Product Description

Two boys grow up in Thomaston, upstate New York. Louis Charles Lynch, aka Lucy, marries his childhood sweetheart and settles down to run a small empire of convenience stores. He's a good man, but he isn't always as reliable as he seems, and secretly longs for what he can't have...His best friend Bobby escapes to Italy and becomes an artist, trading in past and family for a life far removed from Thomaston. Now, at sixty years old, Lucy and his wife Sarah are about to relinquish their usual quiet routine and travel to Venice to find Bobby, though they have not heard from him for many years. The truth about why he left, and about the ties that bind these three friends, is intricate and heartbreaking.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1936943 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 544 pages

The Spectator
`Russo's real gift is for the deft, telling detail and the perfect, precise summation'.

Marie Claire
`Russo's state-of-the-nation novel is a complex read, but totally engrossing'

Daily Mail
`Graceful, elegiac sentences'

Customer Reviews

Russo does it again
Why Richard Russo isn't better known is beyond me - his books have been uniformly superb right from the start, and "Bridge of Sighs" is no exception. Once again he has produced a story packed with detail about life in small-town America (a run-down tannery town in this case), populated with characters you can't help but grow to love, and every sentence is just so clear and beautifully written.

Some critics have commented that "Bridge of Sighs" is overlong, and to be honest it probably is a tad bloated, but even having said that it is still a fantastic read. As with all of his novels I reached the end and found that I actually missed the characters a little, and that is the mark of a first-rate writer.

Is it as good as his masterwork, "Empire Falls"? Probably not, but it is certainly chasing its coat tails for me, closely followed by "The Risk Pool". I really can't wait to read this novel again. Highly, highly recommended.

Been A Long Time Crossing Bridge of Sighs
"The sun don't shine
The moon don't move the tides,
to wash me clean
Sun don't shine
The moon don't move the tides,
to wash me clean
Why so unforgiving and why so cold
Been a long time
crossing Bridge of Sighs"

Robin Trower, 'Bridge of Sighs'

Richard Russo has written a novel of a small town, Thomaston, NY, and the lives of three main characters that intertwine throughout. The story is told from the outlook of Lou C Lynch or Lucy as he is called. He begins by writing a novel of which we take part. There is Lucy, from a loving family but with differing opinions from each parent; Bobby from a verbally abusive family that shapes his life, and Sarah, the only child of a divorced family. Characters enter and leave and give us differing perspectives of life in a small town NY to Long Island to Venice.
We are privy to class strata in each vicinity, racism and societal images. The shape of our future we come to believe may focus on our optimism or pessimism and how we view life. Do we leave small town America and strike out for gold, or do we live our lives in the same town of which we are born? In either locale Richard Russo tells us, "This, is "the narrative of our family, its small, significant journey. Is this not an American tale?"

This is a long involved novel, overwhelming at times. As the story moves along, Bobby takes over the narrative and at age 60, a successful artist, living in Venice, he reviews the time of his adolescence and how the memory shaped or mis-shaped the views he held. Sarah, after being married for 30 years takes time of reflection to tell her tale. She says, "Odd, how our view of human destiny changes over the course of a lifetime. In youth we believe what the young believe, that life is all choice. We stand before a hundred doors, choose to enter one, where we're faced with a hundred more and then choose again. We choose not just what we'll do, but who we'll be."

Richard Russo has given us much insight with these characters, and it is up to us to make of it what we will. The view of Bobby, as the artist has upon his world, brings us to 'The Bridge of Sighs'. Does our view of life impede us, bring us down before we can move on? It depends, I think from our personal view on the bridge.

"The Bridge of Sighs (Italian: Ponte dei Sospiri) is one of many bridges in Venice built in the 16th century. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out the window before being taken down to their cells." Wikipedia

This novel left me with a feeling of ease. We may leave our home and traverse the world, but in the end most of us can return to the place we know and the people we love the best. As Lucy says, "We will leave this small, good world behind us with the comfort of knowing it'll be here when we return."

Highly, Highly Recommended. prisrob 10-13-07

Who is this guy?
Never heard of him or the book. I was sent it to review on the Simon Mayo book program and was blown away. If you like John Irving or Robertson Davies then you will love it. Once you start to read this you are in another world that doesn't loosen its grip until the final page. Totally engrossing, beautifully written and full of insights and musings on the human condition that will leave you pondering and marvelling for a long time. Fully recommended. Now where is that list of his other books.......................