The Invisible Bridge (Vintage Contemporaries) [Paperback]

Julie Orringer (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 25, 2011 | Series: Vintage Contemporaries

Paris, 1937. Andras Lévi, a Hungarian-Jewish architecture student, arrives from Budapest with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a mysterious letter he promised to deliver. But when he falls into a complicated relationship with the letter's recipient, he becomes privy to a secret that will alter the course of his—and his family’s—history.

From the small Hungarian town of Konyár to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the despair of Carpathian winter to an unimaginable life in labor camps, The Invisible Bridge tells the story of a family shattered and remade in history’s darkest hour.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, May 2010: Even if this weren't her first novel, Julie Orringer's Invisible Bridge would be a marvelous achievement. Orringer possesses a rare talent that makes a 600-page story--which, we know, must descend into war and genocide--feel rivetingly readable, even at its grimmest. Building vivid worlds in effortless phrases, she immerses us in 1930s Budapest just as a young Hungarian Jew, Andras Lévi, departs for the École Spéciale d'Architecture in Paris. He hones his talent for design, works backstage in a theater, and allies with other Jewish students in defiance of rising Nazi influence. And then he meets Klara, a captivating Hungarian ballet instructor nine years his senior with a painful past and a willful teenage daughter. Against Klara's better judgment, love engulfs them, drowning out the rumblings of war for a time. But inevitably, Nazi aggression drives them back to Hungary, where life for the Jews goes from hardship to horror. As in Dr. Zhivago, these lovers can't escape history's merciless machinery, but love gives them the courage to endure. --Mari Malcolm

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Given the novel's size and subject matter, critics can be forgiven for their initial skepticism over a 600-plus page book on the Holocaust--by a first-time novelist, no less. But they were very pleasantly surprised--astonished, even--at Orringer's beautifully rendered novel, which most believed, with its "sweep akin to that of Dr. Zhivago" (New York Times) and other classics, is destined to become a modern-day classic itself. Although one critic felt the novel could have used a more aggressive editor and others noted some overwrought language, most described The Invisible Bridge as a beautifully researched, old-fashioned love story, "the type Tolstoy might have scratched out with a gnawed pencil" (Onion AV Club). Four stars, or four-and-a-half stars? Only time will tell if we gave it a half too few. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 784 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (January 25, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140003437X
• ISBN-13: 978-1400034376
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.4 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (337 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Jewish American

More About the Author

Julie Orringer is the author of a novel, The Invisible Bridge, and a short story collection, How to Breathe Underwater. Her collection was a New York Times notable book and was named Book of the Year by the LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her stories have appeared in The Paris Review, The Yale Review, and The Washington Post, and have been widely anthologized; she has received fellowships from the New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, Stanford University, The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, the writer Ryan Harty. (See www.julieorringer.com for more information.)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

336 of 359 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful and authentic look into a dark time April 24, 2010

By Bryan Newman VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

World War II and the Holocaust have been covered so extensively in so many formats, and yet there are so many under represented stories. This book takes up one of these side stories, the story Jews in Hungary, that didn't make the textbooks or documentaries. And unlike textbook or documentary coverage, it brings the day-to-day realities of the war to life and will touch you in the way, only a personal story can.

Obviously this is a historical fiction, which is different from a primary source, but the writing is authentic and either very well researched or edited by a very knowledgeable historian. So many historical fiction books lose credibility on historic slips, but this book never does. When a new radio is described, it is Bakelite, not plastic. The words painted vivid pictures that had me craving croissants in Paris and Paprika and Potato dumplings in Hungary.

But the power of this book is that it will make you appreciate your warm bed, your clean sheets and each meal and trip to the grocery store by portraying what it was like when all these things were unavailable. It has been hard to get all of these deprivations out of my head since I finished the book. I have read remarkably few books that describe the hunger of those living in Europe as eloquently as this book.

It did take me a while to get into this book. 600 pages is pretty intimidating and it is dense in Jewish and Hungarian names, but after 100 pages I was hooked and drug along. The writing is immensely readable and I felt a connection to the characters (enough so that I have to admit I flipped to the back to make sure at least someone made it through.) The book culminated in a marathon session when I just couldn't put it down. It's a powerful book that is high on my annual recommendation list.

I loved this book for many of the reasons that I loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Random House Reader's Circle) because it shone light on a forgotten war story and it felt so authentic. Great book.

69 of 72 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A romantic elegy to Hungarian Jewry in historical fiction June 21, 2010

By J. A Magill VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

If it is an author's highest goal to fully absorb her reader into the novel, then Julie Orringer's "The Invisible Bridge" stands as a marvel. When her characters joyed, I smiled. When they faced terror, my mouth went dry and my breath grew short. As they suffered, I found myself pushing back tears. As a reader I am rarely sentimental, yet something here seized my heart, and through almost 600 pages, this author artfully cupped it in her hands.

As Europe races towards war, a young Jew young Andras Levi travels to Paris to study architecture. Through school where he is a star, and the theatre where he works, Andras meets a parade of colorful characters. When set up with a girl, he instead falls in love with her mother, Klara. The two become swept up in a passionate affair, and in time she reveals the dark secret which forced her to flee Hungary sixteen years earlier. Orringer weaves a web of gripping digressive sub-plots, each of which pulls us along, but there is never any real doubt where these characters will end up -- Andras and Klara will spend the war back in their native Hungary.

With the library of novels written describing the Holocaust in Poland and Germany, and more seeming to appear every day, I found it fascinating to read Orringer's well researched descriptions of the experience of Hungarian Jews. Hated by the Fascist Arrow Cross Party, yet "protected" from Hitler by the regent Horthy they suffered abuse, humiliation, and often murder, but through much of the war were spared becoming grist for the mill of Nazi genocide. Hungarian Jews, as the last of Europe's great communities to be destroyed, as well as being perhaps the least considered, here receives a very fine elegy from the descendant of one survivor.

At heart, "The Invisible Bridge" is a war romance, much in the vain of "The English Patient" or even more Halprin's superb "A Soldier of the Great War." As such, one often has to suspend disbelief and the prose can at time graze against the purple. Coincidences abound. Our hero Andras, may indeed be too good to be true, though he does suffer from an excess of intellectual pride and a certain naďveté. Yet if you are someone inclined towards historical romances, such things are besides the point; you read on because you are compelled to do so, to see what becomes of these people, to pray that you see them safely and happily to the end. This would be an evocative piece of fiction even if it weren't Orringer's first novel. As such, it is simply extraordinary.

237 of 266 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Impressive historical research; unbelievable romance April 4, 2010

By Evelyn Getchell TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I do not especially care for most romance novels but I do love historical fiction and The Invisible Bridge appealed to me as a Jewish love story set against the backdrop of Hungary and France during World War II. As a first novel for Julie Orringer, The Invisible Bridge is indeed an impressive achievement in the research and presentation of established historic events. I am not Jewish so I have a great appreciation for any knowledge of Jewish history, particularly of the Holocaust and World War II, that I might learn through literature. The Invisible Bridge proved to be no exception. It is reminiscent of some of great works of historical literature that I have the highest respect for, including Fatelessness by Imre Kertesz, Night (Oprah's Book Club) by Elie Wiesel, Mila 18 by Leon Uris, The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945 by Wladyslaw Szpilman, and Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky to name a few. I might not put Ms. Orringer's first novel up againt any of those as a literary achievement but I think The Invisible Bridge really demonstrates knowledge, skill and accomplishment. In fact I think this novel leans more toward the tradition of James Michener, another writer of historic fiction who I still admire to this day.

The novel is indeed well crafted and the language poetic. I must admit though that I cared least for the first 200 pages of this 600 page novel. In the opening chapters where the plot is meticulously developed and the characters fleshed out, I almost had to give up on the book entirely, wondering if I really wanted to invest any more time in what I thought was an overly long, overly sentimental, "Harlequin-style" romance.

First of all, the many, many unbelievable coincidences upon which the story is built completely blocked my willing suspension of disbelief and annoyed me greatly. Secondly, the main character, Andras Levi, is just too good a hero to be true. He is without a flaw ~ handsome, intelligent, talented, charming, devoted, honest, exceptional in every way. He's a good Jewish son, a devoted lover, a dedicated friend, an excellent student, the perfect employee, a great patriot. Likewise, his mysterious beautiful heroine is also dramatic perfection. Furthermore I thought too much of the dialogue was unnatural and rigid, lacking nuance and personality.

Since I can never put down a book unfinished that I intend to review, I persisted on, reading with a skeptical eye rather than a sympathetic one. Interestingly enough, by Part Four I realized that I had entirely forgiven the book its earlier weaknesses and had completely thrown myself under the spell of Ms. Orringer's powerful storytelling. I was riveted; I could not put it down.

The historic presentation of the book is as forceful and gripping as it is chilling and haunting. Ms. Orringer's ability to translate into words the shattering horror of the Jewish experience of the Holocaust and World War II is masterful storytelling of wrenching emotional intensity. The story is familiar, telling of the subjection of the Jews ~ the subjection of human beings to the social forces which have stripped away everything from them and are "made nonsensical, made small, consigned to impossibility, crammed into a space too narrow to admit life. But today as he'd marched to work and shoveled dirt and eaten the miserable food and slogged home through the mud, he hadn't felt indignant, he hardly felt anything at all. He was just an animal on earth, one of billions." Yet Andras learns to survive. He survives by remembering the great love in his life and by pretending, by fooling himself into staying alive; making himself "a willing party to the insidious trick of love."

The strength of Ms. Orringer's novel is the tender and poignant testimony of the human spirit, the fragile structure of a human being standing against the barbaric forces of history. It is a touching story of the power of love, the foundation of life which withstands the horror and tragedy, grief and despair of war.

It is just a pity that her focus is on romantic maudlinism and contrived, ridiculous plotting in the first part of the book. I can't quite get beyond those weaknesses and therefore rate it 3 stars rather than more.