The Other Side Of The Bridge (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
In conclusion:I liked this book for many reasons. It has humor. It covers widely varied topics, all of which I found interesting. Sibling rivalry. Parents’ attachments to their children…. and let’s admit it, we do not respond identically to each child. How do we / should we choose what we want to do with our lives? I mean what job we ultimately choose. Do we choose, or is it fate that decides for us? Are we destined for a certain occupation, given our particular personality? And what is the value of a job? Must we all be academics? The book is set in Canada during WW2, this too was interesting!The characters? Well there are several, but central to the story are two brothers and guess what - a girl they both like. One brother made me nervous just at the mention of his name. You have surely met such a person - handsome, charming ....but too good to be true. This is the one that made me so nervous! And I liked Pete, a Native American. There is Ian too, he works as a farm help. Each character ties the story together. One gripe I have with the book is that I do not understand why all the guys (at least three) are so captivated by Laura; I wish the author had drawn her better.The plot is definitely filled with excitement.Unfortunately this was another one of those books that do not run chronologically; it flips between different time periods. Each chapter begins with a date and newspaper headlines. The only thing achieved by this is an increase in suspense, or perhaps it is an attempt to turn the story into a mystery, into a puzzle to be solved? I personally could do without this.The narration by Paul Hecht was well done. He used different intonations for different characters.The book concludes with an author interview explaining how she went about writing the book and what she wanted to have said. Mary Lawson has plans for a third novel. The Other Side of the Bridge was her second following her first one Crow Lake.**************************First impressions: This is why I chose to read this book: http://theteatimereader.wordpress.com...Don't worry about spoilers.Immediately I love the writing. Each line is loaded with subtle humor. The theme, and why you might be interested? Who doesn't connect with the competing emotions between one sibling and another and parents' preferences for one child over another?I have just begun so let me see if this continues as well as it starts. BTW, this is set in the fictional town of Struan, Ontario, near New Liskeard, Ontario. Others have said this is set in northern Canada, well look at a map! It isn't. I certainly wouldn't place Ontario in northern Canada.
This is a superb book. It is set in northern Canada in a small town. The book is split into 2 stories that occur about 10 -15 years apart so that at the end they coincide. The narrative focuses in each story on teenage boys - Arthur and Ian. Each has difficulty facing the future, dealing with women and how to decide what kind of men they want to be.In Ian's story he is working for the adult Arthur on his farm - Ian's father is a doctor, his mother hates where they live and Ian uses the farm as a place to escape the troubles at home. Meanwhile in Arthur's story we start with him as a young teenager. Although Arthur is the older brother, his younger brother Jake takes all the limelight and love in his home. Jake deliberately teases and slyly draws out those he targets, to persuade them that what he wants is really what they want too - this is especially so with girls. The one thing Jake despises is farming and farmers including his father. Arthur has to help out on the farm but Jake is always let off chores by his mother's intervention.The book in each narrative slowly burns to a crisis which impacts on all the characters. The women are empowered and then led astray, the boys try to make decisions that are decent and true but become less and less able to discern what is 'decent.'In the background is the landscape of rural Canada in all its harshness and beauty. Behind Arthur's story is world war II which devastates the young men of the area leaving Arthur abandoned and guilty. Behind both stories are the actions of Jake, both shown in the story and hinted at, which manipulate and manouvre the other characters.This is not a fast-paced action packed story. It is more like the landscape it descibes cold, fertile, 'beneath the surface' like the lake that Ian fishes on, yet beautiful and stark. The writing is deceptively simple and yet so amazing. Whilst it is an easy, accessible read it is not simplistic or facile, rather it is subtle and has depth.I loved this.
What do You think about The Other Side Of The Bridge (2006)?
This book was good, well-paced and interesting. It's been a while since I read the author's first book, Crow Lake, but it seems like the themes of this book are pretty similar - the kind of biblical tensions of sibling dynamics and the drama and sometimes violence that are apparently part of figuring out love for some folks. I just re-read East of Eden by John Steinbeck, where there are also sets of brothers with tense relations. That book's message for me is that destiny doesn't control us, we
—Lynne
Mary Lawson is a remarkable story teller. “The Other Side of the Bridge” is set in a small town in Northern Canada. The story evolves around two brothers and the rivalry that defines their relationship, forms their character and creates their destiny. The author presents the story in an interesting fashion going back and forth between three time lines. The distant past when Arthur and Jake were children, the more recent past when WWII was being fought and the present which is in the 60’s. To be able to do this without confusing the reader is testimony to the author’s skilful storytelling. The book is an interesting social history of a small farming community and of the devastating effects of the war on a small town like Struan which practically loses an entire generation of young men to the war. The beautiful but stark and severe landscape of Northern Canada is a character in the novel. The plot moves fast with interesting twists and turns making it difficult to put the book down. A good read!
—Geetha
I read this because Mary Lawson wrote Crow Lake and it haunted me. I was not disappointed with her second book, The Other Side of the Bridge, although I think Crow Lake is the better book. The Other Side of the Bridge takes the classic story of two brothers - one bad...one good - and meshes the lessons taken from both The Prodigal Son and Cain and Abel. Throw in a woman to make it a love triangle but keep it subdued and approachable by setting it in a farming community in Canada and, voila, you have great literature! I want Mary Lawson to write more books!
—Lucy
