Richard Russo: Bridge of Sighs

Readers

more readers (1474)

Groups

more groups (22)

Other Reviews

Amazon Reviews

Most Helpful Reviews

Liked It

4 of 4 members found this review helpful.

Rated 5 stars

“This book has grown on me even after I've finished it, because it keeps coming up in my thoughts. Richard Russo's writing is amazing, with his characters, I think, being his greatest strength. His books always take me a while to read - they're not edge-of-the seat reading - but it's only because they require time to absorb. For me it was a page-turner but I turned the pages slowly...”

Sarah J’s full review »

more reviews »

Didn’t Like It

Rated 2 stars

“Although I admire Russo's craft, his prose is just not my favorite. I did finish the whole book, though. One reader said it "collapses in a tangle." I agree.”

Denise M’s full review »

more reviews »

Community:

Rated 3.742857 stars

Amazon:

Rated 3.5 stars

Newest Comments

(more)

inkberry said:

“I actually was in Venice last Christmas and walked over the Bridge of Sighs. Prison was pretty frightening...they allowed us to roam through it.”

posted Sunday, August 24 2008

jereco said:

“This is definitely the least of his novels. The alternating view-points worked well for me until the abrupt shift to a third perspective at the end of the novel. It was like some sort of emotional blackmail - a total cheat and cop-out. (and the melodramatic situation it described was from some other world entirely - like a bad Hallmark Hall of Fame special). Fortunately his prose is as engaging as always, and his career will withstand this mis-fire - and I'll still be one of the first in line for his next effort.”

posted Sunday, January 20 2008

blue cypress books said:

“Russo's writing never fails to be moving and memorable. However, this book could have used a good editor.”

posted Sunday, January 20 2008

mark c said:

“Unreliable Narrator?

Do you believe Lucy was unreliable in his telling of his youth? Sarah mentioned a few items where he was unreliable. Do you think he told his story differently that how it really happened? Which parts were most changed (Bobby's friendship)?”

posted Tuesday, January 8 2008

smartelle said:

“I agree with Tippy Toes. I've enjoyed most of Russo's work but this novel seems to collapse in a tangle, as though he was unsure where to take his characters. Usually with Russo your patience in the early pages is paid off in the ending pages, but not so here. For me the novel just seemed to sputter when it should have begun roaring. And without revealing key plot details, the places he takes his characters, particularly Sarah, just weren't that believable.

In the end his characters seem to be prisoners of their own past, destined to repeat in many ways portions of their parents' lives. I haven't seen any critics pick up on this, but one has to wonder whether his choice of a name for the town was intentional. It is set in New York, but Thomaston is also the town near where Russo lives in Maine that was home to the state prison for nearly two centuries (closed in 2002). I wonder if his point is that we're all prisoners of our pasts -- even the painter (character) Noonan, who escapes Thomaston but find his best work weighted by his life. Not a very original observation by Russo, and in the end not very compellingly drawn. Though his dissections of small-town life are, once again, spot on, with its close clashes of class and racial differences. ”

posted Sunday, October 28 2007