Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Bridge of Sighs
Book Review: Bridge of Sighs
Summary: 5 Stars
Very well written, a haunting story of the choices we make in our lives. I will be sure to read other books by Richard Russo.Book Review: Bridge of Sighs
Summary: 5 Stars
This novel was even better than Empire Falls, as many of the characters were richer and deeper.Particularly loved Noonan and Sarah, who are both unforgettable. There is so much in everyone's life, both beautiful, terrible and ordinary, that Russo reflects here that anyone can find a resonance in her or his own life.A truly great novel indeed!I for one will reread and reread.Book Review: Bridge of Sighs review
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the first book by Richard Russo that I've read, but I will certainly be reading all of them going forward. He catches such subtleties of people's lives, and portrays their thoughts in a very familiar way. Familiar in that I think in some of the same ways and observe the same behavior everywhere. It's a good read, and I highly recommend it.Book Review: Bridge of Sights
Summary: 3 Stars
BRIDGE OF SIGHTS by Richard Russo
Review by Carlo Gabbi Author of `An Amazing Story'
A Complete disappointment.
I bought Mr. Russo's book, The Bridge of Sights, knowing that Mr. Russo won a Pulitzer Prize with Empire Falls. I had the impression that this novel, The Bridge of Sights, had something to do with people living in Venice, and I wanted to read this book because this city is particularly dear to me with many happy memories from the past.
I found Mr. Russo a talented skilled writer and I wish to have his capacities in writing. Unfortunately in this novel he is well below any expectation.
`Bridge of Sights' is disappointing and extremely too long. Only the last fifty pages are conclusive, while the rest of the narrative is wasted into unnecessary and a too long descriptions of life in a country town and its inhabitants. Most likely I missed out what Mr. Russo was trying to present in this particular country life.
I found the narrative lacks of action, and for this reason, for too many times I jumped to the end of the chapter and not even the few events in Venice were able to raise emotions of pleasure in me.
In fact I only partially read this long non convincing story, which is going on for five hundred pages under a beautiful title, The Bridge of Sights, but in a not convincing way.
I give Mr. Russo five stars for his writing skill, but only two stars for don't be able to deliver to the readers the expected trilling emotions.
Carlo Gabbi Author of `An Amazing Story'
Book Review: Bridge of........Imprisonment?
Summary: 5 Stars
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.