recently i finished a rather unique book called 'between the bridge and the river'. now, in the interest of full discloser, i must tell you who the author is. its written by craig fergison, the host of the late late show on cbs, and one of the funniest people on tv in my opinion (which happens to be correct...). so, my analysis may be a bit bias, but i will try to give an honest assessment.the basic story is about two scottish boys who are great friends through out school, but in high school one of them, fraser, gets fed up with it and drops out of school. this starts the drifting apart of the two former friends. the book picks back up about 30 years later. each of the men have made a life for themselves, fraser is a tv host with a show about God, and charlie has a family. each of them has a life shattering event happen to them, charlie has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and fraser has been found out for the playboy letch he is. they both react by fleeing, one to america, the other to france. they each have some very interesting adventures; one thing leads to another, and at one point they both die.
heres where things get interesting.
fergison brings up some very strange and unique ideas about the afterlife. he imagines that when we die we go on a journey which just so happens to be guided by virgil. yes, the same virgil who guided dante on his trip through the infamous inferno. only its not an inferno, its something else for each person. at one point the two of them meet in the world war 1 trenches and try to figure out whats going on. they make it out alive, and the story twists and turns from there. their story is riviting and increadibly fasinating.
the only problem is, there are two other main characters as well. there are two brothers who are on a soul searching road trip of sorts, and eventually find the perfect con. their story is interesting, but its quite obvious that their story, most of which is set in los angeles, is fergisons attempt at mocking the culture he has been surrounded with since entering show biz. there are somewhat lame attempts at poking fun at scientology and movie executives meddling in productions, but for the most part they seem dated and too easy of targets.
all things considered, it is a very good read. the best parts of the book are fergisons unique style of writing. he often shares short asides explaining the life of characters who are quite inconsiquental to the story. but the fun part is, if you are paying attention to those asides, they often show unusual connections between many of the minor characters. another great writing mechinism he uses very well is the idea of virgil as a storyteller. as the character is being led by him, he shares a few stories. these stories are self contained, but are some of the most memorable short stories ive read in years.
the book delves into alot of questions about religion, but with a very even-handed aproach. there are good and bad on both sides and the topic is never glossed over or simplified to an easy answer.
thought provoking and an amusing page turner. cant beat that!
