Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

Amy          Unfinished = no rating        

Lynnie    

fiction

This is the story of a family with five boys--the individual histories, the interactions, the heartbreaks, and the injustices.

Amy's Review

I am quitting Bridge of Clay after making it 65% of the way through. I REALLY was looking forward to Markus Zusak’s long-awaited new novel. But it’s so boring and frustrating to read. Zusak has written the entire novel in a roundabout style full of poetry, metaphors, allusions, and innuendo. I’m sure there are some English Lit majors out there who will eat this up. I do appreciate the artistry. I do. But the story line is simply not interesting enough for me to keep making the effort to get through all the artistry. When the writing itself is such a hurdle for the reading process, that is not fun for me. To say something positive, I did like all the short chapters. It allowed me to read in little chunks and take lots of breaks. The problem was that it was then hard for me to get motivated to pick up the book again.

The story itself was sometimes too vague and directionless. Unusual things and behaviors were stated as givens but no background was provided as to why those things had to be the way they were. I chalked it up to a family of quirky people who danced to the beat of their own family drum. And some of it was made clear later in the book. But, it added to the frustration on my part and did not pull me in.

There was no suspense, no big mystery (except for wondering whether the story would ever get interesting), and we were not made to feel close enough to any of the characters to understand who they were or develop any love for them. They were all just odd or ill-behaved.

I’m really sad to give up on this novel by the same author as the incredible novel The Book Thief. But, I suffered through The CasualVacancy by JK Rowling after figuring it HAD to get better because of the author. I won’t do that again. Authors cannot write amazing hits every time.

Lynnie's Review

This is a tough review for me because I love Markus Zusak’s writing. I have read all of his books—The Book Thief, I Am the Messenger, and his Wolfe Brothers series.

But, here’s the thing—Bridge of Clay is essentially the Wolfe Brothers if it was narrated by The Book Thief’s Death. Sure, the number of brothers is different and obviously the story is not exact, but there are enough similarities that Bridge of Clay always felt like something I’d read before. In fact, looking back at my old review of Fighting Ruben Wolfe (the second Wolfe Brothers book), I wrote, “The Wolfes are messed up, unemployed, delinquent, and loyal to the core.” Exchange “Wolfes” for “Dunbars” in that quote and you have Bridge of Clay. The difference is the style of narration, the poetry of which worked beautifully in The Book Thief but just annoyed me to no end in Bridge of Clay. Several times I thought about not finishing it but I plowed through. You might have more patience for it if you have not read the Wolfe Brothers books (which most people haven’t from what I can tell), but for me there was too much déjà vu.

The most interesting parts of the book for me were when it focused in on the Dunbar parents—because those parts felt new—but there wasn’t enough of them to make me enjoy the story.

So, it breaks my heart to do this, but I have to say 2-1/2 stars.