Evan S. Connell achieved fame with his remarkable biography of General Armstrong Custer, SON OF MORNING STAR. But he was an accomplished artist long before that. His literary reputation rests in large measure on his two Bridge books. MR. BRIDGE is the companion volume to Connell's MRS. BRIDGE. It is made up of fragments of experience from the life of a middle-aged suburban couple between two wars. Brief episodes are juxtaposed to reveal the stereotyped values and emotional and spiritual aridity of the prosperous and ever-so-proper Bridges. "Connell's art is one of restraint and perfect mimicry. His chapters are admirably short, his style is brevity itself...rarely has a satirist damned his subject with such good humor." (The New York Times)

Mr Bridge

Before Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique there was Mrs. Bridge, an inspired novel set in the years around World War II that testified to the sapping ennui of an unexamined suburban life. India Bridge, the title character, has three children and a meticulous workaholic husband. She defends her dainty, untouched guest towels from son Douglas, who has the gall to dry his hands on one, and earnestly attempts to control her daughters with pronouncements such as "Now see here, young lady ... in the morning one doesn't wear earrings that dangle." Though her life is increasingly filled with leisure and plenty, she can't shuffle off vague feelings of dissatisfaction, confusion, and futility. Evan S. Connell, who also wrote the twinned novel Mr. Bridge, builds a world with tiny brushstrokes and short, telling vignettes.

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