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The Other Side of the Bridge
**LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE**
Arthur and Jake are brothers yet worlds apart .
Arthur is older, shy, dutiful and set to inherit his father's farm. Jake is younger, handsome and reckless, a dangerous man to know.
When Laura arrives in their rural community, the fragile balance of the brothers' rivalry is pushed to the edge of catastrophe...
A powerful, heart-breaking story about tempting fate and living with the consequences.
Arthur and Jake are brothers yet worlds apart .
Arthur is older, shy, dutiful and set to inherit his father's farm. Jake is younger, handsome and reckless, a dangerous man to know.
When Laura arrives in their rural community, the fragile balance of the brothers' rivalry is pushed to the edge of catastrophe...
A powerful, heart-breaking story about tempting fate and living with the consequences.
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 26, 2006
413 people are currently reading
8456 people want to read
About the author
Mary Lawson
11 books1,065 followersMary Lawson (born 1946) is a Canadian novelist.
Born in southwestern Ontario, she spent her childhood in Blackwell, Ontario (located between Sarnia and Brights Grove) and is a distant relative of L. M. Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables.
Lawson moved to England after graduating from McGill University with a psychology degree in 1968. She also married in Ontario, has two grown up sons and now lives in Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey. Her three novels to date, both published by Knopf Canada were set in Northern Ontario.
Born in southwestern Ontario, she spent her childhood in Blackwell, Ontario (located between Sarnia and Brights Grove) and is a distant relative of L. M. Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables.
Lawson moved to England after graduating from McGill University with a psychology degree in 1968. She also married in Ontario, has two grown up sons and now lives in Kingston-Upon-Thames, Surrey. Her three novels to date, both published by Knopf Canada were set in Northern Ontario.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,190 reviews
December 13, 2021
“Strange, the way the mind works. The way it protects itself from things that cannot face. Grief, for instance. Or regret. Guilt. It finds something else, anything, to draw between it and what cannot be looked at”.
Absolutely gripping novel!!!!
- riveting - heartrending!!!
“He saw that it was impossible to be sure of anything, where Jake was concerned. He could never know what Jake was thinking or intending, never know his motives, never understand the first thing about him”.
Emotions of depth go deep as
Mary Lawson tells this story -alternating between the 1930’s and 40’s —to the 60’s.
Some things happen in life — - on the other side of a bridge…
that can never be forgotten.
Brilliant storyline …
Brilliant prose …
And a marvelous read!!!
Note:
The town of Straun was an invention—but in the eyes of Mary Lawson, she imagined it located at the northern edge of the vast and beautiful area of lakes, rocks, and forests known as a Canadian Shield, in northern Ontario. She imagined it west and a little north of the real—and much larger—town of New Liskeard.
Absolutely gripping novel!!!!
- riveting - heartrending!!!
“He saw that it was impossible to be sure of anything, where Jake was concerned. He could never know what Jake was thinking or intending, never know his motives, never understand the first thing about him”.
Emotions of depth go deep as
Mary Lawson tells this story -alternating between the 1930’s and 40’s —to the 60’s.
Some things happen in life — - on the other side of a bridge…
that can never be forgotten.
Brilliant storyline …
Brilliant prose …
And a marvelous read!!!
Note:
The town of Straun was an invention—but in the eyes of Mary Lawson, she imagined it located at the northern edge of the vast and beautiful area of lakes, rocks, and forests known as a Canadian Shield, in northern Ontario. She imagined it west and a little north of the real—and much larger—town of New Liskeard.
August 19, 2021
Sawmills and farming are the livelihood of small town Straun in Northern Ontario. The focus here is farming in the 1950's. At the mercy of the weather, always. Determination and hard work are dictated, but how much does pure luck matter? It's a hard life. These folks are salt of the earth, goodhearted souls, with an inborn sense of responsibility. Dependable, neighbor helping neighbor, the care and feeding of cattle, pigs, and chickens. Bartering still plays a big part, cash money is hard to come by.
Are you ready to meet Arthur, Jake, and Ian? You won't be forgetting them anytime soon. For those of you who delight in character driven novels, Mary Lawson is the real deal. Slice of life with nary a hint of sappiness. Just my style. I have read three of her four books, and the characters have come to life in all of them.
Are you ready to meet Arthur, Jake, and Ian? You won't be forgetting them anytime soon. For those of you who delight in character driven novels, Mary Lawson is the real deal. Slice of life with nary a hint of sappiness. Just my style. I have read three of her four books, and the characters have come to life in all of them.
October 8, 2014
There is a place in northern Ontario, Canada called Struan. It’s a small town where the summers are green and young boys fish in Crow Lake and the winters are brutally cold and the roads are so deeply covered with snow that they keep people in. It’s a place where men are loggers, farmers or sawmill workers , or the one doctor caring for them all delivering babies, caring for sick children or trying to save the logger stabbed in a bar fight. It’s a place of families with good sons and bad sons, mothers and fathers who seem to love one child more than the other, young men who lose their lives in the war fighting for their motherland against the Nazis. It’s a place where people stay, or where people leave and are drawn back by some inexplicable thing that makes them want to be there. This is the fictitious place that Mary Lawson has created for all three of her novels, but you could swear this must be a real place. Her writing draws you in so that you believe that you have travelled there.
I first went to Struan when I read her first novel, Crow Lake (2003). I returned when I recently read, her latest novel Road Ends (2013). I don’t know how I missed The Other Side of the Bridge which was written in between these two in 2006, but I am so glad that I found it. This is the story of two brothers, Arthur and Jake, at odds throughout their lives and the tragedies that be fall them. Lawson has so skillfully developed these characters and we come to know them so well that the events seem inevitable. It is also about the woman who tears them even further apart. In many ways, it is also a coming of age story of a young man, named Ian, the son of the town Doctor whose mother has just abandoned him and he carries burdens of his own.
The two stories mesh when Ian comes to work summers and weekends on Arthur’s farm. The narrative takes place over decades from the 1920’s to 1960’s, and the chapters alternate by date, but not in chronological order. It is through this mechanism, that Lawson tells us the story and even though the chapters are not in chronological order, it is not in the least bit confusing. Each chapter is captivating because it sheds light on the chapter before in some way.
I was not expecting the tragic event that happens near the end, but yet there were some things that I thought were predictable. The story always drew me in – no matter how heartbreaking at times. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not sure how I missed this on publication, but I won’t let that happen with the next book by Mary Lawson, which I sincerely hope she is writing.
I first went to Struan when I read her first novel, Crow Lake (2003). I returned when I recently read, her latest novel Road Ends (2013). I don’t know how I missed The Other Side of the Bridge which was written in between these two in 2006, but I am so glad that I found it. This is the story of two brothers, Arthur and Jake, at odds throughout their lives and the tragedies that be fall them. Lawson has so skillfully developed these characters and we come to know them so well that the events seem inevitable. It is also about the woman who tears them even further apart. In many ways, it is also a coming of age story of a young man, named Ian, the son of the town Doctor whose mother has just abandoned him and he carries burdens of his own.
The two stories mesh when Ian comes to work summers and weekends on Arthur’s farm. The narrative takes place over decades from the 1920’s to 1960’s, and the chapters alternate by date, but not in chronological order. It is through this mechanism, that Lawson tells us the story and even though the chapters are not in chronological order, it is not in the least bit confusing. Each chapter is captivating because it sheds light on the chapter before in some way.
I was not expecting the tragic event that happens near the end, but yet there were some things that I thought were predictable. The story always drew me in – no matter how heartbreaking at times. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not sure how I missed this on publication, but I won’t let that happen with the next book by Mary Lawson, which I sincerely hope she is writing.
September 14, 2023
4.5 Stars
"Jake had explained the rules of the knife game to him and it was crazy. You stood at attention facing each other, about six feet apart, and took turns throwing the knife into the ground as close as possible to your opponent's naked foot. You had to be barefoot, Jake explained, or there would be no point to the game. Wherever the knife landed, your opponent had to move his foot alongside it. The idea was to make him do the splits bit by bit, as slowly as possible. The more throws the better. The smaller the distance between the still-vibrating steel and the out edge of your brother's foot, the better."
Thus we are introduced to 8 or 9 year old Jake Dunn. Jake is the second of two sons born to the Dunns in 1920's rural northern Ontario. He is completely unlike the other males of his family (his father and his older brother Arthur) who are big, physical, hardworking and who love farming. So Jake looks to garner attention in other ways.
“He [Arthur] saw that it was impossible to be sure of anything, where Jake was concerned. He could never know what Jake was thinking or intending, never know his motives, never understand the first thing about him.”
Interwoven with the story of the Dunn family is that of Ian Christopherson, the son of the town doctor who as a teen works weekends and summers on the farm of the adult Arthur. Ian has a huge crush on Arthur's wife and describes being in her presence:
"It was like a drink of cool water in the desert and being eaten alive by army ants, both at the same time."
As he begins to mature:
"When he was younger, Ian had assumed that as you got older things became clear. Adults had seemed so sure, so knowledgeable, not just about facts and figures but about the big questions: the difference between right and wrong; what was true and what wasn't; what life was about. He'd assumed that you went to school because you had to learn things, starting off with the easy stuff and moving on to the bigger issues, and once you'd learned them that was it, the way ahead opened up and thereafter life was simple and straightforward. what a joke. The older he got, the more complicated and obscure everything became. He understood nothing anymore--nothing and nobody, including himself."
Oh, does Ian have my sympathy. I remember being in my late twenties with a job, a marriage, a mortgage, and a baby on the way pretty much having these same thoughts. I will say in my sixties that I finally feel a little more sure and confident, and it has been a long road getting here.
Lawson captures the environment and Arthur's feeling for the land:
"outside the maples flamed red and gold and the air was as clear and pure as springwater. Inside was the leaden weight of boredom; outside was the sharp tang of wood smoke and the urgency of shortening days. You could smell the winter coming. You could see it in the transparency of the light and hear it in the harsh warning cries of the geese as they passed overhead. Most of all, you could feel it. During the day the sun was still hot, but as soon as it dipped down behind the trees the warmth dropped out of the air like a stone."
In addition to her human insights and wonderful prose Lawson engenders a feeling of unease whenever Jake appears in the narrative. She slowly builds and masterfully draws out tension between these three main characters throughout the novel. She has me engaged and turning pages at every opportunity.
For an exploration of family dynamics, love, and guilt, this is well worth your time.
Publication 2006
"Jake had explained the rules of the knife game to him and it was crazy. You stood at attention facing each other, about six feet apart, and took turns throwing the knife into the ground as close as possible to your opponent's naked foot. You had to be barefoot, Jake explained, or there would be no point to the game. Wherever the knife landed, your opponent had to move his foot alongside it. The idea was to make him do the splits bit by bit, as slowly as possible. The more throws the better. The smaller the distance between the still-vibrating steel and the out edge of your brother's foot, the better."
Thus we are introduced to 8 or 9 year old Jake Dunn. Jake is the second of two sons born to the Dunns in 1920's rural northern Ontario. He is completely unlike the other males of his family (his father and his older brother Arthur) who are big, physical, hardworking and who love farming. So Jake looks to garner attention in other ways.
“He [Arthur] saw that it was impossible to be sure of anything, where Jake was concerned. He could never know what Jake was thinking or intending, never know his motives, never understand the first thing about him.”
Interwoven with the story of the Dunn family is that of Ian Christopherson, the son of the town doctor who as a teen works weekends and summers on the farm of the adult Arthur. Ian has a huge crush on Arthur's wife and describes being in her presence:
"It was like a drink of cool water in the desert and being eaten alive by army ants, both at the same time."
As he begins to mature:
"When he was younger, Ian had assumed that as you got older things became clear. Adults had seemed so sure, so knowledgeable, not just about facts and figures but about the big questions: the difference between right and wrong; what was true and what wasn't; what life was about. He'd assumed that you went to school because you had to learn things, starting off with the easy stuff and moving on to the bigger issues, and once you'd learned them that was it, the way ahead opened up and thereafter life was simple and straightforward. what a joke. The older he got, the more complicated and obscure everything became. He understood nothing anymore--nothing and nobody, including himself."
Oh, does Ian have my sympathy. I remember being in my late twenties with a job, a marriage, a mortgage, and a baby on the way pretty much having these same thoughts. I will say in my sixties that I finally feel a little more sure and confident, and it has been a long road getting here.
Lawson captures the environment and Arthur's feeling for the land:
"outside the maples flamed red and gold and the air was as clear and pure as springwater. Inside was the leaden weight of boredom; outside was the sharp tang of wood smoke and the urgency of shortening days. You could smell the winter coming. You could see it in the transparency of the light and hear it in the harsh warning cries of the geese as they passed overhead. Most of all, you could feel it. During the day the sun was still hot, but as soon as it dipped down behind the trees the warmth dropped out of the air like a stone."
In addition to her human insights and wonderful prose Lawson engenders a feeling of unease whenever Jake appears in the narrative. She slowly builds and masterfully draws out tension between these three main characters throughout the novel. She has me engaged and turning pages at every opportunity.
For an exploration of family dynamics, love, and guilt, this is well worth your time.
Publication 2006
July 28, 2021
My God, I love this author. I love the town of Struan, in Northern Ontario, and the farmers and sawmill workers and loggers who live there. I loved these characters, going through their lives with such burdens, still doing their best even when life takes so much away from them. Handling love and hate and trauma without whining, their only help coming from neighbors, their minister, or their doctor, but even then, depending on strength of character more than anything else.
This novel tells an epic story of sibling rivalry at it's heart, but encompasses so much more in a mere 300 pages that you would think the author had been at this for decades, but this is in fact just her second book. Her first, "Crow Lake", taking place in the same small town was every bit as good. I have worried about myself because I feel so much sympathy and experience very real heartbreak for her fictional characters, when I sometimes gloss over real world problems. But I'm going to put that down to Lawson's skill as a writer rather than my hard-heartedness.
Only four novels from Mary Lawson so far, so I still have two to read. Not just read, but buy, so that I can keep these friends close to me. Much thanks to Wyndy, who first recommended Crow Lake and turned me on to a new and beloved author.
This novel tells an epic story of sibling rivalry at it's heart, but encompasses so much more in a mere 300 pages that you would think the author had been at this for decades, but this is in fact just her second book. Her first, "Crow Lake", taking place in the same small town was every bit as good. I have worried about myself because I feel so much sympathy and experience very real heartbreak for her fictional characters, when I sometimes gloss over real world problems. But I'm going to put that down to Lawson's skill as a writer rather than my hard-heartedness.
Only four novels from Mary Lawson so far, so I still have two to read. Not just read, but buy, so that I can keep these friends close to me. Much thanks to Wyndy, who first recommended Crow Lake and turned me on to a new and beloved author.
May 10, 2013
Must read! Must read! Ova knjiga je prava muzika za dušu... Sjajan prevod... Mislim da se tu i tamo još može naći u prodaji...
November 7, 2019
I love this author’s work so much that I had to read this one right on the heels of Crow Lake. Written some decades after the story in Crow Lake, there are some characters who either appear in both novels themselves, or their descendants appear in the second novel.
Again, thank you to AngelaM, whose brilliant reviews of both of these novels are must-reads if you are at all interested in Mary Lawson’s work. Hint: her writing is exquisite, down to earth, yet so vivid you will believe you are actually there.
Again, thank you to AngelaM, whose brilliant reviews of both of these novels are must-reads if you are at all interested in Mary Lawson’s work. Hint: her writing is exquisite, down to earth, yet so vivid you will believe you are actually there.
May 30, 2017
This astoundingly simple but complicated story of sibling rivalry is the stuff of Greek tragedy, or Shakespeare, or Eugene O'Neill in the form of Mary Lawson's inimitable storytelling. Like her books
Crow Lake
and
Road Ends
, it takes place in the fictional northern Ontario town of Struan—a place so vivid that it becomes a running character in Lawson's books. Like the other books, the dialogue—and particularly the gaps filled with unspoken thoughts—is so real you can feel it breathe. In a novel, she manages to do what playwrights spend their lives honing: writing dialogue that conveys both action and all the unspoken thoughts and subtext. This takes bravery and inspiration for playwrights, but it takes heroic confidence for a novelist to trust that readers will still "get it." I get it. I love Mary Lawson and cannot wait for her to write another book.
August 25, 2021
The Other Side of the Bridge took me back to the same small farming community of Struan in Canada which I had visited while reading Crow Lake. This second trip was very tense. Mary Lawson explores the same themes that she explored in Crow Lake: Two brothers are condemned by early tragedy, while one good brother is hated by his bad younger brother. These themes take on much darker and tragic proportions than we saw in Crow Lake in that the story of Jake and Arthur is very much a variation on the Biblical story of Cain and Abel.
I felt a sense of foreboding and apprehension throughout this fairly short novel while the tension built slowly greater and greater until the crescendo at the end.
The characters were well-constructed and fully fleshed out, the prose are beautiful and the narrative propulsive. I couldn't put it down.
I felt a sense of foreboding and apprehension throughout this fairly short novel while the tension built slowly greater and greater until the crescendo at the end.
The characters were well-constructed and fully fleshed out, the prose are beautiful and the narrative propulsive. I couldn't put it down.
August 18, 2007
This is one of the most emotionally satisfying books I have read. Set in a small town in the far north of Canada, The Other Side Of The Bridge is constructed of two parallel narratives: the story of Arthur, a farmer's son growing up in the nineteen thirties and forties; and Ian, a doctor's son growing up twenty years later. The two stories intersect when Ian, aged sixteen, comes to work on Arthur's farm. The Scotsman described Mary Lawson as a 'master of the quiet moment made significant, with a tremedous eye for detail' and that both sums up her appeal and explains her success in creating such a believable community and such convincing characters that after reading this book I felt I wanted to go and see the place for myself and maybe look up the characters while I was there.
September 28, 2021
There is friction throughout this novel about two generations in the rural town of Straun. The tension kept me turning the pages but Lawson's rich characters caused me to linger over them. I loved watching how the developing relationship between Arthur and Ian changed Ian.
June 17, 2023
This is my second book by Mary Lawson, and I can attest to the fact that she is a marvelous storyteller. The Other Side of the Bridge is a tale of two brothers, Arthur and Jake, whose sibling rivalries and jealousies lead to long-term consequences they could barely have imagined. It is also the story of Ian, a teenage boy, son of the town doctor, who becomes obsessed with Arthur’s wife and helps bring the family secrets and conflicts to a head.
The novel uses the dual-timeline device, which I think can be very effective in the right hands, though it is less often successful than one might think. These are the right hands–Lawson knows what she is doing, and she sprinkles the present and the past together like she is following an age-old recipe.
She is a marvelously skilled writer, painting the landscape with as much care as she does the people who inhabit it, and telling us something about those people by measuring their reactions to nature itself.
He stood alone in the silence of the night, remembering. In his mind’s eye he saw the two of them–always saw them the same, standing together, faces turned upward. Clouds pale against the blue-black of the night. Stars cold and bright. The moon hanging there, pale and brilliant, clouds drifting across it like smoke. The sky and the silent land beneath it stretching on, and on, and on, so that he and his father were shrunk to almost nothing by the vastness of it. Two tiny insignificant specks, side by side, faces upturned, staring at the sky.
The hearts of her characters are laid open for us, so that we can see the humanity beneath the less savory ones, and the faults that lurk within the best of them. They are, in short, human. They make mistakes, and they suffer for them. They fail to understand one another in sometimes the most basic of ways.
Worse still, going over and over what he had said, that one unbearable, unforgivable word. Trying to unsay it. Desperate to find a way around the unalterable fact that once you have said something, it is said. Once it has left your lips, you cannot take it back.
Added to her ability to reveal characters, is her ability to reveal truths. I stumbled across them on almost every page. The truths of how hard it is sometimes to explain how you feel, or why you feel as you do. Why does a mother love one son better? Why does a son not wish to step into his father’s shoes? Why does one woman, among all others, become the definition of womanhood to an adolescent mind? Why does a woman sometimes love a man who she knows is unworthy of her love? And, while we are fooling others, can we also manage to fool ourselves?
Strange the way the mind works. The way it protects itself from things it cannot face. Grief, for instance. Or regret. Guilt. It finds something else, anything, to draw between it and what cannot be looked at.
This is a novel of intensity, intense relationships and intense moments in life. It often has an almost leisurely pace, but there is always that sense that something is lurking around the corner, waiting to happen–that we are caught in the calm before the storm. It is enjoyable reading, but not shallow reading. It leaves you pondering. I like that.
The novel uses the dual-timeline device, which I think can be very effective in the right hands, though it is less often successful than one might think. These are the right hands–Lawson knows what she is doing, and she sprinkles the present and the past together like she is following an age-old recipe.
She is a marvelously skilled writer, painting the landscape with as much care as she does the people who inhabit it, and telling us something about those people by measuring their reactions to nature itself.
He stood alone in the silence of the night, remembering. In his mind’s eye he saw the two of them–always saw them the same, standing together, faces turned upward. Clouds pale against the blue-black of the night. Stars cold and bright. The moon hanging there, pale and brilliant, clouds drifting across it like smoke. The sky and the silent land beneath it stretching on, and on, and on, so that he and his father were shrunk to almost nothing by the vastness of it. Two tiny insignificant specks, side by side, faces upturned, staring at the sky.
The hearts of her characters are laid open for us, so that we can see the humanity beneath the less savory ones, and the faults that lurk within the best of them. They are, in short, human. They make mistakes, and they suffer for them. They fail to understand one another in sometimes the most basic of ways.
Worse still, going over and over what he had said, that one unbearable, unforgivable word. Trying to unsay it. Desperate to find a way around the unalterable fact that once you have said something, it is said. Once it has left your lips, you cannot take it back.
Added to her ability to reveal characters, is her ability to reveal truths. I stumbled across them on almost every page. The truths of how hard it is sometimes to explain how you feel, or why you feel as you do. Why does a mother love one son better? Why does a son not wish to step into his father’s shoes? Why does one woman, among all others, become the definition of womanhood to an adolescent mind? Why does a woman sometimes love a man who she knows is unworthy of her love? And, while we are fooling others, can we also manage to fool ourselves?
Strange the way the mind works. The way it protects itself from things it cannot face. Grief, for instance. Or regret. Guilt. It finds something else, anything, to draw between it and what cannot be looked at.
This is a novel of intensity, intense relationships and intense moments in life. It often has an almost leisurely pace, but there is always that sense that something is lurking around the corner, waiting to happen–that we are caught in the calm before the storm. It is enjoyable reading, but not shallow reading. It leaves you pondering. I like that.
October 9, 2016
What a find! The setting for this novel is a small community in rural northern Ontario, the timeframe spans a few decades, from the 30s with the great depression, through the Second World War to the early 60s. The main characters are the Dunn brothers: Arthur and Jake, as different as they could be, one plain, quiet and dependable, down to earth worker, the other handsome, risk taker and adventurous but also a trouble maker. Their story jumps around in time, but mainly follows two strands, one follows the two brothers growing up from childhood to teens. The second is set in a summer in the 60s, with Arthur, now adult, working their late father farm with the help of Ian, the son of the local doctor who is secretly attracted to Arthur’s wife beautiful wife Laura. These two time strands converge towards the end of the book, when Jake suddenly returns home.
As the story develops, the underlying tension among the characters increases and culminates in a dramatic, albeit rather predictable, finale. It is a story of sibling rivalry, jealousy, duty, guilt, obsessive infatuation, personal choices and the weight of expectations. I loved the author’s believable characterisation and masterful storytelling. The audio narration by Paul Hecht was wonderful too.
This was my first novel by Mary Lawson, but it will not be my last. Highly recommended.
As the story develops, the underlying tension among the characters increases and culminates in a dramatic, albeit rather predictable, finale. It is a story of sibling rivalry, jealousy, duty, guilt, obsessive infatuation, personal choices and the weight of expectations. I loved the author’s believable characterisation and masterful storytelling. The audio narration by Paul Hecht was wonderful too.
This was my first novel by Mary Lawson, but it will not be my last. Highly recommended.
December 18, 2021
Oh my! What an absolute delight to read.
A really enjoyable read a great cast of relatable characters throughout the time frame of the book. I enjoyed the ease of which the story moved from the 40's to the 60's.
The interaction of Ian and Pete on their fishing excursions was well-written and engaging. Arthur and Jake were an interesting study in family dynamics with their parents and themselves, especially when it came to Laura.
Recommend for those who like Canadian authors and fiction writing (with a small town setting)
A really enjoyable read a great cast of relatable characters throughout the time frame of the book. I enjoyed the ease of which the story moved from the 40's to the 60's.
The interaction of Ian and Pete on their fishing excursions was well-written and engaging. Arthur and Jake were an interesting study in family dynamics with their parents and themselves, especially when it came to Laura.
Recommend for those who like Canadian authors and fiction writing (with a small town setting)
August 21, 2021
My one-sentence 2008 review, when I read this said - 'Families, and then some; set in Canada' -
Which is not the most helpful review I've ever written, but knowing how I think / how I thought back then, with this historical drama, Lawson writes of a forgotten age and captures it well dealing with a farming family in 1930s Canada. At the time of reading I wasn't aware it had been Long Listed for The Booker Prize. Almost made Four Stars, but not quite - 7 out of 12.
Which is not the most helpful review I've ever written, but knowing how I think / how I thought back then, with this historical drama, Lawson writes of a forgotten age and captures it well dealing with a farming family in 1930s Canada. At the time of reading I wasn't aware it had been Long Listed for The Booker Prize. Almost made Four Stars, but not quite - 7 out of 12.
August 18, 2009
I read this book because I loved Crow Lake and just loved how it was written. Now I am a convert to Mary Lawson and I will read anything she puts out there. Hopefully she is somewhere right now working on a huge, fat book, because if I have any complaints it is that her books are so short! 300 pages of this one wasn't enough for me!
My favorite thing about this book was how it creeped up on the climax. The whole thing was written with such a calm, serene feel that when something does actually happen, it doesn't seem unbelievable. It seems like the whole book was flowing up to this point, like a river that (not surprisingly) ends up at the ocean. I liked how the whole book was subtile, but still really powerful.
The characters were well developed and familiar. The setting was perfect. The whole thing just seemed well thought out and well put together. It all just seemed true. The feelings, the setbacks, the decisions... they just seemed real.
I really enjoyed this one and look forward to other books by this author.
My favorite thing about this book was how it creeped up on the climax. The whole thing was written with such a calm, serene feel that when something does actually happen, it doesn't seem unbelievable. It seems like the whole book was flowing up to this point, like a river that (not surprisingly) ends up at the ocean. I liked how the whole book was subtile, but still really powerful.
The characters were well developed and familiar. The setting was perfect. The whole thing just seemed well thought out and well put together. It all just seemed true. The feelings, the setbacks, the decisions... they just seemed real.
I really enjoyed this one and look forward to other books by this author.
May 7, 2021
This is my second Mary Lawson book - it won't be the last. In some senses not a lot happens in this book. Like the other one I read it is about life in small town Canada. It ranges over many years and what happens in the world at large does impinge on it. However it is far more about people than events - this is an author who has a good understanding of people. She writes so well about the minutiae of life - the town doctor buying a new dog, the farmer caring for his land, people growing up and old.
I really enjoyed this - 4.5/5 and I will read another one!
I really enjoyed this - 4.5/5 and I will read another one!
October 3, 2016
This is the second book I've read by Mary Lawson but it won't be my last. Her writing style is one of depth and profundity. Her characterizations run true to life and I felt like I was in Struan, Canada among the book's characters.
Like 'Crow Lake', this book takes place on a farm in rural northern Canada. The protagonists are the Dunn family, especially Arthur and Jake, two brothers who could not be more different. Jake is a dilettante, a man who is without empathy or conscience, living his life impulsively and for the moment. He is good-looking and his mother's favorite. Arthur, the older of the two, is serious and streadfast, a hard worker and a man of few words but deep emotions. It is Arthur that helps his father keep the farm going.
When they are boys, Jake is involved in a serious accident that Arthur blames himself for. Though he saves Jake's life, Arthur wishes, at the time, that Jake would die. Arthur carries this guilt with him like an albatross onto adulthood. As the novel opens Arthur is married to the beautiful Laura and Jake is nowhere in the picture.
Ian, the son of Struan's physician, asks Arthur for a summer job because he is smitten with Laura, Arthur's beautiful wife. Ian turns out to be a good worker and a special relationship develops between Ian and the Dunn family.
This is a novel that explores the depths of human feelings, the sources of guilt and hope, while at the same time examining the every day workings of one family during the time prior to and after World War II. The novel switches back and forth between the 1930's and 1940's to the 1960's and the reader is slowly privy to the Dunn family history and experiences.
There is not one slow page in this novel. It is heartrending, profound, and deep - nothing really lightweight about it except for Ian's fishing for the big one that got away. If you like well-developed characterization, drama, and angst, pick up this book and enjoy.
Like 'Crow Lake', this book takes place on a farm in rural northern Canada. The protagonists are the Dunn family, especially Arthur and Jake, two brothers who could not be more different. Jake is a dilettante, a man who is without empathy or conscience, living his life impulsively and for the moment. He is good-looking and his mother's favorite. Arthur, the older of the two, is serious and streadfast, a hard worker and a man of few words but deep emotions. It is Arthur that helps his father keep the farm going.
When they are boys, Jake is involved in a serious accident that Arthur blames himself for. Though he saves Jake's life, Arthur wishes, at the time, that Jake would die. Arthur carries this guilt with him like an albatross onto adulthood. As the novel opens Arthur is married to the beautiful Laura and Jake is nowhere in the picture.
Ian, the son of Struan's physician, asks Arthur for a summer job because he is smitten with Laura, Arthur's beautiful wife. Ian turns out to be a good worker and a special relationship develops between Ian and the Dunn family.
This is a novel that explores the depths of human feelings, the sources of guilt and hope, while at the same time examining the every day workings of one family during the time prior to and after World War II. The novel switches back and forth between the 1930's and 1940's to the 1960's and the reader is slowly privy to the Dunn family history and experiences.
There is not one slow page in this novel. It is heartrending, profound, and deep - nothing really lightweight about it except for Ian's fishing for the big one that got away. If you like well-developed characterization, drama, and angst, pick up this book and enjoy.
May 2, 2012
Have you ever wept to come to the end of a book? I did today, when I finished our book club selection, The Other Side of the Bridge, by Mary Lawson. It was absolutely the best book I have ever read -- at least that’s how I feel today. There were many times throughout that I thought that if I could write the perfect book, this would be it: with the themes of duty and the benevolent traps of love and friendship, of the conflict between disappointment and contentment, and (how could I help but notice) the trials of motherhood, all mixed up in the lives of characters set in a time and place gorgeously fraught with commingled beauty and despair. Lots of lovely foreshadowing throughout, as well. Another intriguing theme was Lawson’s treatment of the power and sanctity of Words. Whether words are written or expressed through action they become holy offerings in the trials of our momentous yet insignificant lives.
Finally, after reading several books that have come up a little short, I’ve found an author that really takes me somewhere new, even for just a short time.
Friends of mine have read another book of hers, Crow Lake, and said it was even better than this one, which I of course find hard to believe. If I could find more time to read as I used to before having kids, I would devour whatever else Lawson has to offer. As it is, I will keep faithfully reading my book club choices, hoping we find other treasures like this one in our quest.
Finally, after reading several books that have come up a little short, I’ve found an author that really takes me somewhere new, even for just a short time.
Friends of mine have read another book of hers, Crow Lake, and said it was even better than this one, which I of course find hard to believe. If I could find more time to read as I used to before having kids, I would devour whatever else Lawson has to offer. As it is, I will keep faithfully reading my book club choices, hoping we find other treasures like this one in our quest.
August 22, 2023
Mary Lawson is simply a superb storyteller and has become one of my favourite contemporary authors. I have devoured every book of hers I have read and I do hope she publishes a new book in the very future as she just provides instant literary absorption and escapism .
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October 11, 2020I've read all three of Mary Lawson's wonderful novels in the past month. Now I'm in mourning because I'll have to wait for her to write her next one.
I love her writing, I love her characters - the "good" ones and the "bad" ones! I love the setting of remote, rural, northern Canada, I love the families that populate Mary Lawson's world.
If you haven't read a Mary Lawson novel, I'm ALMOST envious - because you are in for a treat.
CODA: It's now 2020 and we're in COVID lock-down so I'm re-reading Mary Lawson once again and loving it. She has a new one coming out in the next few months!
I love her writing, I love her characters - the "good" ones and the "bad" ones! I love the setting of remote, rural, northern Canada, I love the families that populate Mary Lawson's world.
If you haven't read a Mary Lawson novel, I'm ALMOST envious - because you are in for a treat.
CODA: It's now 2020 and we're in COVID lock-down so I'm re-reading Mary Lawson once again and loving it. She has a new one coming out in the next few months!
April 10, 2021
"She loved the new baby...but her love seemed to consists mainly of an agonized anxiety. Arthur would see her looking at Jake with an expression almost of despair, as if she expected him to vanish at any moment."
"Jake kept slipping sideways looks at their father as he said all this. Their mother would be hanging on every word, her face pink with pleasure, but it was their father's reaction he seemed interested in. But his father just chewed silently, pushing down the food."
"Days spent with Arthur consisted of vast rolling plains of silence with the odd half-dozen words dropped into them like stones, and the stones always took him by surprise."
Oh, the quagmire of family dynamics. There's nothing predictable about who we are born to be or how we will be received by those around us when we appear. At times it seems to be a chemistry experiment, with some personality solutions melding together in harmony and evolution, and others resisting and exploding. The endless ways we can disappoint and be disappointed.
I enjoyed spending time with this small fractured family within a larger community of characters crisscrossing their lives. The story offers a good mix of characters, likable and not, as well as commentary on the capriciousness of chance and fate, along with outcomes for choices made.
"Afterward, when he looked back on the events of that afternoon, it seemed to him that there was an inevitability about them, as if fate had arranged a number of trivial little incidents--a series of them, like stepping-stones--without any one of which everything would have turned out differently."
Moments, or a series of events after which we can only shake our heads and whisper...."If only."
"Jake kept slipping sideways looks at their father as he said all this. Their mother would be hanging on every word, her face pink with pleasure, but it was their father's reaction he seemed interested in. But his father just chewed silently, pushing down the food."
"Days spent with Arthur consisted of vast rolling plains of silence with the odd half-dozen words dropped into them like stones, and the stones always took him by surprise."
Oh, the quagmire of family dynamics. There's nothing predictable about who we are born to be or how we will be received by those around us when we appear. At times it seems to be a chemistry experiment, with some personality solutions melding together in harmony and evolution, and others resisting and exploding. The endless ways we can disappoint and be disappointed.
I enjoyed spending time with this small fractured family within a larger community of characters crisscrossing their lives. The story offers a good mix of characters, likable and not, as well as commentary on the capriciousness of chance and fate, along with outcomes for choices made.
"Afterward, when he looked back on the events of that afternoon, it seemed to him that there was an inevitability about them, as if fate had arranged a number of trivial little incidents--a series of them, like stepping-stones--without any one of which everything would have turned out differently."
Moments, or a series of events after which we can only shake our heads and whisper...."If only."
October 7, 2024
Another great book by Mary Lawson. Now we're going back and forth in time dealing with what modern ppl call "generational trauma." The preceding was supposed to be a progress update, but I accidentally said I'd finished the book which I now have!
This is the third of four Mary Lawson books that exist in this world. (Sad face!) I've given them all 5 stars for: excellent writing, characterization which is above and beyond to the point that you almost become one of them or one of their family members, immersion in the small town lakeside life of Ontario, Canada, back in forth in time and point of view, plot excitement and empathy, sib rivalry plus parental-child mismatches or misunderstandings of a deep nature. I could go on and on!
Well, to make a distinction between "The Other Side of the Bridge" vs. "Crow Lake" and "A Town Called Solace", I can tell you that if the latter are two slow burn novels something like slowly ironing a large towel till it gets flat for the conclusion, TOSOTB would be a very wrinkled, deeply furrowed towel that stays that way for ages until...BOOOM! someone grabs the towel and snaps it vigorously, even violently to get the flattened out conclusion. I could feel it coming, it was something dreadful and inevitable, but I didn't know what it would be until there it was!
Now I'm just sad because I only have one of Mary Lawson's books left. I'm having anticipatory grief about finishing the last one! Then Goodreads will recommend some authors to me that will be similar. "If you enjoyed Mary Lawson, you will really like........fill in the blank author." I sincerely doubt it, but will give it a try. For those of you who haven't read any of these wonderful books yet, they are available in your local library!
This is the third of four Mary Lawson books that exist in this world. (Sad face!) I've given them all 5 stars for: excellent writing, characterization which is above and beyond to the point that you almost become one of them or one of their family members, immersion in the small town lakeside life of Ontario, Canada, back in forth in time and point of view, plot excitement and empathy, sib rivalry plus parental-child mismatches or misunderstandings of a deep nature. I could go on and on!
Well, to make a distinction between "The Other Side of the Bridge" vs. "Crow Lake" and "A Town Called Solace", I can tell you that if the latter are two slow burn novels something like slowly ironing a large towel till it gets flat for the conclusion, TOSOTB would be a very wrinkled, deeply furrowed towel that stays that way for ages until...BOOOM! someone grabs the towel and snaps it vigorously, even violently to get the flattened out conclusion. I could feel it coming, it was something dreadful and inevitable, but I didn't know what it would be until there it was!
Now I'm just sad because I only have one of Mary Lawson's books left. I'm having anticipatory grief about finishing the last one! Then Goodreads will recommend some authors to me that will be similar. "If you enjoyed Mary Lawson, you will really like........fill in the blank author." I sincerely doubt it, but will give it a try. For those of you who haven't read any of these wonderful books yet, they are available in your local library!
October 18, 2022
I wanted to love this much more than I did, having loved both Crow Lake and A Town Called Solace previously, but I found this a bit of a slog actually and I did not like the final big scene at all, it just did not fit in with what had gone on throughout the book.
Dual timelines, 1940s Canada (not 1930s as the book description said, this was somewhat important as WWII played a significant backdrop to this timeline) and 1960's postwar Northern Ontario. Two brothers as the lead in the former, with the later addition of Laura into the mix, then many years later with the older brother and Laura with Ian, the youngfella whose father was the local doctor. Wonderfully written, very descriptive of the place and times, but I felt let down hugely by the end.
One quote early on resonated with me: 'There were subjects his father knew about, such as the farm, and subjects his mother knew about, such as everything else.' A farming community for sure.
3.5 marked up because of the beautiful writing.
Dual timelines, 1940s Canada (not 1930s as the book description said, this was somewhat important as WWII played a significant backdrop to this timeline) and 1960's postwar Northern Ontario. Two brothers as the lead in the former, with the later addition of Laura into the mix, then many years later with the older brother and Laura with Ian, the youngfella whose father was the local doctor. Wonderfully written, very descriptive of the place and times, but I felt let down hugely by the end.
One quote early on resonated with me: 'There were subjects his father knew about, such as the farm, and subjects his mother knew about, such as everything else.' A farming community for sure.
3.5 marked up because of the beautiful writing.
June 28, 2023
Як я люблю таке: від книги нічого особливо не очікуєш, а вона тебе затягує. Отак непомітно, маючи бажання переконатися, що книга не моя, я проковтнула її за вихідні. І не сказати, що в роману є якась неповторність, але долі канадських родин і Друга світова їхніми очима – все ж не те, на що натрапляю в книгах повсякчас. Люблю добре прописаних героїв і неочевидність розв’язки, тож я дійсно вдячна Мері Ловсон за те, що відволікла мене від карантинної мряки за вікном.
З іншими перекладеними романами авторки також з задоволенням ознайомлюся.
З іншими перекладеними романами авторки також з задоволенням ознайомлюся.
August 6, 2021
This author has never failed me. Her characters and the circumstances they are faced with are emotional, intense, heartbreaking and infuriating. I’m not crying, I have sunscreen in my eyes. I cried my eyes out sitting on the beach finishing the epilogue. I loved Arthur and his father and I loved Ian and his father. Lawson does such a great job of combining these two families into her story.
June 11, 2014
In conclusion:
I liked this book for many reasons. It has humor. It covers widely varied topics, all of which I found interesting. Sibling rivalry. Parents’ attachments to their children…. and let’s admit it, we do not respond identically to each child. How do we / should we choose what we want to do with our lives? I mean what job we ultimately choose. Do we choose, or is it fate that decides for us? Are we destined for a certain occupation, given our particular personality? And what is the value of a job? Must we all be academics? The book is set in Canada during WW2, this too was interesting!
The characters? Well there are several, but central to the story are two brothers and guess what - a girl they both like. One brother made me nervous just at the mention of his name. You have surely met such a person - handsome, charming ....but too good to be true. This is the one that made me so nervous! And I liked Pete, a Native American. There is Ian too, he works as a farm help. Each character ties the story together. One gripe I have with the book is that I do not understand why all the guys (at least three) are so captivated by Laura; I wish the author had drawn her better.
The plot is definitely filled with excitement.
Unfortunately this was another one of those books that do not run chronologically; it flips between different time periods. Each chapter begins with a date and newspaper headlines. The only thing achieved by this is an increase in suspense, or perhaps it is an attempt to turn the story into a mystery, into a puzzle to be solved? I personally could do without this.
The narration by Paul Hecht was well done. He used different intonations for different characters.
The book concludes with an author interview explaining how she went about writing the book and what she wanted to have said. Mary Lawson has plans for a third novel. The Other Side of the Bridge was her second following her first one Crow Lake.
**************************
First impressions:
This is why I chose to read this book: http://theteatimereader.wordpress.com...
Don't worry about spoilers.
Immediately I love the writing. Each line is loaded with subtle humor. The theme, and why you might be interested? Who doesn't connect with the competing emotions between one sibling and another and parents' preferences for one child over another?
I have just begun so let me see if this continues as well as it starts.
BTW, this is set in the fictional town of Struan, Ontario, near New Liskeard, Ontario. Others have said this is set in northern Canada, well look at a map! It isn't. I certainly wouldn't place Ontario in northern Canada.
I liked this book for many reasons. It has humor. It covers widely varied topics, all of which I found interesting. Sibling rivalry. Parents’ attachments to their children…. and let’s admit it, we do not respond identically to each child. How do we / should we choose what we want to do with our lives? I mean what job we ultimately choose. Do we choose, or is it fate that decides for us? Are we destined for a certain occupation, given our particular personality? And what is the value of a job? Must we all be academics? The book is set in Canada during WW2, this too was interesting!
The characters? Well there are several, but central to the story are two brothers and guess what - a girl they both like. One brother made me nervous just at the mention of his name. You have surely met such a person - handsome, charming ....but too good to be true. This is the one that made me so nervous! And I liked Pete, a Native American. There is Ian too, he works as a farm help. Each character ties the story together. One gripe I have with the book is that I do not understand why all the guys (at least three) are so captivated by Laura; I wish the author had drawn her better.
The plot is definitely filled with excitement.
Unfortunately this was another one of those books that do not run chronologically; it flips between different time periods. Each chapter begins with a date and newspaper headlines. The only thing achieved by this is an increase in suspense, or perhaps it is an attempt to turn the story into a mystery, into a puzzle to be solved? I personally could do without this.
The narration by Paul Hecht was well done. He used different intonations for different characters.
The book concludes with an author interview explaining how she went about writing the book and what she wanted to have said. Mary Lawson has plans for a third novel. The Other Side of the Bridge was her second following her first one Crow Lake.
**************************
First impressions:
This is why I chose to read this book: http://theteatimereader.wordpress.com...
Don't worry about spoilers.
Immediately I love the writing. Each line is loaded with subtle humor. The theme, and why you might be interested? Who doesn't connect with the competing emotions between one sibling and another and parents' preferences for one child over another?
I have just begun so let me see if this continues as well as it starts.
BTW, this is set in the fictional town of Struan, Ontario, near New Liskeard, Ontario. Others have said this is set in northern Canada, well look at a map! It isn't. I certainly wouldn't place Ontario in northern Canada.
July 18, 2010
i keep going back and forth as to whether 3 stars is appropriate for this book - it wasn't a page-turner with incessant drama that kept me up reading late into the night; the pace was slower, with a meandering path that not only told the tale of the characters, but gave life to the fictional town of struan. this story encompasses so much: unstated sibling rivalry, the effects of one's hometown, interpersonal relationships, family dynamics, guilt, expectations, rebelliousness, all mixed in with a bit of drama.
some of the characters weren't as fully fleshed-out as i would have liked, but on the whole, that did not have adverse affects. my biggest issue was that i figured out one of the revelations too early, so when it was finally written out, i wasn't surprised, more annoyed that it occurred exactly as i had deduced.
i found myself quite impressed by the author. she has a way of writing that makes you think about the human condition. things don't merely happen; there is a thought process behind everyone's actions, and therein lies the depth to this book. i will admit that there were certain instances where i was uncomfortable, but only because those events hit a little too close to home.
some of the characters weren't as fully fleshed-out as i would have liked, but on the whole, that did not have adverse affects. my biggest issue was that i figured out one of the revelations too early, so when it was finally written out, i wasn't surprised, more annoyed that it occurred exactly as i had deduced.
i found myself quite impressed by the author. she has a way of writing that makes you think about the human condition. things don't merely happen; there is a thought process behind everyone's actions, and therein lies the depth to this book. i will admit that there were certain instances where i was uncomfortable, but only because those events hit a little too close to home.
September 10, 2007
I loved this sequel to Crow Lake. Her chapters go back and forth between her two main characters who live in a small, rural community in Canada. Both of them are young men. One is the hulking, quiet, empathetic farmer's son who has a competitive, trouble-making brother. The other is the son of the town doctor who is trying to forget his mother who left for life in the big city. She uses a very effective storytelling technique, but I won't spoil it.
* FULL DISCLOSURE: Mary Lawson is one of my favorite authors, and I have a personal connection. She is good friends with my godfather, Dennis. She is also very popular in Canada -- and an amazing writer.
* FULL DISCLOSURE: Mary Lawson is one of my favorite authors, and I have a personal connection. She is good friends with my godfather, Dennis. She is also very popular in Canada -- and an amazing writer.
November 30, 2016
The Other Side of the Bridge is a lovely little book. The story moves back and forth between the 1930s/40s when Arthur Dunn was growing up and the 1950s/60s when he was manning the family farm and the doctor's son Ian, was a part-time farmhand during high school.
There's rivalry, family connections, and love in this story. Mary Lawson's skill at portraying familial love in all it's interpretations is exquisite. She praises the unsung heroism of small town doctors in isolated communities. Lawson's descriptive prose places us in the peaceful town of Struan where a simpler life doesn't guarantee peace of mind. Well worth the read.
There's rivalry, family connections, and love in this story. Mary Lawson's skill at portraying familial love in all it's interpretations is exquisite. She praises the unsung heroism of small town doctors in isolated communities. Lawson's descriptive prose places us in the peaceful town of Struan where a simpler life doesn't guarantee peace of mind. Well worth the read.
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