July 28, 2009
BOOK REVIEW: 'The Last Bridge': A Stunning Debut Novel of the Year
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
As Teri Coyne's debut novel "The Last Bridge" (Ballantine Books, 240 pages, $22.00) opens, Alexandra "Cat" Rucker learns from her back-in-Ohio "ugly neighbor" Ruth Igby that her abusive monster of a father has suffered a massive stroke that puts him in a coma and that two days later her mother has committed suicide with her husband's shotgun.
The two events are enough to bring the 28-year-old Wilton, Ohio woman from her disorganized alcoholic haze of a life in New York City to the family farm she had fled ten years before. Returning is the last thing Cat Rucker wants to do, but her sister Wendy and her brother Jared are coming back, so she arrives at the farmhouse to receive a ZipLock bag with a letter on lilac stationery addressed to her with the cryptic message: "Cat, He isn’t who you think he is. Mom xxxooo."
Cat spends the rest of the book trying to figure out who the "he" is. Is it her one and only lover, Addison Watkins? Is it Jared, the family jock who never seemed to be there for Cat during her abuse by their father? Is it Andrew Reilly, the county coroner who seems to have known Cat's mother in the past? Or is it her father, the man who chopped off the tip of his wife's ring finger with a hatchet when she tried to leave him, threatening to chop off her hand if she tried to flee again. Or is it all of the above?
Coyne packs a lot of dysfunctional living into a relatively short novel, but she does it in a way that we can visualize and identify with the characters. Cat's father is bitter about the success of his friend Jared Watkins, Addison's father, who's living the good life in California -- or so he thinks. As the author peels back the years, we learn that their friendship was a very complicated relationship. I won't go into the details because I don't want to spoil the book for readers of a book I consider to be the debut novel of the year.
Coyne has said that it took ten years to complete this novel, which combines dark humor with horrifying cruelty. That sounds to me like a definition of life itself. Coyne uses as the novel's epigraph a quotation from the American poet Muriel Rukeyser: "What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open."
As the novel progresses, from one revelation to another, we see Cat Rucker's life split open. I have to admit, with shame, that I'm not familiar with Rukeyser's work, although I'm familiar with her name and status as a distinguished poet. She lived from 1913 to 1980. I am familiar with the work of Joyce Carol Oates and I believe that, at its best, "The Last Bridge" evokes the power of the novels of Oates.
This is not to say that "The Last Bridge" is a copy of Oates; I'm merely suggesting that with her first novel -- and I hope she writes many more -- Coyne has portrayed a family with the nuances found in Oates' writing. Or in Anne Tyler's or John Irving's, two other writers I admire very much for their portrayals of families split asunder. I'm also adding Pete Dexter ("Paris Trout" and "Brotherly Love").
In addition to her writing, Coyne has been a stand-up comedian. She has said that comedy and tragedy are intertwined, impossible to separate. Cat Rucker displays this dichotomy throughout the novel. As I finished the novel, tears were streaming down my face. I'm predicting that many readers will find themselves in a similar situation. You have to mix in humor -- dark humor in Cat's case -- to properly understand family tragedies -- and tragic families -- like the ones Coyne portrays in this wonderful novel.
Publisher's website: www.ballantinebooks.com
Teri Coyne's website: www.tericoyne.com
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BOOK REVIEW: 'The Last Bridge': A Stunning Debut Novel of the Year
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
As Teri Coyne's debut novel "The Last Bridge" (Ballantine Books, 240 pages, $22.00) opens, Alexandra "Cat" Rucker learns from her back-in-Ohio "ugly neighbor" Ruth Igby that her abusive monster of a father has suffered a massive stroke that puts him in a coma and that two days later her mother has committed suicide with her husband's shotgun.
The two events are enough to bring the 28-year-old Wilton, Ohio woman from her disorganized alcoholic haze of a life in New York City to the family farm she had fled ten years before. Returning is the last thing Cat Rucker wants to do, but her sister Wendy and her brother Jared are coming back, so she arrives at the farmhouse to receive a ZipLock bag with a letter on lilac stationery addressed to her with the cryptic message: "Cat, He isn’t who you think he is. Mom xxxooo."
Cat spends the rest of the book trying to figure out who the "he" is. Is it her one and only lover, Addison Watkins? Is it Jared, the family jock who never seemed to be there for Cat during her abuse by their father? Is it Andrew Reilly, the county coroner who seems to have known Cat's mother in the past? Or is it her father, the man who chopped off the tip of his wife's ring finger with a hatchet when she tried to leave him, threatening to chop off her hand if she tried to flee again. Or is it all of the above?
Coyne packs a lot of dysfunctional living into a relatively short novel, but she does it in a way that we can visualize and identify with the characters. Cat's father is bitter about the success of his friend Jared Watkins, Addison's father, who's living the good life in California -- or so he thinks. As the author peels back the years, we learn that their friendship was a very complicated relationship. I won't go into the details because I don't want to spoil the book for readers of a book I consider to be the debut novel of the year.
Coyne has said that it took ten years to complete this novel, which combines dark humor with horrifying cruelty. That sounds to me like a definition of life itself. Coyne uses as the novel's epigraph a quotation from the American poet Muriel Rukeyser: "What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open."
As the novel progresses, from one revelation to another, we see Cat Rucker's life split open. I have to admit, with shame, that I'm not familiar with Rukeyser's work, although I'm familiar with her name and status as a distinguished poet. She lived from 1913 to 1980. I am familiar with the work of Joyce Carol Oates and I believe that, at its best, "The Last Bridge" evokes the power of the novels of Oates.
This is not to say that "The Last Bridge" is a copy of Oates; I'm merely suggesting that with her first novel -- and I hope she writes many more -- Coyne has portrayed a family with the nuances found in Oates' writing. Or in Anne Tyler's or John Irving's, two other writers I admire very much for their portrayals of families split asunder. I'm also adding Pete Dexter ("Paris Trout" and "Brotherly Love").
In addition to her writing, Coyne has been a stand-up comedian. She has said that comedy and tragedy are intertwined, impossible to separate. Cat Rucker displays this dichotomy throughout the novel. As I finished the novel, tears were streaming down my face. I'm predicting that many readers will find themselves in a similar situation. You have to mix in humor -- dark humor in Cat's case -- to properly understand family tragedies -- and tragic families -- like the ones Coyne portrays in this wonderful novel.
Publisher's website: www.ballantinebooks.com
Teri Coyne's website: www.tericoyne.com
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