The Other Side of the Bridge
Registered by citizenkelly of Hamburg - City, Hamburg Germany on 9/28/2006
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by citizenkelly from Hamburg - City, Hamburg Germany on Thursday, September 28, 2006
A magical book, I can't praise it highly enough!
The Other Side of the Bridge is a majestic tale well told, a good old-fashioned generational epic set in an beautiful landscape during hard times. It is a story that contains a Shakespearian range of human emotions and failings: most central of all is the sibling rivalry that chokes the relationship of two brothers and destroys so much. Loss is an underlying and permanent theme; even in a remote rural town, the world can be so fierce, life can be so fragile; loved ones can be whipped away through war or accident or infidelity, leaving those who remain with a gaping hole in their lives and in their potential for happiness.
The beauty of this book is in its structure - the novel switches chapter for chapter between alternating narratives of characters separated by a generation. We encounter the brothers Arthur and Jake Dunn in the late 1930s/early 1940s, growing up on a farm near the town of Struan with their overprotective, coddling mother and their hard working, acquiescent father. We also encounter, twenty years later, young Ian Christopherson, son of the town's doctor, unsure of where his future should lie, nursing a grudge after a painful betrayal and claiming the moral high ground as a result. The tension that builds up in each narrative (especially in the first) is finely tuned and draws the reader in with a prose that is crafted, simple and true. Towards the end of the book, the two narratives meet. The outcome is heartstopping.
The characters of Arthur, Jake and Ian are expertly drawn - Jake, in particular, is nasty through and through, and we can see how he got that way, even almost sympathise with him for never winning the admiration he craved from his father. The fact that Arthur - who is a simple, straight, plain creature, burdened by worries - takes the central part in the story and carries it successfully, is testament to Lawson's great descriptive talent. The landscape is equally well treated: the fields and their demands in the earlier narrative, the contemplative Crow Lake in the later one.
This is a PROOF COPY, not for sale.
The Other Side of the Bridge is a majestic tale well told, a good old-fashioned generational epic set in an beautiful landscape during hard times. It is a story that contains a Shakespearian range of human emotions and failings: most central of all is the sibling rivalry that chokes the relationship of two brothers and destroys so much. Loss is an underlying and permanent theme; even in a remote rural town, the world can be so fierce, life can be so fragile; loved ones can be whipped away through war or accident or infidelity, leaving those who remain with a gaping hole in their lives and in their potential for happiness.
The beauty of this book is in its structure - the novel switches chapter for chapter between alternating narratives of characters separated by a generation. We encounter the brothers Arthur and Jake Dunn in the late 1930s/early 1940s, growing up on a farm near the town of Struan with their overprotective, coddling mother and their hard working, acquiescent father. We also encounter, twenty years later, young Ian Christopherson, son of the town's doctor, unsure of where his future should lie, nursing a grudge after a painful betrayal and claiming the moral high ground as a result. The tension that builds up in each narrative (especially in the first) is finely tuned and draws the reader in with a prose that is crafted, simple and true. Towards the end of the book, the two narratives meet. The outcome is heartstopping.
The characters of Arthur, Jake and Ian are expertly drawn - Jake, in particular, is nasty through and through, and we can see how he got that way, even almost sympathise with him for never winning the admiration he craved from his father. The fact that Arthur - who is a simple, straight, plain creature, burdened by worries - takes the central part in the story and carries it successfully, is testament to Lawson's great descriptive talent. The landscape is equally well treated: the fields and their demands in the earlier narrative, the contemplative Crow Lake in the later one.
This is a PROOF COPY, not for sale.
Journal Entry 2 by citizenkelly at Landungsbrücken in Hamburg - St. Pauli, Hamburg Germany on Thursday, September 28, 2006
Released 17 yrs ago (9/29/2006 UTC) at Landungsbrücken in Hamburg - St. Pauli, Hamburg Germany
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
S-Bahn Platform (Richtung Wedel)
S-Bahn Platform (Richtung Wedel)