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The Bridge
In the near future humanity has tired of its miserable life so much that a fanatical government decides to give earth back to nature. While all around Dominick Priest humanity is either commiting suicide or being killed by fanatics, the hero struggles overland toward his home village, not really knowing what awaits him there. On the way there, including during the crossing of the name-giving storm-tossed suspension bridge, he slowly goes mad and becomes the prophet of a new religion that embraces life
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
About the author
D. Keith Mano
9 books19 followersD. (David) Keith Mano graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University in 1963. He spent the next year as a Kellett Fellow in English at Clare College, Cambridge, and toured as an actor with the Marlowe Society of England. He came back to America in 1964 as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Columbia. He has appeared in several off-Broadway productions and toured with the National Shakespeare Company. Mano married Jo Margaret McArthur on 3 August 1964, and they had two children before their divorce in 1979. Mano left the Episcopal church for the Eastern Orthodox in 1979. He lived, until his death in September 2016, in Manhattan with his second wife, actress Laurie Kennedy.
Mano's nine novels emphasize religious and ethical themes and focus on contemporary issues seen from the point of view of a conservative Episcopalian. The novels are rich with comic action and written in an energetic style that occasionally caves in on itself from too much straining for effect.
Mano's nine novels emphasize religious and ethical themes and focus on contemporary issues seen from the point of view of a conservative Episcopalian. The novels are rich with comic action and written in an energetic style that occasionally caves in on itself from too much straining for effect.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 16, 2014
This is not a genre novel, though it was marketed as sci-fi/dystopia fiction. It is set in the future, yes, but its point is not to explore a possible future, or to imagine strange new worlds and new civilizations, but rather to explore something about human nature/belief/faith by observing its response to a different environment, a different culture.
The first paragraph runs as follows:
"At the crest he could hear the first eee-thud, eee-thud of the mortars. In the rear seat Carol clapped her hands. The Model T's hood hesitated, then dipped, level. Oscar shifted, gave the engine relief. His palms bore bracelet tooth marks from the steering wheel: he had been lifting hopefully with shoulders and hands while they drove the steep incline. Eleanor, beside him on the wooden seat, leaned forward, placed her fingertips on the dashboard gently, a grace note, hands spread octave wide. Carol, behind Oscar, caressed the seven months of her pregnancy. She rubbed the opaque ball, depressing it, prodding it, as though there were discrete, erogenous parts. Juices of her excitement intrigued the fetus. It moved. Carol leaned sideways on the rear seat. She touched her twin sister's seven-month pregnancy. It was a tough muscle, contracted. Julie giggled: a whinny, an extraordinary sound blown through mouth and nostrils, an arcane call of their childhood. Eleanor made fists when she heard this, the joined cry of Oscar's other wives. She glared at him. Oscar didn't see. Though reluctantly, he too had been thrilled by the mortar's drumming, by the meshed tusks of piping, falling sound. Holiday memories, his family: Oscar touched the red armband, a tourniquet for his left biceps. It was an austere civilization; this was ceremony and entertainment."
Things I like about this:
1. Throwing us in with the unexplained mortars
2. crest/first and the repetition of "eee-thud"
3. And then the Model T - so anachronistic and disorienting
4. "His palms bore bracelet tooth marks from the steering wheel"
5. "the meshed tusks of piping, falling sound"
6. The way we move from the sky, to the car, to Oscar and his wives, to the fetus, then back to a childhood, then rush out to the whole of their civilization. This is very efficient and controlled writing.
6. How much he shows us about the characters in this short section.
The novel starts and end in the future of the future, with the core of the novel set closer to the present. This allows us a doubling of perspective, and a sense of the creation and distortion of the mythic.
Fundamentally, what can I say? This was pure pleasure to read and would, though I know how idiotic a thing this is to say, make a great movie. But for me the highlight was the quality of the prose, the hardness of the sentences and the level of control and skill that Mano possesses.
The first paragraph runs as follows:
"At the crest he could hear the first eee-thud, eee-thud of the mortars. In the rear seat Carol clapped her hands. The Model T's hood hesitated, then dipped, level. Oscar shifted, gave the engine relief. His palms bore bracelet tooth marks from the steering wheel: he had been lifting hopefully with shoulders and hands while they drove the steep incline. Eleanor, beside him on the wooden seat, leaned forward, placed her fingertips on the dashboard gently, a grace note, hands spread octave wide. Carol, behind Oscar, caressed the seven months of her pregnancy. She rubbed the opaque ball, depressing it, prodding it, as though there were discrete, erogenous parts. Juices of her excitement intrigued the fetus. It moved. Carol leaned sideways on the rear seat. She touched her twin sister's seven-month pregnancy. It was a tough muscle, contracted. Julie giggled: a whinny, an extraordinary sound blown through mouth and nostrils, an arcane call of their childhood. Eleanor made fists when she heard this, the joined cry of Oscar's other wives. She glared at him. Oscar didn't see. Though reluctantly, he too had been thrilled by the mortar's drumming, by the meshed tusks of piping, falling sound. Holiday memories, his family: Oscar touched the red armband, a tourniquet for his left biceps. It was an austere civilization; this was ceremony and entertainment."
Things I like about this:
1. Throwing us in with the unexplained mortars
2. crest/first and the repetition of "eee-thud"
3. And then the Model T - so anachronistic and disorienting
4. "His palms bore bracelet tooth marks from the steering wheel"
5. "the meshed tusks of piping, falling sound"
6. The way we move from the sky, to the car, to Oscar and his wives, to the fetus, then back to a childhood, then rush out to the whole of their civilization. This is very efficient and controlled writing.
6. How much he shows us about the characters in this short section.
The novel starts and end in the future of the future, with the core of the novel set closer to the present. This allows us a doubling of perspective, and a sense of the creation and distortion of the mythic.
Fundamentally, what can I say? This was pure pleasure to read and would, though I know how idiotic a thing this is to say, make a great movie. But for me the highlight was the quality of the prose, the hardness of the sentences and the level of control and skill that Mano possesses.
November 30, 2017
Others have said that this unusual science fiction by rediscovered postmodern aspirant D. Keith Mano is only masquerading as genre fiction. I would say that it's total genre fiction, but of the high-concept clever, highly literate sort (I do not see this as a contradiction of terms). It's a classic apocalyptic dystopia, a road novel through the last dregs of civilization in New York and north Jersey (and how often does any book unfold along the meadowland edges of north Jersey? I mean, the story passes through Paramus, of all places). The protagonist is rather a caveman, an icon of dumb virile masculinity presented as a warped mirror to the effete humanity that has decided to remove itself from the earth it has nearly laid wast to ('The Ecologists'). As such, this is as ideological as any other great novel of the sci-fi New Wave, but strung with a certain reactionary quality. There's a palpable contrarianism (perhaps even a kind of revulsion) to the scenes of a chaotic rebounding nature stampeding and starving itself to death in its blind drive to multiply, as if to suggest that humans were better stewards afterall. This would all irritate me much more were it not for the post-modern frame narrative, places the story as secondary reaction from further in the future, where a kind of barbaric theocratic Americana has re-emerged from the ashes. Whatever Mano actually thinks (I sense ideological differences), he was savvy enough to present these two nested dystopias of opposing polarities, creating a much more nuanced mirror of the times in which he wrote them. And oh yes, the prose style -- completely as lavish and apocalyptic as the landscape, purulent and erupting with natural and human details.
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May 20, 2017The Bridge is a dystopian sci-fi novel which takes as its premise the deleterious effects which the human population has on the non-human population of this planet. This ontological guilt of the human race has only one reasonable solution--we must eliminate ourselves so that Nature may return to grace. Meanwhile, Mano writes a true faith-in-fiction novel, one in which Christian faith is not a solution to some problem of existence, but is itself a problem of existence with which the person of faith must come to terms. Only few writers, such as Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky, have taken seriously the fact that only the truly religious find their faith entirely unburdenable and yet so out of joint with, not only material and social existence, but even spiritual experience. Only from a position of faith is the impossibility of faith experiencable. Again, Mano's fictioning puts him in that gap of oblivion between the sweet numbness of narcissistic believerhood and the naive atheist incapable of comprehending any possible human experience beyond the brute stupidity of facticity.
A lost dystopia which ought to be revived by anyone interested in continued human survival.
__________
Crossing the Bridge
A blog-review by Drew
“Just to show you that there really is nothing new under the sun, Gerald at The Cafeteria Is Closed reports on this movement by some liberals to ‘reduce the carbon footprint’ on the planet by depopulating – in other words, humans must die (off) so the planet can live on. Taking it one step further, there’s the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, which suggests that ‘everyone in the world should stop having kids all at once.’ As Gerald says, this is only the logical extension of such thinking. ‘Wouldn't it be only proper for people suggesting this (and heck, given a chance, they'd enforce it) to kill themselves and set an example?’
“This was precisely the idea behind D. Keith Mano’s brilliant, disturbing 1973 novel, The Bridge."
______________
The Requisite Stupid Review
Bad Idea Books: The Bridge, by D. Keith Mano
A blog-review by Sean Clark
“What Would It Be Like Today?: Glenn Beck would try and frighten America with a Bridge-like novel in which the government is run by non-Evangelicals, who mandate cultural euthanasia in the name of Allah or a Shinto god, and one NASCAR fan stands up and bears the torch of a religion crippled by misinformation and laziness, and knocks up a lot of women from Red States, thus saving society.”
Kindness would have led me to omit the above reviewer’s name, but you would have found it sooner or later.
______________
Time Magazine Review, 10 September 1973.
Books: Lost Worlds
by Martha Duffy
“It is not much of a favor to either writer to say that D. Keith Mano is a kind of male Joyce Carol Gates, but there are some similarities. Both novelists are young, ambitious, notably prolific, and serious about the novel as an art form. Both enjoy literary reputations that crackle along in the streets like San Francisco cable lines when no car is in sight.”
Another damn Time review without the full text. A little help?
______________
Once again, the Wittenburg Door Interview.
A lost dystopia which ought to be revived by anyone interested in continued human survival.
__________
Crossing the Bridge
A blog-review by Drew
“Just to show you that there really is nothing new under the sun, Gerald at The Cafeteria Is Closed reports on this movement by some liberals to ‘reduce the carbon footprint’ on the planet by depopulating – in other words, humans must die (off) so the planet can live on. Taking it one step further, there’s the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, which suggests that ‘everyone in the world should stop having kids all at once.’ As Gerald says, this is only the logical extension of such thinking. ‘Wouldn't it be only proper for people suggesting this (and heck, given a chance, they'd enforce it) to kill themselves and set an example?’
“This was precisely the idea behind D. Keith Mano’s brilliant, disturbing 1973 novel, The Bridge."
______________
The Requisite Stupid Review
Bad Idea Books: The Bridge, by D. Keith Mano
A blog-review by Sean Clark
“What Would It Be Like Today?: Glenn Beck would try and frighten America with a Bridge-like novel in which the government is run by non-Evangelicals, who mandate cultural euthanasia in the name of Allah or a Shinto god, and one NASCAR fan stands up and bears the torch of a religion crippled by misinformation and laziness, and knocks up a lot of women from Red States, thus saving society.”
Kindness would have led me to omit the above reviewer’s name, but you would have found it sooner or later.
______________
Time Magazine Review, 10 September 1973.
Books: Lost Worlds
by Martha Duffy
“It is not much of a favor to either writer to say that D. Keith Mano is a kind of male Joyce Carol Gates, but there are some similarities. Both novelists are young, ambitious, notably prolific, and serious about the novel as an art form. Both enjoy literary reputations that crackle along in the streets like San Francisco cable lines when no car is in sight.”
Another damn Time review without the full text. A little help?
______________
Once again, the Wittenburg Door Interview.
February 14, 2022
If we accept that there is a canon of so-called dystopian literature, then this forgotten 1973 novel by D. Keith Mano certainly belongs there. Written in a novel-within-a-novel framework, the book begins with a prologue set in a future far beyond the one described in the character Oscar's manuscript on the 'true' life of Dominick Priest. Humanity has now returned to a semi-primitive state and its culture is rooted in a cult-like religion established by Priest, now revered as a god. The prologue sets the stage for a story of a time not far off from our present day. In an extreme response to impending ecological collapse, humans have decreed all life as sacred, and thus killing it in any form to be a punishable act. Swarms of insects run rampant, necessitating the use of protective insect suits and masks. Mechanized transport no longer functions; roads and railway beds are overrun with abundant plant life. New York City is slowly being engulfed by a thriving, genetically-modified creeper vine. Cancer is a common cause of death now that tumors are considered a life form and advanced medical care was deemed unacceptable due to the amount of bacteria it destroyed. Humans subsist on a synthetic liquid diet laced with a narcotic intended to keep them docile. The 'food' causes vitamin deficiencies that result in genetic malformations such as bowed legs and dwarfism. Biodegradable in the human gut to prevent now-illegal excretion, the diet results in painful spasms rendering an individual helpless on the ground for several minutes. Spoken language has been outlawed and communication is now limited to finger-tapping on an interlocutor's inner wrist. In this world Dominick Priest is an anomaly. He never learned to finger-tap so can only converse with those who still know how to lip-read. He eats a bare minimum of the liquid diet in order to maintain a clear head. And yet he is perceived as stupid and less advanced than his drugged and blindly obedient fellows. Granted he operates at a rather literal level, but he's also a product of his sheltered upbringing. At least he is curious.
Mano covers a lot of thematic ground in this relatively short novel. There is the obvious satirical commentary on what he perceived to be the alarmist environmentalism of the post-Silent Spring times (Mano would later devote one of his National Review columns to fleshing out his conservative views on this topic, defending the use of DDT and generally holding forth on the primacy of humans). There is also consideration of human sexuality and gender constructs. And at the heart of it is a deep examination of faith through the characters of Dominick Priest and Xavier Paul. This is where Mano excels. Priest is presented as the 'bridge' between modern Christianity as we know it (as espoused by Xavier Paul) and the future cult described in the prologue and epilogue (established by Priest himself, later worshiped as a god). As described in Oscar's manuscript, after meeting Xavier Paul, history's last actual living Christian priest, Dominick Priest becomes fascinated by Christian rites and incessantly pesters Xavier Paul to baptize him, perceiving some advantage to this process, though not fully comprehending its significance. Xavier Paul experiences an ongoing crisis of his own faith as he travels with Priest, grappling with the decision over whether or not to assist in the 'saving' of Priest, whom he suspects of not possessing faith or even the capacity to achieve it. That the entirety of humanity's future descendants would then come to put their own faith in Priest as a god and the violent, bastardized version of Christianity he later concocts is darkly amusing in both a horrifying and thought-provoking manner.
Mano covers a lot of thematic ground in this relatively short novel. There is the obvious satirical commentary on what he perceived to be the alarmist environmentalism of the post-Silent Spring times (Mano would later devote one of his National Review columns to fleshing out his conservative views on this topic, defending the use of DDT and generally holding forth on the primacy of humans). There is also consideration of human sexuality and gender constructs. And at the heart of it is a deep examination of faith through the characters of Dominick Priest and Xavier Paul. This is where Mano excels. Priest is presented as the 'bridge' between modern Christianity as we know it (as espoused by Xavier Paul) and the future cult described in the prologue and epilogue (established by Priest himself, later worshiped as a god). As described in Oscar's manuscript, after meeting Xavier Paul, history's last actual living Christian priest, Dominick Priest becomes fascinated by Christian rites and incessantly pesters Xavier Paul to baptize him, perceiving some advantage to this process, though not fully comprehending its significance. Xavier Paul experiences an ongoing crisis of his own faith as he travels with Priest, grappling with the decision over whether or not to assist in the 'saving' of Priest, whom he suspects of not possessing faith or even the capacity to achieve it. That the entirety of humanity's future descendants would then come to put their own faith in Priest as a god and the violent, bastardized version of Christianity he later concocts is darkly amusing in both a horrifying and thought-provoking manner.
July 15, 2019
If this was condensed from 250 to 50 pages long it might be the greatest Sci-Fi short story of all time.
October 3, 2014
This is a great book in a lot of ways, but I feel that I missed something. There is a short prologue and epilogue, both set in the far future during a religious festival that seems to involve executions via a complicated ritual involving blowing people up with mortars. The inhabitants of this far future worship someone called Priest who is the main character through the main part of the book. I think there's something clever going on here, but I totally missed the point of the prologue and epilogue personally, and I didn't understand why they were included.
The main part of the book is great. It takes place some time before the prologue and epilogue (although still in the future from our point of view). The story begins when Priest is released from prison, where he is being held as a result of speaking aloud through anger. The government in power has taken green issues to a ridiculous extreme and many laws are in place to protect plants and animals, even if mankind suffers as a result. Everyone speaks using sign language (I'm not sure if this is due to noise pollution or political correctness gone mad) and wears an 'insect suit' that totally covers the body and head to reduce insect bites (there are lots of insects and it's illegal to swat them).
It turns out that the prison has been shut because a law has been passed to voluntarily end the human race. Everyone is to take a suicide pill before a certain date (a few days after Priest's release) and this is enforced by a type of police force. Strangely most people accept this as sensible because human breath is responsible for the death of a particular type of bacterium, and humans are considered to have no right to live at the bacteria's expense.
Priest seems to be the only person who doesn't want to die, and attempts to reach his wife and daughter before it's too late. I won't spoil the story, but the characters and scenes he comes across are brilliant. They're very imaginative and well written, and definitely worth exploring for yourself if you can get hold of a copy of this book.
The main part of the book is great. It takes place some time before the prologue and epilogue (although still in the future from our point of view). The story begins when Priest is released from prison, where he is being held as a result of speaking aloud through anger. The government in power has taken green issues to a ridiculous extreme and many laws are in place to protect plants and animals, even if mankind suffers as a result. Everyone speaks using sign language (I'm not sure if this is due to noise pollution or political correctness gone mad) and wears an 'insect suit' that totally covers the body and head to reduce insect bites (there are lots of insects and it's illegal to swat them).
It turns out that the prison has been shut because a law has been passed to voluntarily end the human race. Everyone is to take a suicide pill before a certain date (a few days after Priest's release) and this is enforced by a type of police force. Strangely most people accept this as sensible because human breath is responsible for the death of a particular type of bacterium, and humans are considered to have no right to live at the bacteria's expense.
Priest seems to be the only person who doesn't want to die, and attempts to reach his wife and daughter before it's too late. I won't spoil the story, but the characters and scenes he comes across are brilliant. They're very imaginative and well written, and definitely worth exploring for yourself if you can get hold of a copy of this book.
November 16, 2020
I came across this book after stumbling onto the Wikipedia page for the “Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT)”. The movement truly astonished me and so I was quite captivated by the idea of actually going through with this idea, an idea that Mano explores in this novel. Setting aside the validity of VHEMT’s aims, I was disappointed with Mano’s interpretation of this idea. He parodies the concerns regarding the negative effect that humans are having on the environment and is quite heavy handed in displaying the degeneracy he sees in a world free from/incompatible with Christian morality. While the misogyny and homophobia is not altogether surprising for a book written in the early 1970s, Mano’s use of them as a shorthand for a world completely debased seems intolerant even for that time. While there is an interesting exploration of the savagery innate in the human species, I found the book as whole too focused on simply scandalizing the audience as to the slippery slope of environmental ideas and the backlash they will undoubtedly, in the author’s mind, create.
September 1, 2009
It was marginally better than The Road, had a more interesting plot and character, brought forth some interesting philosophical thoughts about the end of life and civilization and religion, but unless you're a big fan of dystopian lit, don't bother. One thing I did find annoying is the way the author always chose 2 adjectives or 2 prepositions to detail what was going on. like saying something is "behind/next to" etc....and it was annoying enough for me to mention here. I think it would make a great movie and I think it actually reads more like a screenplay. Not bad, not great, but better than The Road. At least it had complete sentences and wasn't obsessed with itself.
April 12, 2020
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
"The Bridge (1973) is D. Keith Mano’s only “full-fledged” SF work (Clute on SF encyclopedia). Mano’s profoundly unsettling dystopic New York circa 2035 is characterized by an unusual mix of radical environmentalism gone amok and Christianity misinterpreted beyond recognition. In our current day of overwhelming evidence of Global warming and other types of environmental devastation caused by mankind, Mano’s near future will come off as unnecessarily alarmist.
Clearly Mano means his work to be a satire of the most draconian rhetorical flourishes of the environmentalist [...]"
"The Bridge (1973) is D. Keith Mano’s only “full-fledged” SF work (Clute on SF encyclopedia). Mano’s profoundly unsettling dystopic New York circa 2035 is characterized by an unusual mix of radical environmentalism gone amok and Christianity misinterpreted beyond recognition. In our current day of overwhelming evidence of Global warming and other types of environmental devastation caused by mankind, Mano’s near future will come off as unnecessarily alarmist.
Clearly Mano means his work to be a satire of the most draconian rhetorical flourishes of the environmentalist [...]"
November 10, 2019
I don't know how this book got on my reading list. It was ok, but a little confusing. Everything was not explained. I've read sci fi that did not explain everything, but the rest of the story was so good that I didn't care. This was not the case for this book. I finished it in the hopes that the story would clear up, but it never did. I don't think I will read anything else by this author.
October 17, 2020
Interesting. A poorly misinterpreted(on purpose) telling of the story of Jesus that ends in cannibalism. The characters are living in a US that bans talking, eating any that is not E-diet, and killing nothing. All because they were nasty to life on earth. It is amazing how many of these stories circle around the stuff that is happening now.
October 22, 2019
Extremely weird and challenging but interesting.
May 25, 2014
This is a weird book. Weird, weird,weird. I didn't love it, yet I was disappointed when I reached the last page.
The story is set in New York in 2035, and all killing has been completely outlawed, whether it be man, beast, or microorganism. Much of the country has been taken over by wildlife, with buildings falling down, decaying, crumbling apart. Humans live on a man made liquid diet called E-diet. Acts of aggression have also been outlawed. People can't even argue with each other without being arrested. Raised voices? No. No voices at all. Humans communicate with a type of sign language, using their fingers to tap out messages against another person's arm.
“Tumors had been declared an autonomous life form, no less valid than the life form of their hosts. In any case, the doctors could do little. Drugs, x-rays, surgery were illegal: they destroyed unconscionably high numbers of bacteria.” pg 51
Dominick Priest was arrested for playing chess by himself – a competitive game. But he is unexpectedly released, along with all his fellow prisoners, under a government mandate for all humans to eliminate themselves for the good of the planet. Everyone is given a suicide pill, and are expected to use it within a certain period of time. Priest sets out on an odyssey to find and reunite with his wife. In his travels, he meets up with an actual priest, who teaches him a bit about ancient (to him) Christianity.
The prologue and epilogue are both set even farther in the future, where Dominick Priest is the current population's spin on Jesus Christ. When I said earlier I was disappointed to reach the last page, it's because we leave Priest at the end of his travels, with only a brief glimpse into how he attains his later exalted status. An abrupt end to his story that wasn't the end of his story, and I wanted to stay with him for awhile.
Originally posted on my blog.
The story is set in New York in 2035, and all killing has been completely outlawed, whether it be man, beast, or microorganism. Much of the country has been taken over by wildlife, with buildings falling down, decaying, crumbling apart. Humans live on a man made liquid diet called E-diet. Acts of aggression have also been outlawed. People can't even argue with each other without being arrested. Raised voices? No. No voices at all. Humans communicate with a type of sign language, using their fingers to tap out messages against another person's arm.
“Tumors had been declared an autonomous life form, no less valid than the life form of their hosts. In any case, the doctors could do little. Drugs, x-rays, surgery were illegal: they destroyed unconscionably high numbers of bacteria.” pg 51
Dominick Priest was arrested for playing chess by himself – a competitive game. But he is unexpectedly released, along with all his fellow prisoners, under a government mandate for all humans to eliminate themselves for the good of the planet. Everyone is given a suicide pill, and are expected to use it within a certain period of time. Priest sets out on an odyssey to find and reunite with his wife. In his travels, he meets up with an actual priest, who teaches him a bit about ancient (to him) Christianity.
The prologue and epilogue are both set even farther in the future, where Dominick Priest is the current population's spin on Jesus Christ. When I said earlier I was disappointed to reach the last page, it's because we leave Priest at the end of his travels, with only a brief glimpse into how he attains his later exalted status. An abrupt end to his story that wasn't the end of his story, and I wanted to stay with him for awhile.
Originally posted on my blog.
June 5, 2024
I was going to give this book only three stars but upon further reflection I upped the review to four. Any book I read in one sitting is impressive. This author reminded me a bit of Cormac McCarthy in No Country for Old Men. A very economical writing style. Very well written even if occasionally the topic is distasteful. As opposed to many fiction writers I have read lately which seem to be college seniors (or juniors!), D. Keith Mano is clearly an adult with a mature perspective. He also seems to be refreshingly angry- very angry. He takes the environmental movement, and its hatred of humankind to its brutal (and surprisingly relevant) conclusion where humankind (or specifically mankind) essentially needs to commit suicide to atone for its sins- both environmental and otherwise. This is a nightmare world where all forms of aggression have been outlawed (even chess), nothing can be killed (even bacteria have rights), and in the end, suicide is encouraged. The society is fully emasculated- except for the Last Man. But Mr Mano goes beyond this to a future world where the Last Man serves essentially as Adam and starts building a new world that also has its own issues. He explores how essentially a new religion is born with its own strange (and sometimes disturbing) rituals. There is a lot to unpack in this book and some hints of Canticle for Leibowitz comes through, where humanity, in its quest for paradise continues to repeat a never-ending cycle of building up and then destroying itself. A good book to ponder- brings up a lot of issues without offering any clear answers.
August 2, 2012
It was an alright book I guess. The storytelling was good and Mano's style was quite enjoyable. I also thought that the idea behind the book was rather clever and made for a good story. However, I firmly detest erotica, erotic themes and scenes, and the like. I am able to overlook erotic stuff if such scenes are crucial to the plot, otherwise it just feels like a contrived addition to please certain fans or the author himself, and none of the erotic scenes in The Bridge were plot critical. Sure, they may have established a bit of atmosphere, but nothing that could be done without. It also bothered me that said scenes were so common. I realize that I may sound like a prude or some crap (and that might be slightly true), but it really boils down to me feeling like a voyeur whenever I read something that contains erotica. I don't like feeling like a voyeur. So, basically, if this book wasn't busy making me feel like a voyeur half the time, I would have rated it four stars instead of three. Overall, I thought it was a fresh take on a semi-post-apocalyptic setting.
September 22, 2013
This book was one I recall fairly well because of the tone of the general story. Some pieces of plot were a little difficult to follow at first, but Mano manages to keep you with an odd feeling the entire time, rather the same odd feeling you'd have if you really want to live, but the entire world around you believes it would be better if you all simply died to leave the world at peace. This is a feat on it's own--I would suggest anything Mano wrote simply based on this piece alone. Especially if you want an end-of-humanity story that doesn't involve crazy explosions, nonsense, wildness, battles, aliens, etc. Perfect length.
July 30, 2014
This book was unreadable for me. I tried. It actually pains me to put it away as I'm a reader who will give any author the respect of finishing their book but here Mr. Mano utterly fails to convince me. The writing is just simply bad.
August 3, 2009
Nature goes wild. But well done. Reminds me somehow of the much later series on TV called After Human.
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January 20, 2018Tried to read this but the writing was too elaborate and dense for my taste.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews