Bridge of Clay, Markus Zusak, Alfred A Knopf, 2018, 534 pp
This is the second novel by Markus Zusak, following The Book Thief. I read it for the One Book At A Time reading group.
From the title I thought it would be about a bridge made of clay. Instead it is about a character named Clay who builds both a literal bridge made of stones and a figurative bridge in order to heal his broken family.
Clay is the fourth of five brothers living in Australia. Their father married a refugee from Eastern Europe and it was one of those wonderful marriages full of love. The eldest brother, Matthew, narrates the story of his family. Weaving back and forth in time, he reveals the tragedy that shattered the love and closeness between two parents and five boys. To tell what form that tragedy took and the effects it had would be nothing but a spoiler.
The writing is as imaginative as that in The Book Thief. Because of how convoluted the plot is, some of my reading group members were so baffled that one did not finish, one was quite bitter about the time spent reading it. This provided quite a raucous discussion!
I read all 534 pages in three days. I grew to love trying to figure out the many mysteries presented and to care for all the characters, even the unlikable ones. Zusak covers a large amount of time, a multitude of incidents, and many characters. The antics and adventures of the five brothers were never dull.
Clay is a sort of Christ-like figure though it is not a religious story at all. Instead it proclaims the power of love to overcome tragedy and misunderstanding.
Oooohhhhhh! This sounds like a good read!
ReplyDeleteIt is!
DeletePerhaps I will look for this book since I really enjoyed "The Book Thief."
ReplyDeleteGood idea!
DeleteThis sounds berg good. Tragedy within a family can have a terrible affect on the ties within a family and it is a good subject for fiction.
ReplyDeleteComplex books can get confusing. I find thaf ebooks sometimes help as one can easily look up characters and find situations.
Thanks for reminding me about that feature on ebooks. I just applied it to the one I am reading!
DeleteI'm not a fan of books over 400 pages, it would really need to pull me in early on to keep me going. I did read the Book Thief way back when it was first released and thought it was good.
ReplyDeleteWell, I can tell you that this one didn't feel long.
DeleteGlad there was a raucous discussion. I had to laugh a bit: about bitterness over a book. It happens. Thx for the report on the novel.
ReplyDeleteMost of the readers I hang out with are passionate about books and bitterness sometimes becomes one of the passions expressed. It made me laugh a bit too!
DeleteAt least an entertaining discussion came from this one! Always makes book clubs better when you can have a good back and forth. Though I hope the one who disliked it wasn't that upset over it...
ReplyDeleteOh no, she is still not over it!
Deletecomplexity can be appealing i know, but not when the reader can't devote their full attention to what's going on... sometimes having to go back and reread can be a pain in the neck...
ReplyDeleteYou are so right. The one who couldn't/wouldn't finish had way too much going on in her life at the time.
DeleteI've never felt led to read Zusak. I don't know why exactly. It's probably just an unreasoning prejudice, but you might make me change my mind.
ReplyDeleteI don't suppose you need to read him but I think you might like this one.
DeleteI'm adding this to my TBR right away. This sounds like something I'd highly enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI hope you do enjoy it when you get to it.
DeleteI *definitely* need to read longer books. Review pile stubbornly staying @ 11!
ReplyDeleteI am reading two long ones right now. Pile down to 5!
DeleteI ended up DNF-ing The Book Thief. I could not get into it. This one intrigues me, but I am not really a fan of the author'svoice or style, I'm not sure what it is at this point, since I only tried that one. And I think I am the only person in the world who DNF-ed it! Do you think the two are similar, or I might have better luck with this one?
ReplyDeleteThe first time I tried The Book Thief I just could not! The second time I thought it was close to amazing. This is different in topic and setting and I guess you would either love it or not like it at all.
DeleteHello! I just found your blog so I decided to start following it, I write reviews too in my blog. This book you are talking about in this post seems lovely, it is amazing you read it in three days. This means it must be a page turner. I haven't read "The Books Thief" but I watched the movie and it is for sure on my tbr list. Have a nice day :)
ReplyDeleteWelcome to my blog! So good of you to follow. Bridge of Clay was a page turner for me. I will be over to see your blog when I get caught up on a few things.
DeleteSounds like an interesting story, but am not sure I'd like the convoluted plot.
ReplyDeleteIt was a bit challenging.
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