Alexa read and liked Jon's review of Between the Bridge and the River:

"The official blurb (click on the title above) is pretty accurate. Ferguson is amazingly multi-talented: musician, actor, writer, standup comedian, talk-show host. He's written and acted in three movies, including Saving Grace and I'll Be There. He's ...more The official blurb (click on the title above) is pretty accurate. Ferguson is amazingly multi-talented: musician, actor, writer, standup comedian, talk-show host. He's written and acted in three movies, including Saving Grace and I'll Be There. He's presented his own series on Scottish archaeology, titled Dirt Detective. This novel reminds me a lot of those by Carl Hiaasen. It is astonishingly crass and vulgar in spots, wittily cynical, sometimes deep, sometimes shallow, sometimes apparently random, always entertaining. And as the blurb says, all the threads somehow come together in a rather sweet ending. Ferguson is very careful about real love and real religious sensibility, but he relishes sending up organized religion, especially of the televangelist variety. His biggest guns are reserved for Hollywood. And he manages to combine the two in the (popular among the stars) cult of Brainyism, founded by a bankrupt ex-carnival roustabout who died in the 1970's. "Brainastics were famous for their lack of humor and for being very sensitive about their faith. They would viciously counterattack anyone they even suspected of making fun of them or casting aspersions on their beliefs." It was "popular with people who were very ambitious and a bit stupid." Sound familiar? He throws away language jokes with careless abandon, such as naming a popular star (America's sweetheart) Meg Roberts. Or naming a hugely successful coffee-house chain "Stubb and Flask" after two shipmates on Melville's Pequod. Hmmm. Or the hugely popular celebrity expose magazine titled Peephole. Or the movie about a serial killer titled "Killing by Starlight" until it was changed by the Hollywood suits into "Big Friendly American Wedding Celebrity" thus using five of the 20 most popular feel-good words for Americans. In spite of all the fun, the novel has a serious core: the title refers to the (at least after Vatican II) Catholic teaching on suicide--that in spite of its being a mortal sin, if you sincerely repent after jumping off the bridge, there is the hope of redemption. The book is basically about how redemption is always possible, even at the last second. An inspiring view from a recovering alcoholic and former heavy drug user who, when he describes drug and alcohol abuse, knows first-hand what he's talking about. I guess my only objection is a picky one: in a section obviously modeled on Dante's Inferno, one of the characters is led in a dream through the desert of his soul by Virgil, who proceeds to tell a chapter-long story that is nothing like anything the real Virgil would have told. That bit of randomness bugged me, but then I'm peculiarly sensitive about Virgil. My own version of Brainyism, I guess.(less) "