridge of Sighs. Russo, who won the Pulitzer for his last novel Empire Falls, loves to tell the story of the man living in the small town. This one is about Lou C. Lynch (nicknamed "Lucy"), growing up in a small town with his set-in-his-ways father and his wiser-than-you'd-guess mother. He has a best friend named Bobby, and later falls in love with a girl named Sarah. The book begins with Lucy and Sarah married, retired, and about to take a trip to Italy, where we later learn Bobby has settled as a world-renowned painter. The chapters go back and forth between the present and the past, where we learn about how Lucy and his parents grew up - and the intricate family lives of Bobby, Sarah, and the other kids in the class-divided neighborhood. It is a story about how people never change, and whether it's better to follow your heart or to accept what's best. Russo explores a number of complex issues along the way - the treatment of African-Americans in the town, marital abuse and infidelity, the decaying industrial town, the threat of big business and "progress", homosexuality (which I feel is quite central to the novel, but comes out in ways I haven't quite put together - I will research this more on the internet), and countless metaphors for life and relationships. Many of the reviews I have read of this book have not been entirely favorable. There is a consensus that Russo has a gift for story-telling, but perhaps that there is too much left unconnected in this one. There are certainly implausibilities and little scenarios to nit-pick, but overall, I fell in love with this book and the small town boy who, while naive and almost ignorant, tries his hardest to find the best in everyone and everything around him -- even, or perhaps especially, when it really doesn't exist.
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