Name: Shandi's review of Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak
Item: Bridge of Clay
Rating: 2
Author: Shandi

Markus Zusak

The unforgettable, New York Times bestselling family saga from Markus Zusak, the storyteller who gave us the extraordinary bestseller THE BOOK THIEF, lauded by the New York Times as "the kind of book that can be life-changing." NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * THE WALL STREET JOURNAL "One of those monumental books that can draw you across space and time into another family's experience in the most profound way." --The Washington Post "Mystical and loaded with heart, it's another gorgeous tearjerker from a rising master of them." --Entertainment Weekly "Devastating, demanding and deeply moving." --Wall Street Journal The breathtaking story of five brothers who bring each other up in a world run by their own rules. As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father's disappearance. At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge--for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle. The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome? Written in powerfully inventive language and bursting with heart, BRIDGE OF CLAY is signature Zusak.

Bridge of Clay

Shandi

Loved THE BOOK THIEF? take a look at this! Ten years in the making the epic new novel from the acclaimed, prize-winning, bestselling author of THE BOOK THIEF Here is a story told inside out and back to front: The five Dunbar brothers are living with their menagerie of animals in the perfect chaos of a house without grownups. Today, the father who walked out on them long ago is about to walk right back in. And so the life of Clay, the quiet one with a harrowing secret, is about to change forever. From a grandfather, whose passion for the ancient Greeks still lights up their lives, to a mother and father who fell in love over a mislaid piano, to the present day, where five sons co-exist in a house with no rules, BRIDGE OF CLAY is an sweeping portrait of how a ramshackle family, held together by stories and by love, come to unbury one boy's tragic secret. This tale of a young life caught in a current - a life in search of greatness and the cure for a painful past - is as intense, inspiring and ambitious as only Markus Zusak can be. Markus Zusak's epic new novel BRIDGE OF CLAY is due out this October 2018

The writing style was interesting. Stuccato. But that made it hard to get lost in the story. It felt like the characters were underdeveloped by way of wrapping them in mysterios. Felt like a deceptive writing trick (that i might wanna use :D

Laura Hilliger

Upon their father's return, the five Dunbar boys, who have raised themselves since their mother's death, begin to learn family secrets, including that of fourth brother Clay, who will build a bridge for complex reasons, including his own redemption.

Nicole Dykeman

Reading this was a weird experience for me, because I love Markus Zusak’s writing style, but I also thought it just dragged and dragged on. It took me almost two weeks to finish, where I can normally finish a book of this size in 3-4 days. I also had a bit of difficulty connecting to the characters, because their experiences and relationships felt very different from my own. I’d like to revisit this a lot further in the future, because I feel like I would be able to appreciate it more as an adult. 

But still, Markus Zusak is really good at writing characters that I care about. The fact that this made me tear up at the end bumped my rating from 3 to 4. Clay was a great character and I loved the family dynamic of all the brothers, but my favorite parts were the sections with Penelope. 

Other than that, I’m not really sure how to sum up how I feel about this. I’ll muse on it for a few days.

jess

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Markus Zusak's last book, The Book Thief, is one of my favourite books of all time. I don't know exactly what I was expecting out of Bridge of Clay, but unfortunately I was woefully disappointed by this book; other than the gorgeous writing, there was very little in it that I liked. 

Foremost in this is the fact that this book just feels splintered and disorganized. It jumps around in timeline so much I couldn't figure out what was happening when. The book is focused on Clay, the fourth-youngest Dunbar brother, who goes with his father to build a bridge, but in reality the whole family and anyone who has connections gets several chapters in the spotlight: the boys' mother, Penny Dunbar; their father, Michael Dunbar; and Clay's friend Carey and her parents. I couldn't connect with any of the characters; they just seemed so shallow, because the plot just jumped around so much. I was bored, and disconnected, and confused, which was a disappointment after The Book Thief. 

Then there's Zusak's writing style. Zusak's writing is incredibly gorgeous and imaginative, filled with figurative language and metaphors. It's whimsical and gives everything a dreamlike, otherworldly quality. This worked incredible in The Book Thief, because it was narrated by an otherworldly being. Bridge of Clay, which is narrated by a everyday man in his late twenties, has a completely different feeling to it that doesn't work well with the characters and plot. I feel like the whimsical writing was being prioritized above every other aspect of the book. 

If you liked The Book Thief for its writing and its love of words, I suppose this book might be worth checking out, but I ultimately don't recommend it.

Cindy Lieberman

** spoiler alert **
           3.5 This was a lovely but flawed book about love and loss. The biggest flaw is the start of the book - perhaps even the first 20-25% of it - is confusing and fairly uninteresting. Obscure references to “the murderer” (note this is not a murder mystery) and the lack of any timeline made it quite difficult to follow. Only when it was delving into the childhoods of specific characters did it start to become interesting. 
In the end, I was able to follow the time jumps but still would have liked the date to have be stated. And while I can figure out what the “Bridge of Clay” means, I still have no idea why it was being built in the first place. That must have been communicated during the early and really boring parts of the book, so if anyone is reading this who knows, I would be grateful for the explanation. 
In all, I’m glad I stuck with it for the beautiful stories but can’t say I’d recommend it to many people. It would be good for a book club, however, since the discussion might be interesting.

Julie D.

five out of five stars to penny and her beautiful boys. 

i was not expecting to enjoy this at all due to reviews saying that it was different than mz's other books but here i am, another life changed due to clay. you'll find this story etched into my heart years from now and i just know that i'll always always always remember the stories surrounding greek epics, a typewriter, and a brood of dunbar brothers.

Inês Santos

This was a story I needed to read. The Dunbar boys will forever hold a place in my heart

Bridge of Clay is about a boy who is caught in the current - of destroying everything he has, to become all he needs to be. He's a boy in search of greatness, as a cure for memory and tragedy. He builds a bridge to save his family, but also to save himself. It's an attempt to transcend humanness, to make a single, glorious moment: A miracle and nothing less.

Rebekah Holland

I have to admit...even though it was slightly confusing at the start and it doesn’t quite reach the greatness of The Book Thief, this book still made its way into my heart and if anything it made me love the way Markus Zusak writes even more. I would definitely recommend this book if you are wanting something that is light but tinged with sadness and the idea of living through what life throws at you

Elizabeth Raines

Jess

Hala Abdulaziz 

4.5 ⭐️
Markus Suzak’s writing style is so beautiful , so beautiful 

I adored the family dynamic , the brotherhood, the mother and Henry and everyone , even the mule .. 
I loved how the author dived into each character individually to give you the bigger picture of how everything turned out the way it did .

I was honestly so hesitant about picking this book , I heard a couple of bad reviews and I was expecting to be disappointed, but this was a beautiful surprise, I loved it

Elena Enns

No book has made me laugh and cry in such a long time. Thank you for this amazing story that i’ll be sure to read again and again

Wiktoria Balcerak

The horses were just too much for me. I didn't enjoy the story as much as I thought I would but I loved the parts about Penelope.

Sarah Jackson

I found this book challenging. There seemed to be all this really important symbolism and imagery about the family bond and unity despite tragedy but the slow pacing and constantly changing time period made it very difficult to follow. 

In a way I think Zusak was being too clever for his own good. I think this is the least strong of the books he has written, but in saying that this is still a very strong book. I just feel like I need to really research it in depth to fully understand what it has to offer

Federica

I am probably one of the few to have read this book before The Book Thief, and reading so many positive reviews about it made me want to try this author for the first time. I agree with many of the reviews written here, I struggled to get into the story. It was certainly a very painful reading in which I thought many times of ending ahead of time. The story did not capture my attention at all, the characters were not described in detail and therefore I could not establish a connection with them. I gave this book 3 stars because despite this, there were a couple of things that interested me and that I wanted to know, so I decided to finish it. The Penelope story was the only one that really interested me more than the others, and it was the only reason I resisted until the end. I hope that by reading The Book Thief I will be able to fall in love with this author's writing and stories.

Shandi &
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

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