The Bridge (novel)
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| Author | Iain Banks |
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| Country | Scotland |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Macmillan Publishers |
| Released | 1986 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 256 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-06-105358-9 |
| Preceded by | Walking on Glass |
| Followed by | Consider Phlebas |
The Bridge is a novel by Scottish author Iain Banks. It was published in 1986.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
The book switches between three main protagonists who turn out to be different levels of the psyche of a man who crashed his car on the Forth Road Bridge and is now in a coma.
[edit] Plot summary
"The road cleared the cutting through the hills. He could see South Queensferry, the marina at Port Edgar, the VAT 69 sign of the distillery there, the lights of Hewlett Packard’s factory; and the rail bridge, dark in the evening’s last sky-reflected light. Behind it, more lights; the Hound Point oil terminal they’d had a sub-contract on, and, further away, the lights of Leith. The old rail bridge’s hollow metal bones looked the colour of dried blood.
You fucking beauty, he thought . . . What a gorgeous great device you are. So delicate from this distance, so massive and strong close-up. Elegance and grace; perfect form. A quality bridge; granite piers, the best ship-plate steel, and a never-ending paint job. . .
He glanced back at the roadway of the bridge as it rose slowly to its gentle, suspended summit. The surface was a little damp, but nothing to worry about. No problems. He wasn’t going all that fast anyway, staying in the nearside lane, looking over at the rail bridge downstream. A light winked at the far end of the island under the rail bridge’s middle-section. One day, though, even you’ll be gone. Nothing lasts. Maybe that’s what I want to tell her. Maybe I want to say, No, of course I don’t mind; you must go. I can’t grudge the man that; you’d have done the same for me and I would for you. Just a pity, that’s all. Go; we’ll all survive. Maybe some good-
He was aware of the truck in front pulling out suddenly. He looked round to see a car in front of him. It was stopped, abandoned in the nearside lane. He sucked his breath in, stamped on the brakes, tried to swerve; but it was too late."
- Alex is the character who lives in 'our' reality. While returning from a sentimental reunion with an old friend in Fife, during which alcohol and cannabis are consumed, he becomes distracted by the power and beauty of the Forth Bridge while driving on the neighbouring Forth Road Bridge and crashes his car. While in a coma in hospital, he relives his life up to the crash.
There he also alternates between experiencing life as
- John Orr, a rescued man with no memories of his past life, living on an enormously extended fantasy version of the railway bridge. He becomes curious about what exists beyond the bridge and stows away on a train. He finds that, in stark contrast to the very orderly, indeed totalitarian, life on The Bridge, the countryside beyond exists in militaristic chaos and warfare, and
- 'The Barbarian', whose prose is phonetically rendered urban Scottish speech, (seven years before Irvine Welsh used the technique in Trainspotting), and who rampages and pillages his way through a fantasy world with some amusing resemblances to ancient Greek mythology.
The book has an almost-conventional happy ending.
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
The author has said that of the novels he has written, this is his personal favourite. "Definitely the intellectual of the family, it's the one that went away to University and got a first. I think The Bridge is the best of my books." [1]
Kafkaesque and multi-layered, it is probably the non-SF Banks novel with most in common with his Culture books. There is even mention of a knife missile late in the book. Banks has said that after this book, he felt his SF and non-SF work diverged. [2]
Other literary influences would appear to be the work of Philip K. Dick and Lanark by Alasdair Gray.
The book may be read as revolving around psychology.
The three main characters may be related to Sigmund Freud's structural theory of personality. Correspondences and divergences between the characters emerge (this is the comparison with Gray, who only had two sides to his character in Lanark); both seem to speak about the complexity of human experience.
The individual psychology of the characters is portrayed in great depth. It becomes apparent, for example, that
- Alex (the 'real' layer of the character), may have a very strong subconscious motivation to be ill and may have had an ulterior motive for crashing his car. Ultimately, and perhaps surprisingly, this strategy is successful for him.
- 'The Barbarian' shows a primeval expression of the psyche, with its strong expression of violence and libido.
[edit] Trivia
- The 'real' name of the central protagonist is not given, but Banks leaves enough clues to work out his forename and surname.
- Orr, the character who lives on the fantasy-level Bridge, has the same name as Orr, the airman in Catch-22 who escapes to Sweden. John Orr is also the name of a serial arsonist who was convicted six years after the novel was published.
[edit] Bibliography
The Bridge, Iain Banks, London : Macmillan, 1986, ISBN 0-06-105358-9
[edit] External link
| Iain Banks books |
|---|
| The Wasp Factory • Walking on Glass • The Bridge • Espedair Street • Canal Dreams • The Crow Road • Complicity • Whit • A Song of Stone • The Business • Dead Air • Raw Spirit • The Steep Approach to Garbadale |
