The Other Side of the Bridge
by Mary Lawson
Chatto & Windus, £12.99; 275pp
THIS BOOK, LONGLISTED for the Man Booker Prize, values quiet. Arthur Dunn is a man of few words, and his habitat is northern Canada, thinly populated and snow-muffled. The pace is measured, the writing never showy. Several characters are taciturn, such as an inscrutable teenage Ojibway Indian and two prisoners-of- war who speak only German.
However, Lawson knows that peace does not necessarily follow from quiet. She creates two parallel stories of families full of devotion, jealousy and yearning that slowly become very touching. They are told through two characters from different generations in a lakeside town. The older is Arthur, a lumpen farmer’s son, sturdy and conscientious. His younger brother, Jake, is not lumpen but quicksilver — charming, handsome but horribly manipulative. As their mother loves Jake, Arthur looks after him, covers up his naughtiness and endures his taunts. But as they grow up, he can bear Jake’s cruelty no longer.
We also hear Ian’s story. A modern teenager, he resents the tedium, his broken family and everyone’s assumption that he will follow his father and grandfather to become town doctor. Ian is not quiet, but comes to understand the value of silence when he gets a summer job with Arthur.
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Ian learns to appreciate, as Arthur does, the turning of the seasons and understanding of land and animals. But as this grows, he also realises that the quiet Arthur is smothering problems still to be resolved.
Lawson’s narratives run smoothly in parallel. The effect is not contrived or difficult to read. This is a very human book; we understand bad Jake and Ian’s weak mother, despite the pain that they cause.
The book is not rip-roaring. Although easy to read, it is no page-turner, and while one may care about the people, no one is likely to get excited over Arthur Dunn. But for all that, it is a good story, full of surprises. Lawson writes atmospherically about Canada and evokes beautifully the big joys and sorrows of most people, no matter how small their town.