Jess’s Book Pick for June: Mr. Bridge by Evan S. Connell

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By Jessica Schneider Jun 1, 2009, 2:31 GMT

In April, I had selected the great novel Mrs. Bridge, and of course, I can’t recommend that, without his great second book, Mr. Bridge.

While Mrs. Bridge should be read first, Mr. Bridge is not to be missed.
Here’s what the product description states: “Evan S. Connell achieved fame with his remarkable biography of General Armstrong Custer, SON OF MORNING STAR. But he was an accomplished artist long before that. His literary reputation rests in large measure on his two Bridge books.
MR. BRIDGE is the companion volume to Connell's MRS. BRIDGE. It is made up of fragments of experience from the life of a middle-aged suburban couple between two wars. Brief episodes are juxtaposed to reveal the stereotyped values and emotional and spiritual aridity of the prosperous and ever-so-proper Bridges.”
Here is a review that covers both books, which notes: “Simply put, perfectly realized moments like this are no longer being published in contemporary fiction. Neither is the clarity. Poetry in fiction is not attained by over-the-top description nor baroque sentences straining toward Victoriana, but by the juxtaposition of the singularly beautiful, even if alone mundane, with another singular beauty. Yet, these moments, these points, alone give no insight, but arrayed in their respective clusters, then played off of each other in both books, they form two brilliant portraits, whose ends are excellent.”
North Point Press is the publisher of this edition.

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Jess’s Book Pick for June: Mr. Bridge by Evan S. Connell

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