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Journal Entry 1 by mrsgaskell from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Friday, November 25, 2011
 This is a long and slow-paced novel yet for the most part I found it an engrossing read.
Sixty-year-old Louis Charles Lynch (nicknamed Lucy on his first day of school) has decided to write an account of his life. Born and raised in the small upstate New York town of Thomaston where the main industry is a river-polluting tannery, he never left, not even to travel. He and his wife,the former Sarah Berg, and their adult son, Owen, own and manage three convenience stores. It doesn't appear to have been an exciting life. However, Lucy and Sarah, who has recently overcome breast cancer, are now planning a trip to Italy. They have written to an old friend, Bobby Marconi, hoping to see him when they are in Venice.
The novel centres on the lives and relationships of three families, the Lynches, the Marconis, and the Bergs. Lucy's narrative alternates with accounts of Bobby's life. Bobby, a successful artist, is the one who "got away" in this tale of ordinary people, milkmen, post office workers, teachers. The relationships between the parents in all these families are complex and their children's perceptions of them are not always correct. Lucy is an unreliable narrator at best, naive, not always remembering clearly, and occasionally omitting things on purpose. He is the son of likable Big Lou Lynch, an incurable optimist frequently chastised by his wife for refusing to see things as they are. Tessa is a shrewd, practical woman. Lucy, almost a clone of his father, always sides with him but for the most part they function well as a family and create a sense of belonging. Bobby Marconi, on the other hand, hates his father, and his mother has run away unsuccessfully on more than one occasion. The Berg parents are divorced, and Sarah spends the school year with her father in Thomaston, and summers in New York with her mother.
The town of Thomaston has clearly defined class divisions and at first the Lynches live in Berman Court in the West End. But eventually, with the help of a loan from Lucy's maternal grandparents, they are able to make a downpayment on a house in the East End, living the American dream of upward mobility. At one point Lucy's father drives him around the Borough, telling him that he can aspire to this. The town also has The Hill, where the black population lives on the margins. In Berman Court, Lucy becomes friends with Bobby Marconi, but it appears a one-sided friendship and they lose touch for a time. Later, when Sarah and Lucy are dating, Bobby becomes a frequent third in their activities. Sarah shows a lot of artistic promise, and her father, an eccentric school teacher, has higher hopes for her than to stay in Thomaston in a relationship with the dull son of a convenience store owner. This novel is almost haunting in the way it portrays the actual lives of these characters resulting from who they are and the choices they made, while the question is raised by Lucy when life does not go as hoped, whether one's real life is happening somewhere else, in a parallel existence. What is lost when one chooses security? Is it better to love or be loved?
This is a somewhat melancholy novel, but it is one that makes you pause and reflect.
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Journal Entry 2 by mrsgaskell at Park Theatre & Movie Cafe- Winnipeg OBCZ in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Released 5 mos ago (12/15/2011 UTC) at Park Theatre & Movie Cafe- Winnipeg OBCZ in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Taking this to the monthly Winnipeg Bookcrossing meet-up at The Park Theatre Cafe. If it doesn't get taken home by one of our members, it'll be left on the shelf of the OBCZ (Official Book Crossing Zone).
Welcome to Bookcrossing! I hope you'll enjoy this book and explore the Bookcrossing site. It's loads of fun, as you can track your released books in their travels, possibly all over the world! Please let us know that you've found the book, what you thought of it and if possible, where you might re-release it when you're done so it can continue its journey. You may remain anonymous, but if you choose to join up I hope you will consider using me, mrsgaskell, as the one who referred you.
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Journal Entry 4 by  Pooker3 at Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Wednesday, February 08, 2012
And, I really did enjoy this book! I don't think I can add much to mrsgaskell's description of this book. I too found it entirely engrossing despite its slow pace and pervasive sense of melancholy. I was happy to pick the book up every day, read for a while and put it down again. I will say I was surprised at the events surrounding Kayla in the last several chapters. Not in a shocking way, but in a "Oh, I wouldn't have predicted this, but isn't this a convenient, even nice way to "conclude" things." sort of way.
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Journal Entry 5 by Pooker3 at Park Theatre & Movie Cafe- Winnipeg OBCZ in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Released 3 mos ago (2/9/2012 UTC) at Park Theatre & Movie Cafe- Winnipeg OBCZ in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I'll take this book to our meeting tonight. If not takers from those in attendance, I'll leave the book on the shelf in the loft to await its next reader.
To the finder of this book:
Welcome to the wonderful and wacky world of BookCrossing! Here you'll find a unique and worldwide community of book lovers sharing their books. This book is now yours! Read it, enjoy it. Keep it or pass it on to someone you know or even release it back into the wild as I did. If you make a journal entry (either anonymously or as a BookCrossing member) all previous readers of this book will be notified by e-mail and can follow this book on its travels. BookCrossing is free to join, completely confidential (you are known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your email address) and it's a whole lot of fun!
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Bridge of Sighs
