The Bridge Of Sighs, the book
February 12, 2008
The Bridge Of Sighs by Richard Russo is a book about how we are shaped by our families. Russo who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for his novel, Empire Falls, seems to like to place his novels in dying old New England towns. The Bridge Of Sighs is set primarily in a central New York village of Thomaston, NY where the Lynches and the Marconis live together. Louis C. (Lucy) Lynch and his buddy, Bobby Marconi (who takes his mother's maiden name Noonan when he goes to Europe), are friends in Jr. High and High School but Bobby moves on, becomes a famous painter in Italy and Lou takes over the family store in Thomaston. They share the love of the same girl, Sarah, whom Lou marries, and Bobby pines for over the years.
There are several side stories and minor plots and at times the novel seemed to drag a little for me, but was interesting enough that I finished all 544 pages.
The title, the Bridge Of Sighs, refers to a bridge in Venice where Robert Noonan lives and has his studio. As convicts were led across the Bridge of Sighs over the canal from the interrogation rooms in the Doge's palace to the prison for their incarceration or execution, they got their last view of Venice before entering the dungeons, and it is said that you could hear them sigh.
As you read about the lives of the Lynches and the Marconi-Noonan's as well as the life of Lou's wife Sarah and her family, you can hear the sighs as they pass over the bridge of time trying to escape the suffering of their mundane lives by creating more fulfilling lives of satisfaction and love with questionable success.
I recommend the Bridge of Sighs, but if you haven't read Empire Falls and want to read one of Richard Russo's books, I would recommend Empire Falls first.
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