The Bridge

by Iain Banks

Ebook, 2008

Status

Available

Call number

813

Genres

Publication

Abacus (2008), Edition: New Ed, 404 pages

Description

The man who wakes up in the extraordinary world of a bridge has amnesia, and his doctor doesn't seem to want to cure him. Does it matter? Exploring the bridge occupies most of his days. But at night there are his dreams. Dreams in which desperate men drive sealed carriages across barren mountains to a bizarre rendezvous; an illiterate barbarian storms an enchanted tower under a stream of verbal abuse; and broken men walk forever over bridges without end, taunted by visions of a doomed sexuality. Lying in bed unconscious after an accident wouldn't be much fun, you'd think. Oh yes? It depends who and what you've left behind. Which is the stranger reality, day or night? Frequently hilarious and consistently disturbing, THE BRIDGE is a novel of outrageous contrasts, constructed chaos and elegant absurdities.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member baswood

Two novels for the price of one in this early book by Iain Banks published in 1986. It preceded the first of his science fiction novels which was published the following year. After the Bridge, Banks' literary career diverged into writing science fiction novels and mainstream fiction novels, but

today The Bridge reads like a combination of the two. If you enjoy reading about the Scottish socialist, rock music loving heroes struggling to come to terms with the vicissitudes of life in some of Banks' mainstream fiction and also enjoy his flights of fantasy in his alter ego as Iain M Banks the science fiction writer then this might be just the novel for you.

The novel starts with a short chapter entitled Coma where we are told of a near fatal car crash from a first person point of view. The next chapter plunges the reader into the mysterious world of the bridge where the unnamed hero who is suffering from amnesia is in consultation with a psychoanalyst (Dr Joyce) who is intent on exploring his dreams. The first time reader may be intrigued by the significance of this as the world that our hero (referred to as John Orr) inhabits is a sort of bridge to nowhere. John Orr becomes increasingly suspicious of the treatment he is receiving and seems to want to explore further the curious world that he inhabits. It is a world that has a resemblance to the Forth bridge in Scotland but takes the form of a city on a bridge. It is a Kafka-esque world where actions are taken for seemingly bureaucratic reasons which are accepted without question by the inhabitants. Orr challenges the treatment he is receiving and finds his privileges in the city summarily removed and decides to escape.

Much later in the novel we are told the story of Alex growing up in Scotland, falling in love with Andrea and becoming a successful businessman. This is typical of Bank's mainstream writing at this period of his career. Andrea and Alex grow together, but with Andrea wanting to keep her independence, there is more in her life than Alex and she moves to Paris for a four year period in pursuit of her own career and ambitions. Bank's skilfully builds in links between Alex and John Orrs story and indulges in a third story of a Barbarian who seems to be a participant in a video game. This story is told with a thick Glaswegian accent which takes a little deciphering. The three strands of the story progress towards a final denouement leaving the reader to wonder how they are connected in good mystery writing fashion.

The world building of the city on the bridge which is the dominant story in the first two thirds of the novel is handled with panache and Banks creates the atmosphere and feel of a credible alternative world, which has sufficient reference points to make it seem credible. A world of engineers and metalwork and of course trains that should appeal to railway enthusiasts. This contrasts nicely with Alex and Andreas story which has all the realism of growing up in the authors known environment of 1980's Scotland. I found the video game story with its exploration of classical myths the least convincing element to the book, and certainly the most difficult to read, but it works on a certain level even if the novel would not have been any the lesser without it. In my opinion John Orrs escape from the Bridge was the least convincing element to the book.

An element of Bank's mainstream novel writing that appeals to me is his use of contemporary cultural references; particularly to music. His characters emphasise their moods and feelings by their choice of music and if the reader has a similar amount of knowledge of popular music; of artists and their songs as does Banks then you can be even more tune with his writing. I am not aware of a writer that uses these seemingly casual references as well as Banks did, it works for me as I can hear the music in the background as I am reading the words on the page.

I have not read all of Banks; novels, but I have read many of his science fiction books and some of his mainstream fiction. I particularly enjoy his left wing, music loving heroes, out of step with Thatcher's 1980's Britain and I enjoy the hedonistic atmosphere of his science fiction culture novels. This is not quite a combination of the two, but it does have elements of both. It bursts with ideas and references that may be a bit over ambitious at times, but on the whole it works and is an absorbing read. I rate it as 4 stars.

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LibraryThing member kevinashley

This is not a typical Iain Banks novel; nor is it a typical english novel. Which is not to say that it is revolutionary, or strikingly different in form, or that it says something striking which other novels have yet to do, because it is none of these things.

What it is is a halfway house between

the novels of Iain Banks, an occasionally controversial writer of fiction, and Iain M. Banks, the widely-lauded writer of science fiction. Who are, of course, one and the same person. Until now, though, I thought Banks had managed to keep his two authorial voices well separated. In this novel, there are clear signs of one world appearing in another.

The story opens with a car crash, and then undergoes a number of abrupt changes. Three stories are interwoven. One is of a man living in a society which appears to be confined entirely to an apparently endless bridge, with many levels and a complex society. Another relates a serious of fantasy adventures of a Glaswegian (well, he speaks that way) swordsman who appears to occasionally have got trapped up in some classical Greek myths. And another of a man who goes to university in the 1960s in Edinburgh and meets the love of his life, although it takes him some time to realise it. The first two stories clearly don't take place in any real world, and it is here that Bank's SF voice emerges, even including the knife missiles that appear in some of his Culture stories.

The thread that ties these together is not particularly original and was obvious to this reader from the outset (as it was to at least one other reviewer) but it appears that this isn't the case for everyone so I I'll refrain from alluding to it. But it doesn't detract from the readability of the tale or the engagement with the characters.

In fact, this is one of Bank's most likeable non-SF works, with characters I cared more about than in many of his other books. The end is more uplifting than he is usually given to, and devoid of the cataclasmyic or violent ends of which he is so fond (although some of that does seep into at least one of the fantasy worlds.) And all of that is a good thing.

This is a touching picture of people in love growing up and watching the world change around them mixed in with a bit of magic realism, trains, drink and bridges. If that sounds like your thing, you'll like it. Even if it doesn't, you might still like it.

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LibraryThing member owlcroft

While it is fairly evident throughout what is really going on, the thrust of the book is not so much any "mystery" about the setting so much as it is the atmospheric evocation of a strange, impossible, yet mundane (almost chillingly so) world and the strange mundane people who inhabit it. The

rewards of this book, which are not small, lie in that mood and atmosphere, and in the portrayal of how people react to such circumstances.

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LibraryThing member InnahLovesYou

I was watching Grey's Anatomy, Season 13, Episode 4. At 35 minutes in, Owen Hunt was lying in bed and reading a book. I have paused this scene and kept going backwards and forwards - trying to figure out what book he was reading.

And now - half an hour later - here I am, knowing the book and adding

it to my TBR pile. I may never get to it, but the satisfaction of actually finding this book is too big!

It makes me realise - we spend so much time choosing books in today's fast world. And sometimes, when a book finds us, it is a miraculous moment, and I want to cherish this moment forever!

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LibraryThing member macha

4 stars. lovely virtuoso writing, a complex structure, a lot of layers, and so much to convey. must be an Iain Banks novel. classed as a mainstream novel, this one is written in 1986 before he started the sf series The Culture. but as it turns out it's also the perfect novel to segue into after The

Culture series has all been read ::sob::, because it actually introduces the Culture, in Scottish dialect (that grows decreasingly broad, so don't give up, because it's very funny) in a fantasy sequence that takes the barbarian antihero into the underworld past encountering Sisyphus, Prometheus, and the like, armed with a knife missile and various machine intelligences, and before the end a couple of rum characters named Virgil and Danty turn up to throw a spanner into that works. altogether a fine romp, especially for a novel with only one central character who spends the whole book in a coma, unable to negotiate the Bridge that has been his undoing. but along the way there are meaningful questions of life and death and suchlike to occupy his metaphorical and narrative subconscious outside of space and time.

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LibraryThing member JonArnold

Probably Banks’s strangest novel, where you’re not quite sure until the end what’s a dream and what’s reality. To describe the plot would be to spoil it, but the narrative is fragmented with what seems to be the main plot intercut with multiple dream sequences and a seemingly contemporary

story. It’s a story which depends on the ending being solid to work, to tie all the threads together. Unusually for Banks the ending is actually satisfactory, even if it feels a tad perfunctory after all that’s come before. A fun journey but perhaps not quite worth the trip over the bridge.

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LibraryThing member grizzly.anderson

Generally, I'm a pretty big Banks fan, but this one just didn't work for me. Some reviews note have mentioned a surprise or revelation at the end that made the story work. Frankly, I was pretty certain from the first chapter what the ending was going to be. As a result, the chaotic story line just

didn't do anything for me. I didn't find out much of anything about the narrator, and he didn't find out much of anything about himself.

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LibraryThing member xtien

This is a brilliant book that gradually gets you into the world of someone dreaming, someone turned crazy. Only when you read the last pages, you understand. One of Banks' best.

LibraryThing member gward101

Pretentious? Moi? (see review dated immediately before this one). Not one of my favourite of Iain Banks' books I must admit, but I did enjoy it. Does that make me pretentious? Tastes differ people, let's try to keep reviews civil.

LibraryThing member iayork

Ah yes, The Bridge: What can one say about a novel that only appeals to people so pretentious that they think anything incomprehensible is a work of genius. Ok, I admit, I get the story. I just don't think the rather simplistic tale he's telling really justifies the baroque prose. Finnegan's Wake

this isn't...

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LibraryThing member Karlstar

This is pseudo-fantasy or plain fiction from Banks. The Bridge is a seemingly infinite, self-contained structure, no one sees the ends of the Bridge and no one leaves it. The book is about society in a very restricted sense, in this case, the Bridge society is very 'vertical' - the higher up you

are, the higher up you are... Banks gets in his usual shots against society and religion, though by the end of the book, I was really wondering if it had much of a point. There are many dream sequences that may or may not have something to do with the main plot. I read it, but can't really say I enjoyed it that much.

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LibraryThing member ragwaine

Having read The Wasp Factory and Against a Dark Background I expected a lot from this book that had been sitting on my shelf for somewhere around 10 years. In someways I was disappointed but it was still a fairly enjoyable experience.

The sections on the bridge reminded me a lot Kafka's The Castle

but better. The modern sections bored me (as most non-fantastic fiction does - with Philip Roth being the exception). The dreams were very cool, especially the trip to hell. Without the dreams the book would have been a waste of time. Still I thought he could have drop 40-50 pages to make it the perfect length. I didn't really enjoy the "off the bridge" part of the bridge sections.

So I liked it but wouldn't really recommend it to anyone especially since Banks has a bunch of other books that are better.

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LibraryThing member bluyssae

As a non-native speaker the phonetic chapters were a real show-stopper for me. In feersum endjinn, I could have had a clue from the title, here I was surprised after a few chapters. Pity.

LibraryThing member sweetiegherkin

A man's car crashes and he ends up in a coma. He wakes up on the bridge (a gigantic and bizarre structure that is a world in itself) with complete amnesia and is dubbed John Orr by the hospital staff. Orr is seeing a doctor who analyzes his dreams, although he admits he doesn't have any. Orr begins

making up dreams to please the doctor and then finds that he really is beginning to have strange dreams ...

As this brief description might imply, The Bridge is a multi-layered surreal book grounded in the world of dreams. The ending is probably not a surprise to anyone paying attention to the book, but how you get there is an engrossing ride. I'll admit that the first 20 page of the book were really slow going for me, to the point that I almost gave up on the book (a very, very rare thing for me to do). The next 20 pages were also a bit difficult, as I hadn't quite gotten in to the pacing of the book yet. But after that, I really enjoyed this book and was drawn into Orr's many worlds (real, imagined, and dreamed).

There's a lot going on in The Bridge (indeed, I could see it definitely being worth a re-read to see what you missed the first time around), but it's hard to substantially write about it without giving too much away. Some of the major pros of this book are the interesting characters (Abberlaine Arrol in particular, although there are certainly others), intriguing plot lines that leave you wondering/wanting to know more, excellent writing including symbolism that makes you think, and a surreal landscape that set the right tone and atmosphere. The only con was that some prose parts, especially when Banks was describing the look of certain things, were a little lengthier than needed/a bit tedious to read. The real downside was that when it ended, I wanted to spend more time with these characters and know more about them! Of course, I always think that's a good sign in a book.

However, despite how much I ended up enjoying this book, I'm not sure to whom I would recommend it. It's more literary and bizarre than most of the standard science fiction fare yet a little too heavy on fantastical elements to appeal to the more general literary reader. It seems to fit into a sweet spot for readers like me who enjoy both genre and literary fiction.

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LibraryThing member bragan

After experiencing a terrible car crash, a man finds himself -- or dreams he finds himself -- with no memories and no identity, on a bridge that stretches out into a vast, unknown distance at either end. It's a strange, layered, somewhat abstract novel, one that shifts back and forth between

reality and something else, full of dreams-within-dreams. To what extent it all comes together in the end as a coherent narrative, I'm really not at all sure. There are definitely elements whose meaning, if there is one, is not entirely clear to me. But it's a strangely compelling read, and one that's well-written, imaginative, and interestingly complex.

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LibraryThing member stuart10er

A man is in a car wreck and in a coma. He wakes on a bridge with amnesia. He travels on the bridge to reclaim his memory. Great book.

LibraryThing member NaggedMan

I worked hard getting through this book, persevering because it had been so highly rated by both people here and (when first published) the critics. Yes, the writing is good. Yes, many of the dream scenes are interesting. But taken as a whole I found it too long and in many places too repetitive.

Perhaps of greater interest to (a) Scots and (b) people who, like the protagonist, are hooked on bridges. He is, after all, a structural engineer!

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LibraryThing member Paul_S

I liked it for all the wrong reasons, like the barbarian and familiar segments. The trapped in coma struggling with yourself is a bit cliche but I like how obvious from the start it so we can just move past it and enjoy the show.

LibraryThing member Andy_Dingley

Still my favourite of any Banks, with or without the M. If you read one Banks, make it this one - and get a cross-section across his oeuvre.

Worth reading for that one pun alone, the Wee Lassie...

LibraryThing member catapogo

A bit chaotic, but an interesting and compelling read. Despite the fantasy trappings it's more about the main character's life, and although these parts of the book are more 'mundane' in some ways they are more interesting.

LibraryThing member yarb

Must have first read this 20 years ago; liked it less this time but still a good novel despite the "it's all a dream" conceit (not a spoiler as the edition I read this time spells it out in the blurb). The fantasy strand set in the surreal world of the neverending bridge are brilliantly done; the

"real life" parts alternate between rushes of time-compressing exposition and somewhat ploddingly recounted pivotal life moments. The author stand-in character, as almost always, is somewhat annoying with his penchant for listing every performance car he buys and sells and all the records he drinks scotch and smokes weed to. But spotting the points of connection between the two worlds, and untangling the strange arc of the Barbarian and his Familiar, are a lot of fun.

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