Bridge of Sighs and the American Dream

I am way overdue on my Bridge of Sighs post. I just finished it today at my desk, but its the kind of novel that requires diligent notetaking all the way through in order to turn out a pithy thesis about it. Alas, no notes on my end, as I was reading the library's copy. Okay, where to begin? First, I desperately want to teach this novel. This, sadly, is out of the question; the novel is a whopping 527 pages. There is actually a character in the book who tries to get his 1500-page novel published to no avail, and it occurs to me that Russo must be poking a little bit of fun at himself here. I loved this book, but I know critics have noted that it needn't be so lengthy. Around page 483 I started to sweat it that he had gone off the deep end by adding yet another side story to an already intricate plot. Still, I am willing to overlook the length if that is its main flaw. And it is, I think, with one other exception.

Actually, if I had to guess, I'd say Russo wrote this novel to make it as teachable as possible, aside from the length. It is a great American Dream novel. Set in a small, largely working-class town in upstate New York, Bridge of Sighs follows the life of one family through two generations. Set initially in the 1960s, the novel explores issues of race, class, sexuality, and gender by dropping the microscope on one seemingly ordinary family in this town. The Lynch family, as we see them first, rents an apartment in the West End, an area populated by the poorest of the town's inhabitants. The East End, where they later move, buy a house, and open up a corner convenient store, is composed of mostly lower middle class families. The section of town called The Hill is where African-American families reside. The Borough, where the narrator ascends by the novel's end, is for the town's wealthiest. Of course, this does not mean he has necessarily achieved happiness. Russo seems to be asking (and he has his characters ask difficult questions of themselves throughout the novel): the American Dream at what price? Such precise geographical divisions, which are based on the town's socio-economic makeup, provide boundaries that demand to be pushed. Just how they are pushed and who does the pushing is partly what this novel is about.

Bridge of Sighs is a frame story, and within this larger American Dream schema is a study of the American Dream in one honors English class. Mr. Berg, the eccentric (abusive?) English teacher, decides he is going to push as many boundaries as he can in a town that is so stratified. He handpicks students based on his own personal criteria, which infuriates the parents of the "smartest" students. These A students inevitably end up in regular English classes, while some the school's oddest characters find themselves in the oversized janitorial closet that serves as Mr. Berg's honors classroom. As he teaches them great American works with the theme of the American Dream - Moby Dick, Great Gatsby, Invisible Man, Ethan Frome, poetry by Langston Hughes - he forces them to come to terms with their own complicity in a world that is unjust and intolerant. They are pushed to evaluate their own dreams or dreamlike views of the world in order to see harsher realities.

So why is it called the Bridge of Sighs? This question alone would require another full paragraph. Suffice it to say that if you look at the novel's cover, there are two bridges. The first is a bridge over the Cayoga River and the site of an important incident in the very beginning of the narrator's life. The Bridge of Sighs is of course in Venice, where the narrator's best friend has become an artist and an expatriate of sorts. Bridging between past and present is an essential part of the narrative scheme, and both bridges play a crucial role in the narrator's coming to terms with his obsession about the past and his fear of the present.

Just read the book. My rambling does not do it justice. I really loved it. In fact, I loved it so much that I plan to give out copies for holiday presents. Calling dibs on this now, so nobody else steal my thunder. :)