Bridge of Sighs
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4.0 • 83 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls comes "a magnificent, bighearted” novel (The Boston Globe) about small-town America that follows Louis Charles Lynch (“Lucy”) and his wife of forty years as they prepare to embark on a vacation to Italy.
Lucy is sixty years old and has spent his entire life in Thomaston, New York. Like his late, beloved father, Lucy is an optimist, though he’s had plenty of reasons not to be—chief among them his mother, still indomitably alive. Yet it was her shrewdness, combined with that Lynch optimism, that had propelled them years ago to the right side of the tracks and created an “empire” of convenience stores about to be passed on to the next generation.
Lucy's oldest friend, once a rival for his wife's affection, leads a life in Venice far removed from Thomaston. In fact, the exact nature of their friendship is one of the many mysteries Lucy hopes to untangle in the “history” he’s writing of his hometown and family. And with his story interspersed with that of Noonan, the native son who’d fled so long ago, the destinies building up around both of them (and Sarah, too) are relentless, constantly surprising, and utterly revealing.
Look for Richard Russo's new book, Somebody's Fool, coming soon.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
SignatureReviewed by Jeffrey FrankRichard Russo's portraits of smalltown life may be read not only as fine novels but as invaluable guides to the economic decline of the American Northeast. Russo was reared in Gloversville, N.Y. (which got its name from the gloves no longer manufactured there), and a lot of mid 20th-century Gloversville can be found in his earlier fiction (Mohawk; The Risk Pool). It reappears in Bridge of Sighs, Russo's splendid chronicle of life in the hollowed-out town of Thomaston, N.Y., where a tannery's runoff is slowly spreading carcinogenic ruin.At the novel's center is Lou C. Lynch (his middle initial wins him the unfortunate, lasting nickname "Lucy"), but the narrative, which covers more than a half-century, also unfolds through the eyes of Lou's somewhat distant and tormented friend, Bobby Marconi, as well as Sarah Berg, a gifted artist who Lou marries and who loves Bobby, too. The lives of the Lynches, the Bergs and the Marconis intersect in various ways, few of them happy; each family has its share of woe. Lou's father, a genial milkman, is bound for obsolescence and leads his wife into a life of shopkeeping; Bobby's family is being damaged by an abusive father. Sarah moves between two parents: a schoolteacher father with grandiose literary dreams and a scandal in his past and a mother who lives in Long Island and leads a life that is far from exemplary. Russo weaves all of this together with great sureness, expertly planting clues and explosives, too knowing just when and how they will be discovered or detonate at the proper time. Incidents from youth a savage beating, a misunderstood homosexual advance, a loveless seduction have repercussions that last far into adulthood. Thomaston itself becomes a sort of extended family, whose unhappy members include the owners of the tannery who eventually face ruin.Bridge of Sighs is a melancholy book; the title refers to a painting that Bobby is making (he becomes a celebrated artist) and the Venetian landmark, but also to the sadness that pervades even the most contented lives. Lou, writing about himself and his dying, blue-collar town, thinks that "the loss of a place isn't really so different from the loss of a person. Both disappear without permission, leaving the self diminished, in need of testimony and evidence." If there are false notes, they come with Russo's portrayal of African-Americans, who too often speak like stock characters: ("Doan be given me that hairy eyeball like you doan believe, 'cause I know better," says one). But Russo has a deep and real understanding of stifled ambitions and the secrets people keep, sometimes forever. Bridge of Sighs, on every page, is largehearted, vividly populated and filled with life from America's recent, still vanishing past.Jeffrey Frank's books include The Columnist and Bad Publicity. His novel, Trudy Hopedale, was published in July by Simon & Schuster.
Customer Reviews
Bridge of sighs
Bridge of Sighs is a slow-moving, every-man, story that meanders in a rather captivating way through three generations off it's focal family and a couple of generations of other protagonists' families. Taking its own time to unfold, the story draws you and then gently sets you down. Several story lines are left up in the air- told indirectly through vague memories - by the end the first person accounts are even proven unsound...so walk in knowing you may never know what really happened. Well written.
A beautiful book
I had never read Russo before picking up bridge of sighs....and I will now make a point to read his other novels. This was a beautifully written story of life and all that it entails. Sad at times but so realistic. The characters are well thought out and well rounded. I find myself remembering, soul searching, and questioning, just as his main character does throughout the novel. I had a hard time putting this one down and was sad to have it end!
Maybe it's me...but...
I can't believe there is no review for this novel! even me, coming to the literary table late, I am rapidly assessing who and what I like to read. It's literary by the way.
Richard Russo is an incredible and original author who's acumen in articulating his words into art makes his work stand out above the "typical" fiction sold today. Everyone wants a " movie" in a book these days. James Patterson and Dan Brown, etc.,oh God, please! I'm sick of them and their lack of intuitive creativity that every good author faces everyday. This author is completely understated in his craft and I'm flummoxed that no one has offered a review on this particular book. I'm just starting it and I was profoundly amazed when he wrote about how Lucy's satisfaction in his biography of his geography within his life. Further, most people consider " circumscribed" of travel to be normal a normal habit of success. Russo countered something that made me think that "everyone is circumscribed through something, illness, ignorance"( big one!) etc.
I feel so bad for Mr. Russo that he has the challenge to write a novel that isn't an original book, creating issues and real life characters' and authentic but what you heard at the breakfast table that morning. I once heard Barbara Taylor Bradford say in an interview, she remarked that she just can't just sit around waiting for inspiration. Just write. Even though I have never read her novels and are a bit leery about its quality, considering her craft to be synonymous with a photo booth in the mall. Predictable writing and no self-actualation. Otherwise folks, John Grisham and Danielle steel are dying for you to digest their latest due out soon. Artistic talent and seducing the English language to create a sentence is a difficult task that has you starting all over again every book you write. Mr. Russo deserves more readers feedback and notoriety about his books. He is fresh and original.
When I'm through with reading all his novels, I plan to write a review on everyone because it enlightens readers to read more of his amazing literature that will sell and make fiction worth while.