- Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo - Random House
When the reader meets Lou C. Lynch, the main character in Bridge of Sighs, he's a 60-year-old man who's risen to prominence in Thomaston, the small upstate New York town where he grew up. Lou (or "Lucy," as he's dubbed early on by his peers, due to an unfortunate choice of first name and middle initial) appears, at first, to be someone completely comfortable in his own skin. He's been a life-long Thomaston resident and has never strayed far from home, despite the town's decay. However, as he writes his memoirs, various questions begin to plague him. Questions about the accuracy of his memory, the strength of his marriage and his own identity.
The Set Up
One of Lou's earliest problems is his on-again, off-again friendship with Bobby Marconi. The Lynches and Marconis present opposing pictures of family life. The Lynches (headed by Lou's affable, if unrealistic, father and his shrewd, no-nonsense mother) seem to be happy and stable, while the Marconis (headed by their angry, controlling father and weak, pathetic mother) present a much more volatile tableau.
The two families are brought together by circumstance or fate, so that Lou and Bobby end up being friends (or, at least, Bobby deigns to be Lou's friend). Lou suffers a traumatic experience in his childhood, which leads to what he calls his "spells." It's no accident that these spells tend to be prefaced by disconnects between Lou's expectations about himself or his family and any possible harsher realities.
Two other families, represented by Sarah Berg, the only child of a broken marriage, and Nan Beverly, the privileged daughter of one of the town's elite, come into the picture when the girls each start dating one of the boys. Sarah, a gifted artist with the potential to set the world on fire with her talent, ends up settling down and marrying Lou. To reveal more about Bobby and Nan would risk spoilers. Suffice it to say, Bobby ends up leaving Thomaston – fleeing it, actually – after a fateful night and going on to live abroad as the artist Sarah could have been.
A Story Told From Various Points of View
While told mostly from Lou's perspective, the narrative shifts from time-to-time to Bobby's and Sarah's points of view. The shifting perspectives tell as much, if not more about Lou and Thomaston, than his memoirs. They also inform the reader that Thomaston is not the most progressive of towns. Lou, however, has a glowing opinion of the place. He tends to be like his father, a slightly goofy,"go along and get along" guy. His mother, on the other hand, seems frustrated and often criticizes Lou and his dad for seeing things as they wish them to be, rather than as they are.
Meanwhile, there's an undercurrent of tension in the Lynch home, represented by Lou's Uncle Dec. Lou's uncle makes fun of his father and seems to pose a threat to family stability, which Lou resents.
On the other hand, Sarah sees the Lynch family as a safe harbor in a stormy sea of parental separation and discord. Having spent her youth shuttling back and forth between parents, Lou and his family provide a quiet respite.
A Remorseful Story That Ends on a Hopeful Note
The story is a literature professor's dream, in that it practically begs for deconstruction. Thomaston's tannery could easily represent America's industrial sector as a whole. The pollution the tannery causes, which leads to the town becoming a cancer cluster, could not only represent American industry's toll on the environment, but also a blackness in the heart of the American dream.
And regrets? The characters have many, as they look back on a life of choices. Raising the question of how many of those choices they made and how many were made for them. How often did circumstances beyond their control push them toward decision? What small step did they take that decided things for the rest of their lives? Is it even possible to step outside the paradigms society imposes and make truly independent decisions?
These questions give the book an overall remorseful feel, in keeping with the title reference to the Venetian landmark. Even so, the story ends on the hopeful note that a life set on one course can be rerouted – possibly even for the better.
Bridge of Sighs Kindle Edition, published in paperback by Vintage (August 12, 2008), ISBN: 978-1-4000-3090-3
Deborah Mack - I'm a crime fiction author whose first novel, IDENTITY CRISIS, was published originally in 2005 and reissued in 2009, in print and as an ...
