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Interviews | October 6, 2009

The Powells.com Interview with Margaret Atwood

0 comments By Jill Owens

In her 2003 novel Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood describes a future after humanity had been almost entirely wiped out by a plague. Jimmy, aka Snowman, lives... Continue »

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1. 
   $18.86 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

   The Year of the Flood

   Margaret Atwood

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grendel, January 13, 2009

Richard Russo's latest novel seamlessly interweaves the personal histories of three very different families, all of them affected by the changing times and ultimate downfall of a fictional town in upstate New York.

This is a mammoth work of more than 600 pages that is so fluid, absorbing and flat-out readable that is as enjoyable to pass the time with as a smooth glass of wine is to drink. The characters feel like people you may have known in your own hometown, but Russo avoids any manner of cliche in relating their stories.

There is "Lucy" Lynch, the boy unlucky enough to have the nickname stick when in grade school a teacher announced his name "Lou" along with his middle initial "C". This seemingly innocuous moment would resonate and come to represent the whole of Lucy's life as a lovable but gullible and vulnerable boy affected by strange "spells" that leave him adrift from time and reality when under stress. He is the chronicler of the town of Thomaston's history, but the reader gradually comes to understand that his devotion to his home town, and reluctance to leave it even for a brief time, has distorted and veiled the more traumatic events that have occurred there, especially his own.

We also get to know his boy-hood friend Bobby, who grows up to be a world famous painter with demons from his own past that send him into night terrors when he sleeps, and a connection to Lucy's wife Sarah that threatens to upend all their worlds.

Sarah herself is one of the most original female characters to populate a novel in many years...at once devoted to her husband, but independent of spirit and the product of a tortured marriage, she provides a common grounding to everyone around her while forging her own path beyond the confines of the town.

"Bridge of Sighs" paints a most vivid picture of the American Dream, its shortcomings and promises, along with a portrait of the fragility of love and its consequences. It provides enough twists of fortune and destiny to keep the reader engaged in its grip until the final page.

It is also Russo's most heartbreaking yet compassionate novel to date. An absolute must-read for his fans and newcomers alike.

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