Mrs Bridge by Evan S. ConnellMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a very well-written book, dealing with the life of a middle-class, wealthy woman in Kansas City. Evan S. Connell develops the picture of her life through a series of small vignettes that are related in a way that is rich with detail, with no words wasted. I really enjoyed his style of writing. He can put across in a few words what other authors waste pages upon. The language is very accessible and does not get in the way. There seems not to be a storyline, as such, until the very short chapters, each written as a small vignette, build up, layer upon layer, into a complex picture of a woman who wastes her entire life on living up to her interpretation of the expectations placed on her by middle-class society. As she struggles to keep her husband and her children in the manner to which she thinks they expect, she gets increasingly confused. On the face of it, she is doing everything correctly, but really, she has nothing to, nowhere to go, nothing to think and becomes an empty and confused shadow of what she could have been. The contrasts between her and the other people in the story are stark. She is surrounded by people living their lives in a way that is engaged and difficult, but real. Whereas she has nothing. A servant takes care of the domestic side of life; her husband is nearly always at work; the children don’t really need her or respond to her. The irony running through the book is very telling.
An early example of the quality of the writing is this sentence on page 2: “For a while after their marriage she was in such demand that it was not unpleasant when he fell asleep”. How refreshing to not have to wade through sordid paragraphs of unnecessary detail regarding the wild groping and exchange of bodily fluids that seems so beloved of writers struggling to engage their readers. And another sentence that seems to epitomize the whole subject of the book, on page 174, “…when she and Grace Barron had been looking for some way to occupy themselves, and Grace had said, a little sadly, ‘Have you ever felt like those people in the Grimm fairy tale – the ones who were all hollowed out in the back?’” This left me thinking, what sad and empty lives these people live, even though they have position, wealth and love.
Overall, I found this book completely absorbing, quick to read and beautifully written. It related the sad life of one lonely woman who was surrounded with amenable people and who had every material need met. In the end, the poverty of emotion, ambition and self-awareness conspired to leave her hollowed out and useless. An awful fate for anyone, but a fate that seemed inevitable from almost the first page. It demonstrates most profoundly why we should challenge conventional thinking and never fall for the temptation of conforming to what seems to be the ideal life. Anyone who seeks to fit in and not make a fuss should be urged to read this book as soon as possible!
