Bridge of Clay

by Markus Zusak

WOW!!!
I read a previous book by this author called The Book Thief.  I thought it was good.  But, this book was brilliant!! One of the best books I have read in a long time, if not ever.

The book iss  told in a disjointed way, jumping back and forth in time.  It is a long book, over 500 pages and I must admit that about 150 pages in I was going to give up on it.  However, I am glad I hung in.

The book is about a family of five boys, the two women their father loved, and especially about one of the brothers, Clay and the girl he loved.

The book tells of the father and his first love.  He is deeply in love with his wife and has painted numerous paintings of her.  His wife, while she may love him, decides the marriage isn't working for her and divorces him.  He is devastated and collapses in grief in the garage where he did the paintings of her.

Then the story tells of the boys' mother.  She was raised in Eastern Europe by her father who taught her to play piano.  Her father eventually arranges for her to go perform outside of the country.  He buys her a round trip ticket but tells her not to come back.  She misses her father but takes his advice.  She works at housecleaning jobs and somehow makes her way to Australia where she continues to work as a cleaner.  She saves all her money to buy a piano but the delivery people take it to the wrong address.  This is how she meets her future husband (with whom she will have the five boys).

The boys are portrayed as very rambunctious, even vicious with each other.  The portrayal of family life is incredible.

We learn that the boys' mother gets cancer and dies after suffering tremendously.  The boys of course are devastated by her death but it is the father who falls apart.  He leaves one day abandoning the boys.  They survive in a very rough and tumble way.  The family includes a cat, a dog, a donkey, a pigeon and a goldfish.  They beat up each other.  They get Clay who likes to run and seems to like to get beat up to race with people stationed around the track to beat him up to slow him down.  They take bets on how fast he will make it around the track.

Eventually the father does come back the boys don't want to have anything to do with him.  The refer to him as "the murderer".  They say he murdered them.  The father tells them he is building a bridge.

The brother Clay falls in love with a young woman who lives across the street.  She is an aspiring jockey despite her parents.  She really applies herself to the task of becoming a good jockey.

One interesting thing about the book is that the boys don't talk a lot to each other but they seem to understand each other.  The boys "know" that Clay will leave them to go to the father without him telling them so,

Clay is sorry to leave his girlfriend but feels he needs to go help his father.  They plan to replace an old bridge that collapsed years before.  They are going to build it from bricks and with arches.  Michaelangelo is a hero of the father/son... his work with quarries.  Clay works like a dog to dig a trench for the bridge supports, working himself to exhaustion.  He does go back to see his brother and girlfriend occasionally.  Eventually he decides he must leave his girlfriend for good so she can concentrate on being a jockey.  Her returns to help his father.

His girlfriend dies on the track the day after he leaves her.  Clay is devastated and feels that he is responsible for her death.  He eventually helps his father complete the bridge... working with superhuman effort.

In the jumping back and forth in time of the book we find out that the mother confided some background family history, e.g. about the first wife, to Clay.  It is also Clay who is actually  murderer.  His mother wanted the father to kill her with carbon monoxide in the family car but it is Clay who actually does it because his father can't.

We also find out that Clay's girlfriend helps him find their father's first wife.  She is single, divorced once or twice.  She tells them leaving Clay's father was a big mistake... but if she hadn't Clay wouldn't exist.

After the bridge is complete Clay leaves, before he goes he tells one of the brothers where to find a buried typewriter that belonged to their grandmother and to write the family story.  No one knows where Clay is but when the writer of the story is about to get married he tells his father to go find Clay.  The father goes to Florence as he believes Clay will be found near the David statue and after 29 days Clay does show up in the museum.   He does come home for his father's wedding.

The book was very hard to read with all the pain and suffering of the characters, including the mother.  However, it was so powerful, the way the author portrayed the relationships and the crazy interaction of the brothers.  It seems to me that he presented memories and understanding perhaps the way one's memories might come and go and understanding of events, lives and what motivates people might grow over time as we think about our lives and experiences.

This author is amazing, so unique, creative, sensitive and insightful.  I loved this book!!