Reviews for Alexander's Bridge

The average rating for Alexander's Bridge based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-12-01 00:00:00 Dixon Ballard In 2014, I enjoyed O Pioneers! (the first book of Willa Cather's The Great Plains Trilogy) so much that this year I decided to read Alexander's Bridge in honour of her December birthday. This remarkable story is an impressive first novel which exhibits, for a young author, a surprisingly mature understanding of human psychology. The story revolves around Bartley Alexander, a stellar civil engineer with an international reputation as a bridge-builder. Alexander is introduced to the reader as a confident and robust man, the picture of health, success, and dependability -- . . . [he] stood six feet and more in the archway, glowing with strength and cordiality and rugged, blond good looks. There were other bridge-builders in the world, certainly, but it was always Alexander's picture that the Sunday Supplement men wanted, because he looked as a tamer of rivers ought to look. . . . his shoulders looked strong enough in themselves to support a span of any one of his ten great bridges that cut the air above as many rivers. Looks can be deceiving. Early in the story, it appears from comments made by Winifred Alexander (Bartley's wife of 12 years) and by Professor Lucius Wilson (his college professor 20 years earlier) that there is something unusual about Bartley Alexander - a quirk of personality or perhaps even a fatal flaw. What reader could resist the bait? Through the compelling - if circuitous - narrative, the reader accompanies Bartley through present and past experiences in Paris, New York City, Boston, London, and Quebec (Canada). A chance encounter in London with his "first love" leads to a rekindling of the relationship, even though it is against Bartley's better judgment. By all appearances, this is a classic story of mid-life crisis - a lament for the loss of youth and carefree love; the guilt of secret injury to a dedicated spouse; and the strain of the schizophrenic dual existence resulting from the inability to resolve the dilemma. However, in my opinion, Cather's take on this classic theme seems unique and unusual. In a historical period where the norm would have been for a married woman to have been subsumed by the identity and social status of her husband, we find that the reverse is true. By his own admission, the strength of Bartley Alexander's professional and social stature rests upon the pedigree of his wife. In conversation with Alexander, Professor Wilson admits to having, in the past, doubted Alexander's staying power -- " . . . The more dazzling the front you presented, the higher your facade rose, the more I expected to see a big crack zigzagging from top to bottom, . . . then a crash and clouds of dust. . . . I don't feel it any longer. I am sure of you." Bartley Alexander's response is surprising -- Alexander laughed. "Nonsense! It's not I you feel sure of; it's Winifred. People often make that mistake." Bartley Alexander seesaws between relationships with his wife in New York City and his lover in London and the reader watches helplessly as he struggles to regain his internal equilibrium. He zigzags between reclaiming, while in London, the lost consciousness of his original unique identity and attempting, while in New York City, to regain a sense of satisfaction with his professional and social success. As a backdrop to this personal drama, Cather deftly weaves into the narrative the story of Alexander's current engineering project - the longest cantilevered bridge ever to be built. Ultimately, it becomes obvious that this bridge symbolizes the internal bridge which Bartley Alexander is also attempting to construct. As Alexander makes his way to the construction site in Quebec, the connection between the real bridge and the symbolic bridge tightens. The tension in the story is heightened. The outcome is dramatic - and inevitable. Not only was I gripped by this story itself during the days that I listened to it, but it has dominated my waking hours for the past week. While there is much in the tale which could be analyzed (and no doubt criticized), the story also roused in me great curiosity. As a Canadian, I wondered how it came to be that a young author from Nebraska had been moved to set part of her novel in Canada and what had inspired the story of the bridge construction. So off to the internet I went. I did find answers to my questions and I learned some things that I hadn't known about the history of my homeland. I discovered that there were French-Canadian pioneers from Quebec living in the Nebraska community where Willa Cather lived and that later she had owned a cottage in Canada - on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick (just across the Bay of Fundy from my present home) - where for about 20 years she spent the summers. The cottage still stands, and is available for summer rentals through a local company. This blog of a Willa Cather scholar features numerous photos of the island and Cather's cottage, as well as links to other blog posts on the subject. I also learned that the longest cantilevered bridge in the world was built across the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City. Although the first stone was laid by the Canadian Prime Minister in 1900 and construction began in 1905, the bridge was not completed until 1917. The bridge is still in use and is considered to be an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark and a National Historic Site of Canada. The very interesting story of its construction is detailed here. It was very likely that Willa Cather had learned from the French-Canadians who lived in Red Cloud, Nebraska of the construction project in their homeland and apparently was inspired to work the story into her fiction. So this magnificent book, which for me was intended as a quick read for an author birthday challenge, turned out to be a treasure, the perfect book for me - one which both entertains and educates.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-12-23 00:00:00 Cantor Dowling [its collapse (hide spoiler)]