Bridge of Sighs

published	September 25th 2007 by Knopf
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0375414959 (isbn13: 9780375414954)
pages	480
description	Six years after the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning Empire Falls, Richard Russo returns with a novel that expands even further hi...more [close] Six years after the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning Empire Falls, Richard Russo returns with a novel that expands even further his widely heralded achievement. Louis Charles (“Lucy”) Lynch has spent all his sixty years in upstate Thomaston, New York, married to the same woman, Sarah, for forty of them, their son now a grown man. 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 and Sarah are also preparing for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Italy, where his oldest friend, a renowned painter, has exiled himself far from anything they’d known in childhood. 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. Bridge of Sighs is classic Russo, coursing with small-town rhythms and the claims of family, yet it is brilliantly enlarged by an expatriate whose motivations and experiences—often contrary, sometimes not—prove every bit as mesmerizing as they resonate through these richly different lives. Here is a town, as well as a world, defined by magnificent and nearly devastating contradictions. [close]
date added	02-15-07 edit book

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Jason rated it:

02/04/08

Read in February, 2008

(My full review of this book is much longer than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

As regular readers know, artistic criticism is something fairly new to me (or at least regular artistic criticism is), with the entire thing being as much of a learning process for me as it often is for you; and of all the new things I am learning about the subject these days, one of the most surprising is of just ho...more (My full review of this book is much longer than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

As regular readers know, artistic criticism is something fairly new to me (or at least regular artistic criticism is), with the entire thing being as much of a learning process for me as it often is for you; and of all the new things I am learning about the subject these days, one of the most surprising is of just how strongly our opinion of a project is influenced by which station in life we ourselves are at when coming across it. For example, as someone who tries to heavily cover the field of "indie lit" or "underground lit" or whatever you want to call it, I am of course constantly coming across novels designed to appeal primarily to those in their twenties, full of gimmicks and pop-culture references and other signs of its young demographics; and every time I come across one of these books, I always think about how much more it would've appealed to me at the age of 23 then it currently does at 38, and how what I write about it is heavily influenced by that. What I'm learning, in fact, is that the best critics must learn how to balance this subject when it comes to their finished essays -- that the most effective reviews are the ones that can take all kinds of different audience attitudes in mind while still acknowledging the biases of that specific reviewer, without apologizing for either aspect but rather trying to synthesize the two as much as possible.

A very good example of what I'm talking about, in fact, can be seen in today's novel under review, former Pulitzer winner Richard Russo's latest hefty saga about small-town life, Bridge of Sighs; because let's make it clear right off the bat, that this is a slow-moving academic-friendly novel about a bunch of old people in a rural east-coast environment, who spend most of their time sitting around and thinking about old-person stuff, a novel that if I had come across in my early twenties would've been highly tempted to scoff at and roll my eyes. Now that I'm in the lower rungs of middle-age, however, I found myself a lot more intrigued; I ended up liking the book quite a bit, to tell you the truth, although acknowledge that it has some serious flaws when it comes to the plotting of the overall storyline (but more on that in a bit). And what's even more, I can tell that I'm not even the main target audience to begin with -- that in actuality, this novel is primarily designed to appeal to people in their fifties and sixties, those just entering the winter of their lives for the first time, naturally obsessed with looking over the whole of their adulthoods, ruminating on where things went right and where they went wrong. And so that leads to an intriguing question -- that as a guy just now entering his forties, with a huge section of readership in their twenties and thirties, what exactly should I say about a book like this? Do I recommend it but with an asterisk? Do I suggest skipping it but with a caveat? Sheesh, who knew that being an artistic critic was such a hard job?!

I guess, then, let's start with this, that Russo is in fact precisely known for gentle slow-moving ruminations on small-town life; that's what his Pulitzer-winning novel was about as well, after all, 2001's Empire Falls, as well as......less

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Steve rated it:

06/27/08

Read in June, 2008

With over 500 pages, and multidimensional profiles covering school days through to later years, a great writer like Russo can give you plenty to chew on. What I appreciated most was the rich contrast in character attitudes. Is it better to be an optimist offering the benefit of the doubt even if naively, or a pessimist giving the detriment of the doubt even if unfairly?

Two of the main characters were artists. This gave Russo the chance to use their works to help interpret the story. It a...more With over 500 pages, and multidimensional profiles covering school days through to later years, a great writer like Russo can give you plenty to chew on. What I appreciated most was the rich contrast in character attitudes. Is it better to be an optimist offering the benefit of the doubt even if naively, or a pessimist giving the detriment of the doubt even if unfairly?

Two of the main characters were artists. This gave Russo the chance to use their works to help interpret the story. It also brought analogies to mind. What kind of pictures would the author draw if he ever traded his keyboard for a sketchpad? I suspect he’d start with simple figures, then flesh them out with enough realism to see their true essence. Closer examination would reveal subtleties of tone and texture, with nary an affected flourish. Russo’s writing is always clear and unobtrusive. His greatest strength, though, is his insight into people and how he leads us to know them, too. He’s so good with the psychological descriptions that you may wonder whether the “show, don’t tell” rule was meant only for lesser lights than him, i.e., everyone else.

A large part of the book focuses on two young guys who serve as the archetypes. They grow up in a fading industrial town in upstate New York – a crucible Russo’s readers know well. This town has the East side, West side, rich side, and black side. To be honest, the locational determinism was overplayed this time. Other influences rang true, though. For instance, Lucy (as Lou C. was dubbed by his classmates) was very much his father’s son. He had the same kind heart and magnanimous outlook as Big Lou. People-pleasing is the default when you’re averse to confrontation. Bobby, his counterpart, was much harder and braver; and wise to the ways of the world. Backing down was never an option for him. Lucy and Bobby had distinct biases, but were often perceptive about the people around them and, more importantly, even if intermittently, about themselves. If you could combine them to average out their extremes, you’d get a pretty decent meld as a result.

The two main women in the story, Lucy’s mom and Sarah, Lucy’s girlfriend and friend of Bobby, were interesting, I thought. It was as though they were the judges in the contest between competing personality types and viewpoints. Fortunately, Russo gave them real lives and appealing traits so that you cared what judgments they made.

I rate this one 4.51 stars, rounded to 5. Russo is almost always near the top of my list. I think Nobody’s Fool (4.98 stars) is better – certainly funnier – but this has similar pleasures. You get to see it all so knowingly as these compelling stories are told.
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Mike rated it:

08/15/07

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: Russo fans, definitely; readers of great character fiction; honestly, most anyone

I've been a fan of Russo's from way back, having particularly dug _The Risk Pool_. On the one hand I've always had a homeboy's appreciation for the way he captures upstate NY's rusted-town class divisions and social dynamics. (The guy has a brilliant ear for the very funny meanness between friends & family I recall all too well from high school and every other Thanksgiving.) But, that other hand, he also always surprised me--his characters would reveal in some small, throwaway line a comp...more I've been a fan of Russo's from way back, having particularly dug _The Risk Pool_. On the one hand I've always had a homeboy's appreciation for the way he captures upstate NY's rusted-town class divisions and social dynamics. (The guy has a brilliant ear for the very funny meanness between friends & family I recall all too well from high school and every other Thanksgiving.) But, that other hand, he also always surprised me--his characters would reveal in some small, throwaway line a complexity that boondoggled my sense of familiarity; just when we had them pegged (town drunk, ne'er-do-well, do-gooder) a line of dialogue that opened up their inner lives in ways both startling and alluring.

In this newest novel, for instance, without spoiling anything, late in the game a character whose impotence (and, frankly, seeming deer-like dumb docility) seemed her only real character trait casually spits out her assessment of a young disabled boy's probable short lifespan; told the boy may only live to be 30, she mutters, "Good." End scene.

I think that's among Russo's great strengths as a novelist--this keen eye for what's under the surface. I have felt, after reading most of his novels, that I knew now more about the people I grew up with than I did at the time I was growing up with them.

I have to admit being one of seven people who really didn't like _Empire Falls_, the first of his novels I couldn't finish. So I approached this new one with trepidation... almost wholly unfounded. This very long novel examines dual lives, two boys from another upstate smalltown who seem, in personality and life-history, opposites. And the whole novel, in an elaborate and precise structure of flashbacks and present moments and various characters' points-of-view, elucidates their differences while also illuminating their connections. It's amazing to me how he can, again in seemingly throwaway lines, reveal an element of plot (say on page 150) that substantively reconfigures our sense of that story--without ever (welll... almost ever) seeming artificially manipulative. Funny, smart, moving, and engrossing.

I was a bit frustrated by the last fifty pages, which can seem too pat in plot resolution and far less keen in its attention to racial dynamics. (Class is something Russo reveals in ways too much American fiction misses.) I felt like a couple black characters come on the scene, at book's end, in ways far more schematic than the five hundred preceding pages promised... but that's my one complaint, and it's a meager whine. The book is very good.

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Gunjan rated it:

11/28/07

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: anyone ready to devote some time and attention to a story about our future.

what is it about these apparently ordinary people that would make anyone persist in believing them to be extraordinary? and they are. that's really the meat and bones of the story. i urge you to read it if you have the time, interest, and patience.

some favorite passages/quotes:

"The middle, she said, was the real America, the America that mattered, the America that was worth fighting wars to defend. There was just the one problem with being in the fluid middle. You could move up, as...more what is it about these apparently ordinary people that would make anyone persist in believing them to be extraordinary? and they are. that's really the meat and bones of the story. i urge you to read it if you have the time, interest, and patience.

some favorite passages/quotes:

"The middle, she said, was the real America, the America that mattered, the America that was worth fighting wars to defend. There was just the one problem with being in the fluid middle. You could move up, as we had done, but you could also move down.

I still remember how much this upset me. It was our family I wanted to succeed, not me. There wasn't supposed to be any limit to the benefits of hard work and honesty, and her saying there were limits implied that she didn't believe in America, or worse, in us." - Lou C. Lynch, p. 55

"odd how we misremember the events of childhood, not just the sequence, but also the cause and effect.” –p. 73

“odd, how our view of human destiny changes over the course of a lifetime. In youth we believe what the young believe, that life is all choice.” –p. 129

“Art, he’d come to believe, was little more than the principle of one thing leading to another, whereas love, insofar as he understood it, depended on a thing remaining forever what it was, which in Noonan’s experience it militantly refused to do. What people called love was the perfect recipe for disappointment and recrimination at the benign end of the emotional spectrum, homicide at the malignant end.” – Bobby Noonan, p. 141

“Why did they feel it necessary to repeat themselves, to stake out the same positions time after time? Would I become like that when I got older, retracing my steps over and over, unaware that I was doing so, or worse, not caring?” – p.171

“all human events lead to other human events. There are a great many sins in the world, none of them original.” –p.175

“after all, how does one invalidate a powerful feeling? Not with logic, surely.” –p.257

“I’m not trying to own my life, just acknowledge it, as well as the narrative of our family, it’s small significant journey. Is this not an American tale? Are we not the most typical of postwar Americans? That’s how my father would see it, so of course it makes sense that my mother would adopt the opposite view” –p. 263

“this time we’ll go. We will leave this small, good world behind us with the comfort of knowing it’ll be here when we return. But. We will go.” –p.527
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Kim rated it:

04/27/08

Read in April, 2008

When I finished reading Richard Russo's wonderful novel Empire Falls (for which he won the Pulitzer), I wondered - how will this novelist do this again? Turns out, he just keeps getting better. One thing I've always admired about Russo is his ability to write about small towns in a way that honors the provincial nature of small town life while exploring all of its intricacies and nuances, its complexity and heartache - the way a person can live a wide life in the smallest of ponds. Perhaps th...more When I finished reading Richard Russo's wonderful novel Empire Falls (for which he won the Pulitzer), I wondered - how will this novelist do this again? Turns out, he just keeps getting better. One thing I've always admired about Russo is his ability to write about small towns in a way that honors the provincial nature of small town life while exploring all of its intricacies and nuances, its complexity and heartache - the way a person can live a wide life in the smallest of ponds. Perhaps this is because Russo understands that the human heart is the widest of oceans. In Bridge of Sighs, Russo explores another small town, in this case Thomaston, NY - but he widens his own palette with one of his small town characters moving away and living in Venice, Italy. Of course, a person can't escape his own heart, even when he changes geography.

In all of his novels that I've read, Russo unfolds a story slowly and Bridge of Sighs is no different. Russo's patience as a novelist is perhaps his biggest asset. This is a novel to be savored, to be pondered. But what I find most remarkable about Russo is his ability to be unexpectedly profound. I told my husband that he is like the sweetest of sensibilities masked in a Budweiser and day old stubble. He is at once all rough edges and masculinity but also deeply sweet and emotive. His beauty is in the details, in the way he wraps this world around you with words and makes you take a long swim in this story alongside all these lives, all fully formed, all deeply complex, all flawed. No villains. No heroes.

Ultimately, this is a novel of redemption and great sadness, of happiness in the small details that make up a life - the search for greatness within the smallness of ourselves. It's about finding our way. Of course, this all sneaks up on you. Russo infers in the novel that people seek "a small, good thing" - that this is what the human heart yearns for. That ultimately, a person's happiness often hinges on recognizing what this "small, good thing" is - and on letting it fill you up, sustain you. Letting it be enough. Well, Mr. Russo: One of my small, good things is reading a novel like yours for which I can marvel and be grateful....less

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Debbie rated it:

07/05/08

bookshelves: collections

I loved Straight Man and Empire Falls, yet, while this one still has Russo's deep faith in humanity and excellent story telling voice, it was not quite as good for me. One reason is a problem with editing in the book business. Gone are the Gordon Lishes who are able to clean up manuscripts like Raymond Carver's and change a story from OK to brilliant. You get the feeling that no one touches 'name' writers at all. They just give them a pen and print the result.

I think if someone could have c...more I loved Straight Man and Empire Falls, yet, while this one still has Russo's deep faith in humanity and excellent story telling voice, it was not quite as good for me. One reason is a problem with editing in the book business. Gone are the Gordon Lishes who are able to clean up manuscripts like Raymond Carver's and change a story from OK to brilliant. You get the feeling that no one touches 'name' writers at all. They just give them a pen and print the result.

I think if someone could have cut this down, cleaned it up (the exposition and telling became overbearing and very boring after a while) it could have been a much faster and enjoyable read.

Overall, I love how Richard Russo sees the world, how his characters are never dark monsters who do bad things, but ordinary people who struggle with their humanness and fail sometimes, yet ultimately end up on their feet, although bruised and limping.

These characters, however, seemed, at times, put on the page to make a statement. They were a collection of extremes to some extent. The gullable, naive. The cynic. The product of dysfunction (an artist of course). However, the story sometimes felt pushed along, and the characters felt pushed together. I had a hard time with motivation.

But Russo does have this gift of gab. He goes on and on and on, sometimes so discursively you wonder when we will get to the point. But you keep reading. Because he has a gift of gab. He reminds me of these men I used to know in small town South. They would start on a story about what happened to this man they knew who crossed a street without looking, then they would mention a hole in the road, and there you would be, listening to the history of a hole in the road--how the hole got there, how it widened, several stories about accidents resulting from the hole, what was lost in the hole--so by the time we got to the man crossing the street, you have to work at remembering the beginning.

But I liked those men. They knew everything. And while I walked away sometimes bored or confused, I would always go stand and listen to them all over again. They were happy and intrigued with life.

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Jeremy rated it:

05/12/08

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Jeremy by: Josh Bucher

This is Russo's best book.

He does a couple things in this book that are impressive on both a technical and human level.

That Russo can lovingly create deep and human characters has been established in all of his novels. What's truly amazing about Bridge of Sighs is the amount of depth he gives to nearly every character in the book. At the beginning of the novel we see the story from the perspective of only a couple characters. During this time, many of the characters seem predictable a...more

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Josh rated it:

02/02/08

Read in January, 2008

I was a little apprehensive about this book after reading the press it received. I knew I would enjoy it, but I seeing that involved a middle-aged man reflecting on his life in a dying New England town, I feared a retread of Empire Falls.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Many of the elements you would expect from Russo are there, the quiet politics of small towns, the relationship between parents and children and even the tainted river are all present. But Russo expands on these and builds th...more

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Samilja rated it:

05/13/08

Read in May, 2008

As usual, Russo sticks to the proverbial ribs. That is, for me anyway, his stories stay with me. I find myself thinking about the characters long after I've finished the book in question & 'Bridge' is no exception.

Russo's greatest strength is an ability to create detailed, unique and real characters and there are many here. Spanning decades, various stories unfold, featuring a complex crossover of characters and episodes. It's a treat indeed to glimpse one incident from the perspectives...more

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margueya rated it:

12/09/07

Hmm. Well, Empire Falls this was not - it lacked the freshness and colorful characters and small town charm, though Russo tried valiantly to capture that in this book - it just felt flat to me somehow, like he knew that he was supposed to be incorporating that but it just wasn't working.
The book was readable and at times engrossing, I can't say I wouldn't recommend it, but I had some issues with it. For one thing, Russo would have some insightful turns of phrase and then make sure to explain...more

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Sandie rated it:

07/15/08

Read in April, 2008

Ask what "Bridge of Sighs" is about and you're confronted with a myriad of potential answers. It's about life in a small town you say, or perhaps the pursuit of the American dream. Maybe it's really about realism versus idealism, or family dynamics, or the class, racial and economic division within a community. Truth be told it's about all of these, but ultimately it's a story of despair and unresolved emotional attachments.

Richard Russo has liberally peppered his narrative with f...more

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Tara rated it:

06/26/08

Read in June, 2008

I would rank this as my second favorite book by Richard Russo - the first being "Straight Man." This book tells the story of two childhood friends (although the friendship may have been one-sided), and the different paths their lives take. One of my favorite aspects of this book was the how Lou (aka Lucy) and his wife Sarah, chose to be happy with a life that was less than what they could have achieved. It was hard to understand at times why Sarah chose to be with Lou. The portrayl...more

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Rosie rated it:

04/15/08

Read in March, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo - the latest book from one of my most favorite authors. This is, by far, his darkest novel. Much like his other novels, this story takes place in a small town in upstate New York and revolves around a handful of families who live there. The character development in this book really can't be beat, and I loved getting to know all of the characters and feeling for them after I was done reading. At first, I wasn't too impressed with the ending, but the more I hav...more

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Tom rated it:

03/21/08

recommended to Tom by: NPR

I understand that Richard Russo writes about small town life in upstate New York. I have never read anything by him before. Perhaps reading this novel first was a mistake, sort of taking it out of the context of a series like picking up a Patrick O'Brien novel without knowing anything about the characters & their history earlier in the series - it can be done, but simply isn't the most satisfying way to approach the work.
I don't know if that was precisely the case, because I had heard ...more

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Dorian rated it:

10/28/07

Read in October, 2007

Flashback to 1999: setting off on a 30-hour train ride between Halifax and London, ON, I pick up Russo's new novel Straight Man, on the recommendation of a bookseller friend. Enthralled all the way through the Maritimes and Quebec--laughing aloud in that half-empty compartment.

Once in London, I pick up The Risk Pool and Nobody's Fool, two of Russo's earlier books. And love them, esp. Nobody's Fool, which must surely be Russo's best work. A few years later, in Ithaca, NY, I eagerly purchase ...more

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Sarah rated it:

07/17/08

bookshelves: serious_literary

Read in July, 2008

I enjoyed this; however, at one point (and about 3/4 into the novel) did I remember that this is the same author who wrote one of my favorite books of all time, Straight Man, which has some of the most wonderful and literary bits of slapstick that I've ever come across (and I read a fair amount of humorous books). Of course I knew that he was the same author. It's just that the tone was so serious, and at times delightfully cryptic and suspenseful (the characters occasionally had limited ...more

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Karen is currently reading it

02/29/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

This is a novel with two different story lines from two different times and places... On the one hand, it is an engaging view into the blue-collar experience in mid-20th century upstate New York, and on the other, it is an investigation into the emotional and artistic tribulations of someone who leaves this town at an early age to pursue his passion for painting in Europe. Each chapter is lengthy and weighty enough such that the switching between times and places is refreshing. Mr. Russo indir...more

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Beth rated it:

05/19/08

Read in April, 2008

Russo's story is set in a small, decaying town. His main characters include decent, ineffective men who are trapped there, and smarter women who see the town for what it is, but are equally trapped. He's worked this territory before, and in my opinion, better in other books. An editor could have tightened up the prose and made this an outstanding story.

Even so, the story still drew me in, and sometimes I couldn't put it down. Two boyhood friends are now 60 years old. The narrative shif...more

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Jimmie rated it:

04/10/08

Read in April, 2008

recommends it for: romantics with a lot of time on their hands.

I am very ambivalent about this book. Some of it--much of it, really--is beautifully written, but I came away from it feeling a little cheated. I am tempted to say there isn't much in the way of plot, but that's being unfair. It just feels like so much of what happens in the book happens in the characters' hearts and minds, but their physical selves remain almost static. Another thing that I think detracted from Bridge of Sighs is that the narrative kept jumping frome narrator to narr...more

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Sallyann rated it:

12/21/07

bookshelves: bottom-shelf

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: nobody

I find Russo sooooooo disappointing - his books start out great and I love the voices in the first half, and then they turn into trite tales that have been rehashed over and over... And I don't mean of the universal kind! (I end up going back to him every couple of years because he does have a really captiviating first chapter.... and I have forgotten my disappointment in the last book...)

I really liked Lou/Lucy's voice in the early part of this book, but I felt like Russo really lost it whe...more

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