Willa Cather--Alexander's Bridge (1912)

This is Willa Cather's first, very short novel (128 sparely filled pages). There are not a lot of copies of it currently in circulation. Vintage put out a paperback edition in 2010, which is what I got, and I presume it is available in the Library of America, but I was hoping to find a cheap older (pre-1960s) copy for my collection, and I couldn't find anything, even an expensive one.

As I have written on the parent blog, I think My Antonia is one of the great American novels. Up until now it had been the only Willa Cather I had read. Alexander's Bridge, in contrast to the western pioneer settings with which she had her great later success, takes place mainly among the wealthy, well-dressed, theater and dinner party-going segment of society in Boston and London. The crowd is not unlike an Edith Wharton crowd, though more active in terms of industry. I suppose it could be said that Alexander, who is a great engineer who builds mighty bridges, is something of a pioneer, although that aspect of his character is not really predominant in the story. He is presented as a man of force, blond, blue eyed, strongly built, with a powerful neck and bursting with energy to claim the wealth and status that is rightfully his--such men obviously made a great impression, as they appear frequently in the American literature of this period (Wharton's Elmer Moffatt character is another hard-charger of this type). This is not, however, the Alexander that appears in most of the actual story; the one that is given the reader seems to be in the throes of a midlife crisis unbecoming a mighty builder of the most modern railway bridges, increasingly diffident about his work and pining for his youth and his lost love. The IWE describes the book thus:

"The writing is quiet, restrained--no surprises, no suspense. There is no contrived plot. The characters are conventional or at least self-controlled. Yet without evident effort she makes them real--a quality of her writing that within a few years was to win Willa Cather recognition as a major novelist."

Yes, I would disagree with that. The great shortcoming of Al's Bridge for me is that the characters never become wholly real, or acquire any sort of depth in my mind. I don't understand why Alexander was seemingly losing interest in the life he had, or what he was expecting to attain by giving it up to have his Irish actress. The book is not bad--the writing is good, and the atmosphere of that general time period in the great cities, New York, London, Boston, is captured well enough to hold the reader's interest, and it is short enough to read in a couple days, probably a couple of hours if you are not a ditherer like I am. So I am glad I read it, even though I would not consider it on the whole as satisfying or successful as some of the other books I have read for the IWE list recently.

The Challenge

Another crazy challenge with a shocking (to me) winner. I guess not as many people read the famous books as you would think (or those who do felt less moved or compelled to review it on the internet). It was also notable that women authors were dominant. I should not be surprised that the magic words generated by a Willa Cather novel tilt the power of the search engine heavily towards the feminine. Those things are too clever.

1. Ann Patchett--Bel Canto........................................................................1,034
2. Barbara Kingsolver--Prodgial Summer.....................................................711
3. Lucy Maud Montgomery--Anne of Avonlea..............................................594
4. Salman Rushdie--Satanic Verses...............................................................341
5. A.S. Byatt--Possession...............................................................................315
6. Irene Hunt--Across Five Aprils..................................................................282
7. Paolo Pacigalupi--The Drowned Cities......................................................143
8. Mary E. Braddon--Lady Audley's Secret......................................................72
9. Winifred Watson--Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day.....................................66
10. Virginia Woolf--The Waves........................................................................61
11. Salman Rushdie--East, West.......................................................................31
12. Alexandra Nouri--So You're in Love With a Narcissist..............................28
13. Larsen & Hodge--The Art of Argument......................................................19
14. Margaret Atwood--Good Bones..................................................................17
(tie) Diane Stanley--Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare............17
16. Winifred Holtby--Anderby Wold..................................................................4
17. Barbara Greenwood--A Pioneer Story..........................................................1

Working With Words: Grade 6, Applications of Grammar 4: Principles of Effective Communication, and Applications of Grammar 6: Mastering Communication Skills tied for last place with the obvious score of zero.

I was certain that the Anne of Green Gables or the A.S. Byatt would win. The relatively low score on the Byatt was especially surprising. Hasn't there been one of the most hyped books of the new century? Ann Patchett appears to be one of these attractive, hyper-focused, morally strident, successfully/triumphantly educated modern people towards whom I am emotionally ambivalent and distant but am conflicted about in my modest forages into mental life. Her book, which is set in South America and involves terrorists and music and substantial people who either undoubtedly have brilliant standardized test scores or are so culturally authentic as to be extremely sexy, is supposedly good. I guess I will have to try it.