bennekasser reviewed The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić
Review of 'The Bridge on the Drina' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
A masterpiece. This book should be better known among Anglophone readers! To a modern reader, Andrić's casual racism can be jarring; often the Muslim characters are cut-outs or stereotypes. The Serbian characters have richer internal lives and their awakening nationalism is described in terms of an unstoppable destiny.
All those criticisms aside, "The Bridge on the Drina" evokes four hundred years of life under Ottoman rule in the town of Višegrad with warmth and humanity. The book is composed of vignettes from the lives of the people of the town , the surrounding villages and of occupiers and invaders as they move on and around the bridge. These vignettes unfold in roughly chronological order, from the time during the sixteenth century before the bridge is commissioned, through the saga of its construction and its four hundred-year existence, until the bridge is destroyed during the first world war.
Despite its location …
A masterpiece. This book should be better known among Anglophone readers! To a modern reader, Andrić's casual racism can be jarring; often the Muslim characters are cut-outs or stereotypes. The Serbian characters have richer internal lives and their awakening nationalism is described in terms of an unstoppable destiny.
All those criticisms aside, "The Bridge on the Drina" evokes four hundred years of life under Ottoman rule in the town of Višegrad with warmth and humanity. The book is composed of vignettes from the lives of the people of the town , the surrounding villages and of occupiers and invaders as they move on and around the bridge. These vignettes unfold in roughly chronological order, from the time during the sixteenth century before the bridge is commissioned, through the saga of its construction and its four hundred-year existence, until the bridge is destroyed during the first world war.
Despite its location as a important river crossing, Višegrad is portrayed as a provincial backwater. The people of the town do not ever seem appreciate the importance of the location of their town as a strategic choke-point, but this is well understood by the Imperial powers that operate at a great remove. Historical events buffet the town, but for the townsfolk, these events are disconnected from any larger narrative. The arbitrariness of events leave the townspeople making do as best they can. Early in the book, a great flood sweeps down the river, inundating large parts of the town. The communities band together to give each other safety and protection. Political events have a similar force, but being the work of human beings, they more often divide the different communities of the town than unite them.
The SezamBook edition I have has many typographical errors; the Dereta edition may be better. Certainly the Dereta edition of "The Days of the Consuls" seems flawless.
