Memorial Bridge [Hardcover]

James Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1991

From the bestselling author of Mortal Friends and Family Trade comes the compelling story of one man's rise from Capone's Chicago to the Pentagon's inner circle. Memorial Bridge is a rich, dramatic saga of one man's intimate participation in his nation's coming of age, told with the compassion, assurance, and excitement readers have come to expect from this master storyteller.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Spanning the mid-century, from the Depression to the war in Vietnam, this earnest, weighty if sometimes slack saga of modern America features ex-seminarian Sean Dillon, working in the Chicago stockyards and studying law when he meets Cass Ryan, whose uncle has been killed by a local ward boss. Joining the FBI on graduation, Sean is instrumental in drafting the Selective Service Act, whose provisions send the ward boss to prison. As WW II begins, Sean and Cass marry and move to Washington where Sean's espionage skills earn him a military post as head of security for the newly formed Air Force. Although struggling "to be a husband and a man both," as well as a father to their son, Richard, Sean becomes increasingly immersed in Pentagon politics; with the Vietnam conflict on the horizon, he is put in charge of all defense intelligence. Coming of age in the 1960s, Richard joins the peace movement, flees to Canada and is arrested on his return for violation of the act his father helped design. His son's trial affords Sean an opportunity to face his own anguish about the war. In Sean and Cass, whose traditional beliefs are challenged by events, Carroll ( Mortal Friends ; Prince of Peace ) captures a commitment to principle and fierce, bewildered bravery emblematic of a generation. Movie rights to Pacific Artists; author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Memorial Bridge follows the popular formula of an impoverished immigrant's rise to power. An Irish Catholic seminarian who drops out just before final vows, Sean Dillon works in the famed Depression-era Chicago stockyards to finance his way through night law school. He nearly fails to get his law degree when he misses his final exam because he stayed late to pull the corpse of a murdered man from a blood drainage pipe in the slaughterhouse. In seeking justice for the murdered man, Sean finds both the love of his life, Cass Ryan, the victim's niece, and his life's work in the FBI. Finally, as a Pentagon general, he comes to agree with his conscientious-objector son that America has created a slaughterhouse in Vietnam and that the war must be stopped. Readers who like this sort of thing will enjoy this too. Movie rights sold; extensive author tour.
- Patricia Y. Morton, State Lib. of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 495 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (T); First edition (May 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395511364
• ISBN-13: 978-0395511367
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #872,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Carroll was raised in Washington, D.C., and ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1969. He served as a chaplain at Boston University from 1969 to 1974, then left the priesthood to become a writer. A distinguishedscholar-in-residence at Suffolk University, he is a columnist for the Boston Globe and a regular contributor to the Daily Beast.