Group Read, December 2015: The Bridge on the Drina

Our December Group Read is The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric. Please add any comments you have here.

I'm finding this slow but oddly compelling. So far it doesn't exactly have a plot. I mean, it's about a bridge. Really about a bridge. The writing is great and I'm curious to see where I'm being taken.

it's about the Balkans and is, so far, a masterful presentation of the history.

I believe that the author describes this book as a "Chronicle" and that seems like an apt term -- a particular mixture of the big, sweeping political picture and smaller moments of purely local interest. I recognize that it's a good book and I'm getting a sense of Bosnian history and culture (about which I knew very little) from it. However, I'm glad to be simultaneously listening to a novel with a plot on audiobooks.

Is anybody else reading? I am past the half-way mark and I've finally gotten into the rhythm of this book but I am still not finding it the easiest or most engaging read. Somebody on this list wrote a really positive review of it a while back which was what prompted me to nominate it for our group read. Was it you, Arukiyomi?

I just started reading it. It took me a while to find a copy.
I enjoyed Bosnian Chronicle and was hoping that this book would be similar.

>5 annamorphic: I read it a while back, 18 months ago, and really enjoyed it. I loved the structure -- the linked vignettes and really enjoyed reading about a place otherwise completely unknown to me. I did read it on a vacation, so had more time/concentration to devote to it, which helped.

I haven't been able to get a copy so far but I did listen to part of the first chapter on you tube and its sounded quite interesting. Hoping I can track a copy down soon.

I seconded it as I had it on the shelf and am about halfway though. Not read it so the review wasn't me.

I read it earlier this year and enjoyed it. 4/5

>8 Jan_1: http://www.betterworldbooks.com/the-bridge-on-the-drina-id-9780226020457.aspx

(They have free world-wide shipping)

>7 ELiz_M: I think the secret must be time/concentration, because it hasn't been working well read in 20-minute bits before I go to sleep at night. But now that the semester is over I'm picking up speed and enjoying it more.

Just started reading today.

thanks Eliz-M :)

Done.

Wonderful ending... so poignant. This book I think perfectly encapsulates what life is like even now in the Balkans which has always had fault lines of ethnicities, religions, languages and political views running right through it. The bridge is symbolic of humanity's desire to tie and join, to traverse and connect people despite our diversity. Its fate is a testimony to our constant failure to achieve this.

This book oozes pathos; only those with the hardest of hearts could fail to be moved by the numerous vignettes of life Andric describes so masterfully.

It's a novel that I'll remember for a long while, and I now want to return to Bosnia Herzegovina and walk across to the kapia myself one day.