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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/129972.Mrs_Bridge_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Mrs. Bridge: A Novel" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171990455m/129972.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/129972.Mrs_Bridge_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Mrs. Bridge: A Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/34111.Evan_S_Connell">Evan S. Connell</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3308048?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars If I had the power to bestow canonical status, I would do so for this quietly powerful book by Evan S. Connell. Mrs. Bridge is a collection of heartbreaking vignettes, glimpses into a Kansas City housewife's life (or what passes for one) in the 1920s-40s. Our title character is a member of the leisure class, a country-club matron and mother of three. Impeccably behaved and nearly dead inside, Mrs. Bridge longs to feel needed by her family, to elicit passion from her lawyer husband and win back her children's love. In brief dilettantish bursts (seeking joy or self-improvement), she takes drawing lessons, reads about politics, tries to increase her vocabulary, plays Spanish records, and volunteers (gloved) with the poor. After reading Zokoloff, she drives to the polls expecting to vote liberal...but at the moment of reckoning, "she pulled the lever recording her wish for the world to remain as it was." Again and again, Mrs. Bridge's own fear of conflict or even discomfort quells every possibility for growth, squashing even her tiniest rebellions. She wants to please the world around her, not upset it -- even as that very world is what keeps her powerless and sad. What comforts Mrs. Bridge above all is "a unanimous vote." 
 
 Reading this book, you'll never have to remind yourself that many others (from European Jews to her own Black laundress) have it far worse than Mrs. Brige; remarkably and subtly, the book is about that, too: elitism, racism, ethnocentrism, nationalism, and sexism seething beneath the surface of the Bridges' world. Mrs. Bridge agreeably locks herself in her cage, singing the way she is told. Yet if she is complicit, she is certainly not evil. 
 
 In one of the book's finest chapters, a tornado hurtles toward the country club where Mr. and Mrs. Bridge are dining; all the other patrons (and even the waiters) retire to the basement, but Mr. Bridge is determined that no storm will deprive him of steak and wine. Mrs. Bridge never thinks of leaving her husband for safety, and while she is put out by his "obstinance," she is never really afraid. 
 
 This scene and this book feel very relevant today, especially this election season. Mrs. Bridge is a study of what's still the matter with Kansas City, the American view that everything is a threat but nothing can really harm us.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/69506?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Anne's review
rating:

status: Read in January, 2008

If I had the power to bestow canonical status, I would do so for this quietly powerful book by Evan S. Connell. Mrs. Bridge is a collection of heartbreaking vignettes, glimpses into a Kansas City housewife's life (or what passes for one) in the 1920s-40s. Our title character is a member of the leisure class, a country-club matron and mother of three. Impeccably behaved and nearly dead inside, Mrs. Bridge longs to feel needed by her family, to elicit passion from her lawyer husband and win back her children's love. In brief dilettantish bursts (seeking joy or self-improvement), she takes drawing lessons, reads about politics, tries to increase her vocabulary, plays Spanish records, and volunteers (gloved) with the poor. After reading Zokoloff, she drives to the polls expecting to vote liberal...but at the moment of reckoning, "she pulled the lever recording her wish for the world to remain as it was." Again and again, Mrs. Bridge's own fear of conflict or even discomfor...more If I had the power to bestow canonical status, I would do so for this quietly powerful book by Evan S. Connell. Mrs. Bridge is a collection of heartbreaking vignettes, glimpses into a Kansas City housewife's life (or what passes for one) in the 1920s-40s. Our title character is a member of the leisure class, a country-club matron and mother of three. Impeccably behaved and nearly dead inside, Mrs. Bridge longs to feel needed by her family, to elicit passion from her lawyer husband and win back her children's love. In brief dilettantish bursts (seeking joy or self-improvement), she takes drawing lessons, reads about politics, tries to increase her vocabulary, plays Spanish records, and volunteers (gloved) with the poor. After reading Zokoloff, she drives to the polls expecting to vote liberal...but at the moment of reckoning, "she pulled the lever recording her wish for the world to remain as it was." Again and again, Mrs. Bridge's own fear of conflict or even discomfort quells every possibility for growth, squashing even her tiniest rebellions. She wants to please the world around her, not upset it -- even as that very world is what keeps her powerless and sad. What comforts Mrs. Bridge above all is "a unanimous vote."

Reading this book, you'll never have to remind yourself that many others (from European Jews to her own Black laundress) have it far worse than Mrs. Brige; remarkably and subtly, the book is about that, too: elitism, racism, ethnocentrism, nationalism, and sexism seething beneath the surface of the Bridges' world. Mrs. Bridge agreeably locks herself in her cage, singing the way she is told. Yet if she is complicit, she is certainly not evil.

In one of the book's finest chapters, a tornado hurtles toward the country club where Mr. and Mrs. Bridge are dining; all the other patrons (and even the waiters) retire to the basement, but Mr. Bridge is determined that no storm will deprive him of steak and wine. Mrs. Bridge never thinks of leaving her husband for safety, and while she is put out by his "obstinance," she is never really afraid.

This scene and this book feel very relevant today, especially this election season. Mrs. Bridge is a study of what's still the matter with Kansas City, the American view that everything is a threat but nothing can really harm us....less

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message 1: by Natalie

02/07/2008 02:39PM

Anne, you write the most lovely reviews! I adored this book, too. Everything I read after it didn't seem to measure up; I kept wanting to be back in this devastating world.