The Other Side of the Bridge
by Mary Lawson
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Book Reviews of The Other Side of the Bridge
Book Review: VERY BEAUTIFUL
Summary: 5 Stars
"They sat on in silence, or almost silence; if you listened closely you could just hear a faint thrumming from thousand of wings. Beyond the dragonflies the sun was sinking slowly, casting its rays across the lake, on either side, everything as far as the eye could see was slowly dissolving into the haze. Ian thought, If I live to be a hundred years old, I will always remember this."
Mary Lawson has done it again in her second novel. Beautifully written, we are introduced into the farming community of Straun in Ontario. The characters are ordinary people but such fine people as we see in patient and long suffering good hearted Arthur Dunn, his brother Jake, handsome, devious and charming, the complete opposite of Arthur. They, having just suffered the death of their father are left with two big farms to manage. This is no easy job as the World War is on, and as Arthur has just been declared unfit for the army, he decides that he will play his part by at least growing the food that will feed them. He goes by diligently; working morning to evening, so very hard on the farm, marries the most beauteous woman in the world Laura, who bears three lovely children. They live comfortable lives but their private life is about to be interrupted as Jake returns to the farm after years of living in many varied areas of the world and with his wary ways continues where he has left off. Other people are not happy to see him especially his brother. The people who passed through the life of the Dunns, and they themselves will quietly entertain you. I highly recommend this fine work by Mary Lawson.
Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 03/11/08)
Book Review: tale of 2 brothers
Summary: 3 Stars
I've read a spate of books lately about two brothers where one brother is a nice guy and the other is bad news. Consequently, this book's plot seemed tired, familiar, and predictable. In some ways it reminded me of the movie Legends of the Fall, because there's a woman in the middle. My chief complaint, in fact, is about the women in this novel. Why do women authors portray their women characters as gullible and easily seduced by handsome, charismatic, unscrupulous men? Why are the men in this novel the only ones who see Jake for what he is--a cowardly liar and reprobate? His salt-of-the-earth brother Arthur is a farmer with a beautiful wife, Laura. While they were growing up, Arthur dealt Jake a severe blow when, for once, Jake wasn't crying wolf. Guilt causes Arthur to cut Jake a little too much slack after that, but not nearly as much as Arthur's mother does. Ian is the teenage son of the town doctor (in northern Ontario), who comes to work for Arthur so that he can be near Laura. I found Ian's story to be much more captivating than Arthur and Jake's. He struggles with choosing a career path, but that issue also resolves itself in predictable fashion. Ian's fishing buddy Pete is conflicted by his heritage, with one foot in the white man's land and one in the land of his native people, and this conflict also has a predictable outcome. Despite the fact that I found the book sort of hollow, it wasn't a chore to read by any means. I had to keep bracing myself, though, for Jake's next thoughtless or cruel move, and that's just not particularly fun.Book Review: Excellent, and surprising find!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was totally surprised when I started this book last night and read the introductory chapter which gave a richly detailed accounting of two boys playing Stretch. I guess the game is more widespread than I imagined but what really got to me was the emotion and description. Excellent, and surprising find!
This book was a very pleasant experience to read. It started out showing the differences in the way Arthur and Jake were treated by their parents. The book plodded along slowly like Arthur behind the team of horses in the field. Jake never did a lick of farm work, for he was the golden boy, the mama's boy, spoiled and smart and crafty and cunning in his efforts to get his father's attention, which he was never able to accomplish.
The story gained momentum, the chapters got longer and more interesting and yet never, ever did the author stumble. The relationship between Arthur and Jake was explored with a story surrounding circumstance and it was beautifully, elegantly and perfectly told.
There were things I guessed at early on in the story that later proved to be true and a few things that surprised me. This book and author are so sure-footed, unlike Jake on the bridge, that I will go back to the library for Lawson's first novel, Crow Lake.
Book Review: Sibling Rivalry?
Summary: 5 Stars
Mary Lawson is a wonderfully evocative writer. You ache for her characters. You enter into the desolation and into the pull of the hard life in a very small northern Ontario community. I only want to add one thing to what else has been written in these reviews.
Sibling rivalry? yes. A wonderful re-telling of the story of two brothers, one charming, smart, handsome, irresponsible and careless of other people's feelings; the other slow, stolid, uncommunicative and responsible. However doesn't Lawson also show us that the parents are at least in part to blame? Would Arthur been more secure, more able to communicate with other people if his mother had been loving and encouraging of him? Would Jake have been less irresponsible if he had been able to win his father's approval for who he was rather than what his father thought he should be - a farm boy? Lawson seems to suggest that, despite Jake's careless ways, he really did long for his father to accept him for who he was. He wasn't Arthur. Arthur wasn't Jake. Neither parent can really embrace the differences in their sons.
Book Review: A powerful book!
Summary: 5 Stars
The whole idea of rivalry between brothers is timeless and has been around since Cain and Abel's time. But this book, although dealing with this age-old topic has a certain agelessness about it. Mary Lawson handles the subject with skill and with grace. The book is set in Northern Ontario. It covers the lives of two brothers for almost fifty years. Arthur is the oldest and he is the slow, steady and trustworthy brother who likes nothing better than helping his father on the farm. Jake is the younger brother and he is a hedonist - charming and sunny but not trustworthy. The two brothers are always competing for something whether it's a mother or father's love, marks in school or even the same woman. This rivalry goes on for the duration of the book which is almost fifty years, and we know that we are inexorably being drawn to a terrible conclusion. This is a powerful story that is very well written, filled with apprehension, tension and deceit. But there is hope in this book as well and we see this as we see the drama unfold through young Ian's eyes. I couldn't put it down.