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Bridge of Sighs

by Richard Russo

3.72 · rating details · 7,905 ratings · 1,745 reviews

Louis Charles Lynch (also known as Lucy) is sixty years old and has lived in Thomaston, New York, his entire life. He and Sarah, his wife of forty years, are about to embark on a vacation to Italy. Lucy's oldest friend, once a rival for his wife's affection, leads a life in Venice far removed from Thomaston. Perhaps for this reason Lucy is writing the story of his town, hi...more

Paperback, 642 pages

Published August 12th 2008 by Vintage (first published 2007)

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Nov 13, 2008

Sarahfina rated it

· review of another edition

First the bad news: Russo, as one of the Great Male Narcissists (a term coined by D.F. Wallace who did not include Russo in his assessment)has probably been accused of both racism and misogyny and these allegations do have some merit.

I have read all of Richard Russo's books and I have greatly enjoyed them all. But I am troubled by the fact that often, if a female character isn't chasing you with a rolling pin, she's got your dick in her mouth. Crazed harridans and insatiable sluts ma...moreFirst the bad news: Russo, as one of the Great Male Narcissists (a term coined by D.F. Wallace who did not include Russo in his assessment)has probably been accused of both racism and misogyny and these allegations do have some merit.

I have read all of Richard Russo's books and I have greatly enjoyed them all. But I am troubled by the fact that often, if a female character isn't chasing you with a rolling pin, she's got your dick in her mouth. Crazed harridans and insatiable sluts make up the majority of Russo's novels' female population. Unless a character is the wise wife-y stand-in in which case she's completing your thoughts, balancing your checkbook, ironing your shirts and reminding you to get that lump checked out. Basically making her a magic elf who exists in the novel solely as a functionary - taking care of her man and her family.

More troubling still are Russo's African-American characters. Their contraction-laden speech lets you know that they're different from the book's protagonist (lest you confuse them), almost always an English professor or someone well-read. The black characters inhabit a world of menial labor and rough neighborhoods. If they interact with the main characters at all it's to teach them a lesson and help them along their way. The "Bridge of Sighs" contains just such a character, a "Magical Negro". This term was coined by the Onion's AV Club (http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/in...) and is used to describe an African-American character whose sole purpose is to help the white protagonist learn his or her lesson or reach some goal.

So there's all of this to consider and to use as a grain of salt when I say that "Bridge of Sighs" is an almost perfect novel. The book is character driven, as is all of Russo's work. And Russo's characters and plots are often interchangeable. Academia, infidelity, illness, small-town life, and old friendships are themes present in Russo's oeuvre . And yet here the characters are people you feel you know - *want* to know.

I was unable to sleep last night and as I lay in bed, worrying about the things you worry about when you can't sleep, I found myself thinking more and more of the characters in the novel and their plight, as if they existed and that plight was very real. I thought about Lucy's relationship with his mother and why he never gave her the credit that was due. I thought about Sarah and the life she might have had had she made different choices. I even thought about Dec, wondering what his cheap aftershave smelled like and if he might be smarter than he let on.

I shan't give away too many details as the plot is deliberately twisty and meant to surprise you at turns. I don't kid myself in thinking that any of my friends would read this book. I wish they would but they won't. But someone else might see this and not want to know all the details in advance. I will say only that I am cynical, hyper-aware of racist and sexist subtexts, and adamantly repelled by chick-lit of any type (and really of girly things in general) and I still LOVED this book unabashedly. (less)

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Oct 28, 2007

Dorian rated it

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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 p...more

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Jun 27, 2008

Steve rated it

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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 stor...moreWith 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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Aug 15, 2007

Mike rated it

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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 complexi...moreI'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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Jul 09, 2010

Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it

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There is a stone bridge in Venice, Italy they call the Bridge of Sighs. it connects the Doge's Palace in St. Mark's Square, where there are interrogation rooms, to an adjacent prison. Crossing this bridge, the convicts - at least the ones without money or influence - came to understand that all hope was lost. According to legend, their despairing sighs could be heard echoing in the neighboring canals.

Strangely enough, I never felt that "all hope was lost" while reading this...more

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Apr 27, 2008

Kim rated it

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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...moreWhen 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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Feb 02, 2008

Josh rated it

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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 b...more

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Nov 28, 2007

Gunjan rated it

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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 c...morewhat 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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Sep 14, 2008

RandomAnthony rated it

This might be my longest review ever. Here we go, in bullet points...

1. I like Russo's work a lot, esp. Straight Man, Nobody's Fool, and Risk Pool. Nobody writes about rundown small towns better than Russo. In the three books already mentioned Russo doesn't overshoot his purpose; he's funny and psychologically incisive without becoming ponderous, although he can be rightfully accused of painting a rosier picture than his settings warrant. Bridge of Sighs, also set in a small town,...more

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May 19, 2008

Beth rated it

· review of another edition

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 narrat...more

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Apr 06, 2008

D'Anne rated it

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Shelves: fiction

I really love Richard Russo and really enjoyed this book but felt it went on a little too long at the end -- like a good friend who you love to spend time with but who stays maybe a day longer than he should because as much as you love him you've got work to do. And yet, you can hardly be too upset because this friend says things like:"[T]here is, despite our wild imaginings, only one life. The ghostly others, no matter how real they seem, no matter how badly we need them, are phantoms. The...more

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Feb 04, 2008

Jason Pettus rated it

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Shelves: character-heavy, contemporary, personal-favorite

(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...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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May 13, 2008

Samilja rated it

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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 perspect...more

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Dec 09, 2007

marg rated it

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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 exp...more

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Nov 02, 2007

Megan rated it

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I am a huge fan of Richard Russo, so I wanted to love this one. Although, as usual, Russo paints a vivid picture of small town life, somehow the story never grabbed me. Centered on Lou "Lucy" Lynch, a typical Russo lovable loser, we hear the story of his life in a class-conscious upstate New York town. We also get snippets of the life of his best friend, a painter in Venice who escaped the small town. But the story, while solidly told, is never particularly moving. Nothing much hap...more

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Aug 12, 2008

Dollie rated it

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Recommended to Dollie by: Book Club Choice

I am not sure if it was because I had grown up in the area where this book takes place or if it was just a very good novel but after 528 pages, I still wanted more. I could have followed these lives and the following generations for a long time. I grew up in Troy NY and I noticed Richard Russo grew up in Gloversville, NY so I gather that is why it all felt so authentic. The town was fictional but I sure did recognize it as well as the characters. I have never read Mr. Russo's books before bu...more

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Nov 23, 2008

Paula rated it

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Russo is such a pleasure to read. While I don't think this is his best work, it is very good. I loved the picture of post war America. The father especiallly rang true; a simple man who cannot deal with the changes he faces. I thought the wife and her decisions and reactions were right on , but I couldn't quite accept the younger generation. I am sorry but names elude me. The painter as a child made sense, but I couldn't quite accept his transformation into a painter. Maybe a writer. The hero se...more

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Jan 10, 2009

Bobbi rated it

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Shelves: book-club

This book was a LONG one, but I really enjoyed it. The story is about a man recalling his childhood growing up in the small upstate NY town of Thomaston. I could relate to the whole "small ethnic town" thing and really took to each one of the characters who were developed extremely well in my opinion. It's complexity actually makes it difficult to write a review because so much happens that I don't know where to begin!

Lou (nickname Lucy) Lynch is a quiet, insecure boy who t...more

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Mar 18, 2010

Jason rated it

brilliant...
absolutely brilliant...
russo is very nearly the most important american novelist currently working...

this book is all about the vertiginous...
the deep disorientation and confusion that results from exposure to two very different points of view...
this concept is explored in so many compelling ways through the juxtaposition of black and white, hope to despair, love to hate...
the idea is made that much more complex by the notion of equivocation....more

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Sep 27, 2008

Nancy (Hrdcovers) rated it

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BRIDGE OF IMPRISONMENT

Is this what Richard Russo is trying to tell us in picking out the title of this book? Are you also someone who tries to analyze the title of each book you read as I do? Built in the 16th century in Venice, The Bridge of Sighs is the last thing a prisoner walks over before reaching his cell. The idea behind the name is that the last view a convict sees before imprisonment is a beautiful Venetian canal which must cause him to sigh at its beauty, never to be seen ...moreBRIDGE OF IMPRISONMENT

Is this what Richard Russo is trying to tell us in picking out the title of this book? Are you also someone who tries to analyze the title of each book you read as I do? Built in the 16th century in Venice, The Bridge of Sighs is the last thing a prisoner walks over before reaching his cell. The idea behind the name is that the last view a convict sees before imprisonment is a beautiful Venetian canal which must cause him to sigh at its beauty, never to be seen again until said prisoner is released -- if ever.

The setting of this book is not Venice but Thomaston, New York, site of a prosperous tannery in post-war America but now, many years later, is a company that polluted the Cayoga Stream. The main character is Lou C. (Lucy) Lynch and Russo tells us, right off the bat, that Lucy has never left Thomaston in all his sixty years. Unlike the prisoners in Venice, Lucy is certainly not a prisoner, although it could be viewed, that he is, in fact, a prisoner of his own choosing in a town he just can't leave.

Russo is so great at writing about small town America and living the American dream. He's right up there for me with my other favorite authors, Pat Conroy and John Irving. Some might complain that there's too much prose and not enough dialogue in his books but, for this reader, I could read Russo's prose all day long. In Bridge of Sighs, the story is told from the point of view of two narrators, Lucy Lynch and Bobby Marconi. After three hundred pages, Russo decides to give another point of view in the voice of Sarah Berg, Lucy's future wife. I don't usually like when an author does this but, in this case, it works and it works well.

I love when an author has one of his characters writing a book about his own life because it makes it easy for him to easily offer a glimpse of his past life and, in this case, that of the town as well. In Lucy's past life, we come to understand all the workings of the Lynch family, a family who can only be admired for their pursuit of the American dream. While Lucy's father is the eternal optimist and Lucy's mother the eternal realist, their son is tried and true like his father and refuses to believe that there can be bad in the world. Perhaps this is the reason he never leaves his hometown.

Unlike Lucy, Bobby Marconi does leave and becomes a famous artist in Venice. My one complaint here is, in doing so, he changes his name to Robert Noonan (his mother's maiden name) and I could never justify this change in my head and couldn't relate to Bobby as Robert. Of course, the choice of Venice brings us back to that famous Bridge of Sighs as Bobby has been released from the hold of Thomaston while his boyhood friend Lucy still remains.

I could analyze Bridge of Sighs until I'm blue in the face but then I'd feel like I'm writing yet another English paper. I highly recommend this book as I would highly recommend any Richard Russo book. I felt very invested in all the characters and did let out a sigh of my own when I had finished the book.....a sigh that meant I was sad that I wasn't going to be spending any more time with the indomitable Lynch's. So I guess, in essence, I walked over my own Bridge of Sighs in finishing this book.

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Aug 21, 2008

Geoff rated it

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Again, I wish we could have 1/2 star reviews. I'd rate a 3 1/2.

Russo explores the relationships of three (sort of four) families in an upper NY textile town. The story takes place as the factory is shutting down, industrial waste is causing widespread cancer, and working class families are focused on upward mobility in the post-war economy. This poor economy/American Dream dichotomy is indicative of the multi-faceted outlooks of the protagonists and their families who play supportin...more

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Oct 07, 2008

ScottK rated it

Hmmmmm did I like this book? Yes I did,overall. I love the way Russo captures the small town world and the lives of those who live there. His Characters were wonderful. I loved Love Love the Mother, Tessa.If we had half points it would be a 3.5 . The reason being, It sucked me in at the beginning but somewhere near the middle my enthusiasm lagged a bit. I wanted to keep reading because I knew that if I did I would be rewarded in the end. I was,not only by the fact that I finished it, but also be...more

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May 12, 2008

Jeremy rated it

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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 se...more

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Dec 21, 2007

Sallyann rated it

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Recommends it for: nobody

Shelves: bottom-shelf

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 los...more

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Jul 05, 2008

Debbie rated it

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Shelves: 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 coul...moreI 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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Feb 18, 2009

Alison rated it

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My dad gave me Empire Falls, and after whipping through that, he passed along Bridge of Sighs. While Russo is better known for Empire Falls, I liked Bridge of Sighs better. It was a little slow to start, but I got sucked in pretty easily after the first chapter or so. It's about a small town in upstate NY and the interactions of two boys as they grow up and apart and their relationship with a girl. Because the setting is similar to that of Empire Falls, I went in to this expecting a similar s...more

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Jan 13, 2009

Jane rated it

· review of another edition

This is classic Richard Russo. Set in a small town in New York, the story gives us Lou C. (Lucy) Lynch, growing up, falling in love, and basically experiencing the ups and downs of life. I found Lou C. and his father a bit annoying. They grew on me as I got to know them, although I still wanted to knock some sense into both of them at times. I always like Russo's stories and this one entertained me quite nicely.

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Nov 23, 2008

Karen rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: very patient people who enjoyed Empire Falls

The Bridge of Sighs is one long-ass bridge. I suppose once you win a Pulitzer Prize, you don't have to submit to pesky things like editing. In this case, though, it would have been beneficial. The book was too long, and weirdly repetitive. I still dig Russo's writing, for the most part, and the way he can describe all the unspoken things that go on within people's relationships. That's amazing. But I was done with the book about 200 pages before he was. I finished, but only because I had some fo...more

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Jul 19, 2011

Scott rated it

· review of another edition

This is a very melancholy book, the first novel following the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Empire Falls by the talented Russo. Probably a bit overlong in my opinion. The story involves 3 friends, 2 boys and a girl, and their families growing up in a small upstate New York town. They are now much older (about 60) with 2 of them married and living in the same hometown and the other living in Venice, Italy. The book weaves back and forth from past to present, tying their lives and fates togethe...more

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Sep 25, 2008

Michael rated it

· review of another edition

Ah, for the days when editors edited! This ambitious, daring, and sometimes interesting work certainly could have used some editorial help. Far too long and repetitive and failing in its ending, the work explores the very basic issues of free will versus determinism, relations between the sexes, the nature of friendship, and both the inaccuracy and persistence of memory. I kept faith with the author until the narrative collapsed under the weight of the expectations he had raised. I gave it t...more

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About Richard Russo

Richard Russo (born July 15, 1949) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. Born in Johnstown, New York, and raised in nearby Gloversville, he earned a B.A. (1967), a M.F.A. (1980), and a Ph.D. (1979) from the University of Arizona.

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Quotes from Bridge of Sighs

“Have you ever noticed that when people use the expression 'I have to say', what follows usually needn't be said?” — 23 people liked it

“The line of gray along the horizon is brighter now, and with the coming light I feel a certainty: that there is, despite our wild imaginings, only one life. The ghostly others, no matter how real they seem, no matter how badly we need them, are phantoms. The one life we're left with is sufficient to fill and refill our imperfect hearts with joy, and then to shatter them. And it never, ever lets up.” — 12 people liked it

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