How someone can write a book to follow The Book Thief is by itself a shock to me. Marcus Zusak, however, didn’t settle with simply publishing another work. He created Bridge of Clay- a phenomenal work of art that takes the reader on infinite journeys as he stitches together his majestic tapestry of an ode to Clay Dunbar.
When he wrote The Book Thief, what struck every single reader as a stunner was the personality of the Grim Reaper. No amount of its description is going to do justice to his way of personifying Death as not only witty, but coupling that with a humorous, curious creature that you’d end up admiring over every word in the massive work. What does he do with Bridge of Clay, now? He demonstrates that he can make any regular mortal as fantastic as he made Grim Reaper in (what was once believed to be) his one masterpiece. He makes Clay Dunbar immortal through his words, through his movements, his thoughts and his silence.
I’ve never read an author who uses silence as much as he battles with words. Bridge of Clay firstly is a quiet book. Even in the anecdotes of five feral young boys fighting fist and heels over a game of monopoly, Zusak so beautifully establishes immense maturity and a depth of wisdom painting it in the background of a dying woman in the fore.
Bridge of Clay isn’t a thriller, yet it creates cliffhangers at the end of every single chapter. Not with stupid acts of bravery that leave the protagonist hanging off his nails in incredulously idiotic situations, the creator of Leisel and Max does what he does best to leave readers haunted until they flip the pages- building immensely potent emotional cliffhangers and breaks the narration with a second timeline; much like the tool employed in his first masterpiece.
To me, Bridge of Clay was every bit a masterpiece as The Book Thief, in its own vein, in its own individual regard. To me, it was the humor from Achilles, Telemachus, Hector and Rosy, the emotion constructed carefully around distinctly unique brothers, the awkwardness in the murderer’s talks, the thought behind naming of every single chapter in the book, the poetic depiction of emotions and the world of the Dunbars and the bridges made of 100% Clay.
To me, this was an epic of a novel and I personally hope I don’t have to wait another decade for Zusak’s next marvel.
With this fantastic start to the new year, I’m hoping to finding more incredible reads in 2019.
Perplexed Potatoes 