Alexander's Bridge

In 2014, I enjoyed <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/140963.O_Pioneers___Great_Plains_Trilogy___1_" title="O Pioneers! (Great Plains Trilogy, #1) by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">O Pioneers!</a> (the first book of <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/881203.Willa_Cather" title="Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Willa Cather</a>'s <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/26096561.The_Great_Plains_Trilogy" title="The Great Plains Trilogy by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">The Great Plains Trilogy</a>) so much that this year I decided to read <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/445271.Alexander_s_Bridge" title="Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Alexander's Bridge</a> 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.<br /><br />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 --<br /><br /><i> . . . [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.</i><br /><br />Looks can be deceiving.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />In conversation with Alexander, Professor Wilson admits to having, in the past, doubted Alexander's staying power -- <br /><br /><i>" . . . 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."</i><br /><br />Bartley Alexander's response is surprising --<br /><br /><i>Alexander laughed. "Nonsense! It's not I you feel sure of; it's Winifred. People often make that mistake."</i><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <a href="http://suehallgarth.com/willa-cather-with-edith-lewis-grand-manan-photographs/" rel="nofollow noopener">This blog</a> 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.<br /><br />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 <a href="http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/en/article-381/quebec_city’s_cantilever_bridge.html" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>. 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.<br /><br />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. <br />

Being an engineer, I don't really know how that feels since I am a beginner—I didn't even get my first job in my field—and I don't have much experience; nonetheless, the protagonist of this story knows that feeling, and he seems to be a good engineer, you can tell.<br /><br />I must confess that I just came across Willa Cather's first novel, <b>Alexander's Bridge</b>, since I was looking for another Edith Wharton's novel to read, however, reading this one was the best decision ever, and I'm really happy for that. First of all, because I truly enjoy reading Cather's narrative quite a bit (it is that kind of story at which nothing is happening, and so what it really matters is the prose), and secondly, because once I knew her main character in this novel was an engineer, I was sure this story would be absolutely for me, and I was not wrong.<br /><br />Bartley Alexander, a married man and a civil engineer who is constantly traveling for work, has to go from Boston to London for a short period of time. There, he meets by chance his former lover, Hilda Burgoyne, whose encounter will make him feel something new inside him. Perhaps you are wondering whether or not engineering has something to do with the plot, well, once you finish the story, you will see.<br />All in all, the prose is quite good (again, there is no a real plot, the <i>story</i> just 'flows'), the main character's thoughts throughout the novel are superb, especially in the last two thirds of the book, and the ending is heartbreaking, at least for me it was as though a bucket of cold water was thrown over me. I'd definitely recommend this book.<br /><br />Just for the record, I am an oil engineer, and while I was reading the final part I couldn't help but think of how engineers are transported to an oil rig, and how dangerous it might be. This device is named <u>offshore personnel basket</u>, but in Spanish, and especially in my country (Mexico), we call it "viuda" (widow), and watching the next video you can tell why: <b> <a href="https://youtu.be/gocwe7gbXb0" rel="nofollow noopener"> Offshore Personnel Basket</a> </b><br /><br /><b>Favorite quotes:</b><br /><br /><i>"Remembering Hilda as she used to be, was doubtless more satisfactory than seeing her as she must be now—and, after all, Alexander asked himself, what was it but his own young years that he was remembering?"</i><br /><br /><i>"They stood close together, looking out into the wan, watery sky, breathing always more quickly and lightly, and it seemed as if all the clocks in the world had stopped."</i><br /><br /><i>"Two people, when they love each other, grow alike in their tastes and habits and pride, but their moral natures (whatever we may mean by that canting expression) are never welded."</i><br /><br /><i>"Sometimes I get used to being dead inside, but lately it has been as if a window beside me had suddenly opened, and as if all the smells of spring blew in to me."</i>

<i>’The sun sank rapidly; the silvery light had faded from the bare boughs and the watery twilight was setting in when Wilson at last walked down the hill, descending into cooler and cooler depths of grayish shadow.’</i> <br /><br />This is a relatively short story, but is shared with such lovely, picturesque images that it is easy to close your eyes and envision each setting, which offers a balance against the struggles of this man who tries to successfully maneuver a relationship with his mistress as well as his wife. <br /><br />A lovely introduction, beautifully narrated by Marguerite Gavin

This is <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/881203.Willa_Cather" title="Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Willa Cather</a>’s first novel and it is truly impressive—not because being first it is relatively good, but because it is very good. There’s a difference! Authors' first novels are often some of the best. This is true here. <br /><br /><a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/445271.Alexander_s_Bridge" title="Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Alexander's Bridge</a> captures the pull of love and how one can love different attributes in different people. It has wonderfully descriptive writing. There is a perfect balance of what is said and what is withheld—keeping in this way one’s attention sustained from start to finish. The parts missing keep you constantly thinking. It has the grip of a short story you do not want to put down. <br /><br />Here is a story about a successful American engineer—virile and handsome, talented, full of go. This is what is visible, but there are cracks under the surface. He constructs bridges. He is renown, is in the process of climbing the pinnacle of his field. He is working on what was to be the longest cantilever bridge in the world. It was to span the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City. The year was 1907. The engineer’s name, in the story, is the eponymous Bartley Alexander. He is fictional, but the bridge and <input type="checkbox" class="spoiler__control" aria-label="The following text has been marked spoiler. Toggle checkbox to reveal or hide." onchange="this.labels[0].setAttribute('aria-hidden', !this.checked);" id="56f5c035-f1e4-49e5-882c-47fdab35e913" /><label aria-hidden="true" class="spoiler" for="56f5c035-f1e4-49e5-882c-47fdab35e913">its collapse</label> are true. Cather has created a triangle love story woven around events of her day. <br /><br />Bartley Alexander is in his forties, has a wife (Winifred) in Boston and a mistress (Hilda) in London. Bartley and Winifred have been married for twelve years. The attraction between Bartley and Hilda is longstanding; they had known each other since their youth and by chance meet up again--in London, she has become an acclaimed actress. <br /><br />The story goes beyond being one man’s midlife crisis. A triangle love story is added, the focus being the emotions of and the predicaments that arise for <b> <u>all three</u> </b>. The inner lives of Hilda and Winifred are as important to this story as Bartley’s. All three are strong admirable characters.<br /><br />Passion is fully perceived but not drawn graphically. The book was first published in 1912.<br /><br />Cather is an ace at drawing <u>places</u> and <u>people</u>. Her innate ability is evident here, at the start of her writing career. She demonstrates a remarkable ability of knowing what to include and what to leave out, in this way keeping our mind twirling and our attention riveted.<br /><br />The audiobook narration by Marguerite Gavin is very good. I have given the narration four stars. Maybe it deserves five. Gavin captures different accents—Irish, English, Oxford English and American. The tempo is perfect, and all that is said is clear. Her intonations used for the different characters mirror their respective personalities well.<br /><br />I am sad to say I have no longer anymore Cather books left to read. Cather’s first novel is short but very good. Don’t leave it to the end.<br /><br />*******************<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/17150.My__ntonia__Great_Plains_Trilogy___3_" title="My Ántonia (Great Plains Trilogy, #3) by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">My Ántonia</a> 5 stars<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/445271.Alexander_s_Bridge" title="Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Alexander's Bridge</a> 4 stars<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/545951.Death_Comes_for_the_Archbishop" title="Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Death Comes for the Archbishop</a> 4 stars<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/543137.One_of_Ours" title="One of Ours by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">One of Ours</a> 4 stars<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/48214.The_Song_of_the_Lark__Great_Plains_Trilogy___2_" title="The Song of the Lark (Great Plains Trilogy, #2) by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">The Song of the Lark</a>4 stars<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/834424.Shadows_on_the_Rock" title="Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Shadows on the Rock</a> 3 stars<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/599782.Lucy_Gayheart" title="Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Lucy Gayheart</a> 3 stars<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/140963.O_Pioneers___Great_Plains_Trilogy___1_" title="O Pioneers! (Great Plains Trilogy, #1) by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">O Pioneers!</a> 3 stars<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/48213.Sapphira_and_the_Slave_Girl" title="Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Sapphira and the Slave Girl</a> 2 stars<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/48200.A_Lost_Lady" title="A Lost Lady by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">A Lost Lady</a> 2 stars<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/48203.The_Professor_s_House" title="The Professor's House by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">The Professor's House</a> 2 stars<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/22674906.The_Burglar_s_Christmas" title="The Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">The Burglar's Christmas</a> 2 stars<br />*<a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/48211.My_Mortal_Enemy" title="My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">My Mortal Enemy</a> 1 star

A man is caught between the marriage of his adulthood and the love affair from his youth, loving both and realizing having both is not possible. The bridge can be an obvious metaphor but instead of the usual symbol overshadowed by the divisions it joins or the obstacles it crosses, there was some actual engineering speak. I approve.<br /><br />I haven't read much of Willa Cather's works so I'm not sure how it compares to her other writings, or to that of other authors. I guess I could say she does paint her scenery well. There is that tasteful, older style of fading to black for delicacy.<br /><br />Her characterizations are crafted, as in made with skill. But it's the kind of skill that is a little off, that finely carved sculpture of something that doesn't quite work. All that's coming to mind is crass stuff but this wasn't crass. More like...incomplete. A Venus de Milo. The two female vertices of the love triangle were flat. They had no flaws, at least this book wasn't long enough to describe them, except that they lived for this man. Maybe I'm viewing this through a modern lens, but they don't read like actual, feeling, thinking women to me. It's likely that the characters are just fine, and just happen to grate on my shoulder chips of the moment.<br /><br />Reading about this bridge engineer, reflecting on my own career, my "it's not fair!" nerve got tripped. Reading about this disaster of relationships, reflecting on my own, my "glad that's not me!" smugness was slightly inflated. Normally this would lead to a dear-diary splaying of my reflections. However, I find I no longer enjoy sharing the minutia of my despair. You're welcome.

In the preface to this edition Willa Cather writes, "<i>Alexander's Bridge</i> was my first novel, and does not deal with the kind of subject-matter in which I now find myself most at home." She spends the rest of the preface apologising for its existence. I feel Cather is far too tough on herself for this novel, because I rather enjoyed it. <br /><br />The plot is very simple. A man has an affair and can't live with it. That's basically it. This novel has the unique claim of the main character being a bridge-maker, can't say I've come across that before. However what this novel lacks in plot, it makes up for in sheer enjoyability. Many reviewers overlook the basic experience of enjoying a book. When I sat down and read this novel it flowed before me. I was enthralled for the whole journey. I must give props to Cather for constructing such a smooth narrative and for creating such a crazy ending, that was great. Altogether this is a fine novel that overcomes its plot problems and leaves you rather content.

It is scientifically proven that Willa Cather is my favorite ever, so I took the opportunity over winter break to read this little gem. For a variety of reasons, I have stacks and stacks of books that I want to read because I think they will be terrible, or because someone recommended them to me so I feel an obligation. I often forget to read books I think I will love. And, you know, I think a lot of why I do that is because often I love the terrible books or the recommended books, and they are so much more social than books I’m drawn to on my own. So, this is not a social review, and it is one of those reviews cursed by unconditional love, and probably not very useful either for that reason. <br /><br />The book itself is Cather’s first. Like <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/140963.O_Pioneers__" title="O Pioneers! by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">O Pioneers</a>, it is more focused on plot than her later books, which are much more character driven. <i>Alexander’s Bridge</i> is about two lovely women, who are both lovely in different ways, and it is about the way love works out for them. The book is so careful in its plotting that it gets pretty predictable, and there is a part about twenty pages before the pivotal moment where it’s pretty obvious what will happen. But! The description of the pivotal moment is one of those confusing action scenes where you can’t exactly tell where everyone’s standing or not standing, so I wasn’t totally sure that my prediction had come true for a little while. Those are probably faults of the book, though they didn’t ruin anything for me. For me, the ending is more about whether the ending itself is extremely just or extremely unjust. I can’t decide. Anyway, that probably won’t mean anything to you because you probably have not, and won’t, read this book. And you probably shouldn’t because others are better. I do love it, though.<br /><br />Now I am going to tell you my Cather rankings:<br /><br />1. <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/140963.O_Pioneers__" title="O Pioneers! by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">O Pioneers</a><br />2. <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/32464.Ramsey_Campbell_and_Modern_Horror_Fiction" title="Ramsey Campbell and Modern Horror Fiction by S.T. Joshi" rel="noopener">My Antonia</a><br />3. The short story <i>Coming, Aphrodite!</i> (and all of <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/1257797.Youth_and_the_Bright_Medusa" title="Youth and the Bright Medusa by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Youth and the Bright Medusa</a>, but that one is my favorite favorite)<br />4. <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/48203.The_Professor_s_House" title="The Professor's House by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">The Professor’s House</a><br />5. <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/48211.My_Mortal_Enemy" title="My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">My Mortal Enemy</a><br />6. <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/543137.One_of_Ours" title="One of Ours by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">One of Ours</a><br />7. <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/545951.Death_Comes_for_the_Archbishop" title="Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Death Comes for the Archbishop</a><br />8. <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/445271.Alexander_s_Bridge" title="Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Alexander’s Bridge</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />9. <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/48214.The_Song_of_the_Lark" title="The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">The Song of the Lark</a><br /><br />I have all of her last three novels left to read, as well as her poetry, essays, and the Hermione Lee biographies. Those rankings aren’t totally fair, though, because I think that <i>The Song of the Lark</i> is <b>by far</b> the worst I’ve read of hers, and I really love all of the others, so I added a lot of spaces between them to make that clear. <i>Song of the Lark</i> has a wonderful story within the story, though, so it’s good. It’s just obviously the awkward transition from plot to character focus, and the character focus is not very balanced at that point. Protagonist is pretty ridiculous. But, it is the first that has a magical story within the story, and those make my heart beat faster every time. Anyway, this is not supposed to be a review of that book.<br /><br />So, <i>Alexander’s Bridge</i> is about how the shadows of our youth can creep up behind us and ruin our lives if we let them – how we can’t live as who we are now and who we used to be, even if we want to. I think that is beautiful. And this book is about seven pages long, so it takes that on in a short, sad way. It was my favorite I’ve read in a while.<br />

Me ha gustado mucho, a pesar de que la propia Willa Cather en el prólogo (que en esta edición aparece como epílogo) admite que no le parece tan buena, pues fue su primera novela, y está mucho más satisfecha con cómo le salió "Pioneros", publicada un año después.<br /><br />Sí admito que la historia no tiene nada y que tal vez solo haga una semblanza superficial de los personajes, pero "novelas donde no pasa nada" era la especialidad de la autora, y hay un toque que la diferencia de otras historias parecidas: la ecuanimidad. Willa Cather no juzga, y en esta historia sobre una infidelidad, hubiera sido fácil convertir a alguno de los personajes en malvados o tomar un tono moralista, pero Willa Cather no lo hace. Siempre entiendes a los personajes, aunque no los justifiques. En algunos momentos me recordó a "La edad de la inocencia" y me alegra pensar que no era cosa mía, porque la propia autora admite que aquellos que aspiraban a ser "novelistas serios" tenían como mayores influencias a Henry James y Edith Wharton.<br /><br />Tal vez no sea la mejor novela de la Historia, ni la más profunda, pero Willa Cather consigue darle un "algo" a este relato tan mundano, que ha ocurrido y ocurrirá tantas veces en cualquier lugar del mundo, y que no parece tener más interés que para los afectados. Sin embargo, Willa Cather lo hace interesante también para el lector.

Rating: 2* of five<br /><br />It's vintage romantic fiction with a definite twist of Cather. That's not enough, I'm afraid, to overcome the mundane mid-life crisis/affair plot's unimaginative development. Strictly formulaic, and the characters were stock characters, and the settings...Canada? London?...weren't of any great interest to Cather so therefore fail to engross the reader as well.<br /><br />But Cather. Yes indeed, she was already headed down the Prose Turnpike to Lapidaryland. It's to one's taste or it isn't, but I can't imagine anyone making a serious case against Cather's giftedness based on her writing style. I wouldn't consider this book a must-read unless one is a Cather completist. It's instructive to read for Catherites mostly because it's proof that her years at McClure's magazine were clearly crucial to her prose style's development. It's compact enough to be an afternoon's entertainment. But don't shuffle something you're excited to read off the TBR for it.

As it was Cather, I wanted so much to like this more than I did. The writing was alright and given it was her first novel, she undoubtedly learned much and honed her skill evident in later writings. It <i>is</i> worth reading. It is quick as it is very short; a novella really. Not difficult, but also not particularly inspiring. Maybe I would like it better if I could forget, <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/17150.My__ntonia__Great_Plains_Trilogy___3_" title="My Ántonia (Great Plains Trilogy, #3) by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">My Ántonia</a>, or, <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/545951.Death_Comes_for_the_Archbishop" title="Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather" rel="noopener">Death Comes for the Archbishop</a>, but who can? <br /><br />Having recently read and enjoyed the first novels of two other authors, <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/15151.Zora_Neale_Hurston" title="Zora Neale Hurston" rel="noopener">Zora Neale Hurston</a>, and, <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/35817.Sarah_Orne_Jewett" title="Sarah Orne Jewett" rel="noopener">Sarah Orne Jewett</a>, I found Cather’s surprisingly disappointing. However, I am willing to concede my love for her later novels is prejudicing my opinion of this one. 2.75 stars