About this title: A magnificent, big-hearted new novel and an astounding achievement ("The Boston Globe," this national bestseller is from the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Empire Falls."
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Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Book is in good reading condition. Cover has wear at edges and corners. Spine has wear at edges. Dust jacket has some wear. Writing in book. read more
Description: Very Good. Book is in good reading condition. Cover has wear at edges and corners, and may have creases. Spine has wear at edges and creases. read more
Description: Good. 0375414959 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 1400030900 Paperback, Condition: Good; somewhat worn; some pages are wavy due to prior exposure to moisture; will work well as a reading copy. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780375414954ISBN:0375414959
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 527 p. Audience: General/trade. Edge to jacket. Price intact on jacket. read more
"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 takes after his friendly, naive, happy-go-lucky, all-too-nice father. His Italian, smart, insightful, cautious mother, Tessa, pretty much wears the pants in the family. His best friend is Bobby Marconi, who later goes by "Noonan", is completely Lou's opposite. The author really dives into the psychology of both families, which prove to be full of secrets. Some of the driving themes are: 1. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. 2. People don't change. 3. Everyone has secrets.
Lou begins dating Sarah in high school and although she loves Lou for his kindness and stability, she also loves Bobby for his independence. I love how Lou stands up for his father, even when he knows his mother is smarter and knows best. He can't help being his father's son.
The tale is complex and I won't go into any more detail, but it was discussed at my book club that it almost felt like the author got tired and someone else wrote the ending. You know, like when things wrap up a little too neatly and in sort of an uncharacteristic way?
I thoroughly recommend this book---I really enjoyed it!"
"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 seemed a little off to me as well; his character was so fearful and lacking in imagination that I couldn't quite accept 'the incident' as the cause. Anyway, Russo's celebration of small town life as full of drama and interest is compelling to me as a reader."
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."
"Although much of the writing is well done, it is about 100 pages too long and in need of an editor. The more interesting characters are not developed while the more shallow ones are over written. The ending seems very contrived and out of character for the story. It does convey a strong sense of living in a small town in post WWII America."
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