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Bridge of Clay

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Prescription: I can’t seem to recommend this for anyone in the time being. If you want a better story about 5 brothers which is more relatable and has great writing then I recommend Watching Glass Shatter by James Cudney! i feel like this could have been a really well written book if we were just given some structure but it just felt so disorganized and haphazard and i couldnt grasp at anything at all All in all, this book was a very unique journey. I loved it. I gave it 4 stars because of the hard start, and some parts of the book that were too slow (like the horse racing part). There is a family, and then there are five Dunbar boys with too many animals for a house that little. There is chaos and love. Someone will run away and someone will stay. The story of how the boys bought Achilles. It was so lucid! It was sweet and heartbreaking! I even lulzed a little bit!

Rory is shown after heavy drinking several times. Penny and Michael have a beer or a drink a few times. Penny takes the whole family for a pint at the pub before she dies, even her underage kids. Parents shown smoking cigarettes a few times.Publishers Weekly commented that Zusak builds tension skilfully by his use of foreshadowing and symbolism, which exposes the secrets of the story. They also praised his use of historical scope to create a "sensitively rendered tale of loss, grief, and guilt's manifestations". [10] Though praising the book for its symbolic weight, The Washington Post points out that the work is burdened by its two decades of rewriting and revising, claiming the story to be 'extravagantly over-engineered'. [4] The Guardian finds that much like his previous novel The Book Thief, Death plays a major part of this work—noting that 'death steals the show'. Noting that his use of colors often leads to "theatrical illumination", and that this work, unlike his former is "affirmatively full of life". [5] In a complex narrative that leaps through time and place and across oceans, Zusak paints a vivid portrait of the brothers trying to regain their balance by keeping their family’s story alive.”— Time

The story opens with Matthew, the oldest Dunbar boy, bringing home the old TW, the typewriter of a Grandmother they never knew. I found the "twist" ultra-tiresome and not even remotely satisfying in its proposed emotional payoff.

Bridge of Clay

In the sequel to Furyborn (2018), Rielle and Eliana struggle across time with their powers and prophesied destinies. I read the “Book Thief” first, then the “The Messenger” now ” The Bridge of Clay”, this book, to me, is the most emotionalist. Penny’s strength though dying is heart wrenching, yet the love she has is endless. A must read for anyone that has a heart. Working with Zusak throughout the creation of BRIDGE OF CLAY was his editor, Erin Clarke, who says, “Markus is one of the kindest and most generous people I know. He’s also meticulous at his craft, which despite the struggles that caused over the past decade, ultimately rewarded not only him but me, as his editor, and I hope and believe, his readers.” The only thing worse than not liking a book is knowing you are probably in the minority with that opinion. I'm left with a feeling of what did I miss? The plot is good but I just could never get into the writing style. I'll go sit in my corner alone now while everyone else has an amazing reading experience. This just wasn't the right book for me but I do hope others enjoy it. A captivating book with a mighty, fearless heart, BRIDGE OF CLAY is filled with characters to believe in and care about … achingly moving, delightfully funny, and thoroughly uplifting.”—M. L. Stedman, bestselling author of The Light Between Oceans

Books and reading figure strongly with the boys, who love the stories of the classics, especially the Odyssey and ancient history. Clay begs to hear his mother’s stories, often just family anecdotes, and he seems a little simple at first. Only at first. There’s a lot more to him. He does become the bridge in the family even as he helps to physically build a real bridge with stone arches and all. There were times this book really spoke to me, but then would follow a really long chapter focused on horse racing and I felt my attention waning. Matthew Dunbar – the oldest Dunbar boy, and narrator of the book. As the oldest brother, responsibility to take care of the family fell to him once their father left. I adored Markus Zusak’s modern classic The Book Thief. Its subject matter will hopefully never be repeated. And that novel’s mastery, it’s knife-edge balance of whimsy and gravitas was never going to be repeated. So the comparisons should, and in my review will stop there. It is the story of Clay, the fourth Dunbar brother - being told by Matthew, the oldest. It covers first love, abandonment, death and many other powerful topics.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide. Get started Close Beautifully written and thought-provoking, Bridge of Clay will tug at your heartstrings; and at the essential core of the novel is the delightfully uplifting message that life tends to find a way to make things right in the end.” — New York Journal of Books For fans of Markus Zusak’s remarkable The Book Thief, it has been a long wait for his newest novel, Bridge of Clay. In fact, Bridge of Clay represents an idea that has been 20 years in the making. That Zusak has spent so long working on the novel is a testament to his determination, as well as his faith that Bridge of Clay is a story worth telling. I love Zusak’s writing for its succinct distillation of the human experience and have been waiting for this release with patient anticipation. While I didn’t know what to expect – particularly as a follow-up to the unexpected global success of The Book Thief– I was prepared to assume that Zusak’s narrative skill would turn any plot into a revelation. I certainly wasn’t disappointed. Although Bridge of Clay has flaws – an inevitability with a work that has taken so long to come to fruition – they feel incidental to a work that is so replete with vulnerability. It is easily one of the most humanistic novels that I’ve read this year – a raw account of the trauma that can accompany both loss and reconciliation. Bridge of Clay is the intensity of the prose - the potency of the heartbreak. The depth of grief and loss is so palpable you can all but feel the blood, sweat, and tears that went into crafting the story. Zusak ably conjures the chaos of family life and the scars of abandonment; the way memory and tragedy inform the story reads, at times, nothing short of visceral.' Entertainment Weekly

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