- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Saint Martin's Press Inc.; First edition (Jan 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312421974
- ISBN-13: 978-0312421977
- Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 14.2 x 2.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,153,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This Side of Brightness weaves historical fact with fictional truth, creating a remarkable tale of death, racism, homelessness--and yes, love--spanning four generations. Two characters dominate Colum McCann's narrative: Treefrog (born Clarence Nathan Walker), a homeless man with a dark and shameful secret, and his grandfather Nathan Walker, a black man who came north in the early years of the century to work as a "sandhog", digging the subway tunnels beneath Manhattan. Tunnelling is perhaps the most dangerous occupation a man could have; in the close, dark and dangerous pits far beneath the city streets, differences such as colour or ethnic background cease to matter and Walker soon becomes friends with his crewmates: two Irishmen and an Italian. Then an explosion in one of the tunnels literally blows Walker and three other men up through the earth and into the East River. Walker survives but his best friend Con O'Leary is never found. Leary leaves behind a wife and young daughter whom Walker marries many years later. Walker's tale is told in alternating chapters with Treefrog's, who, like his grandfather, chose a hazardous profession--this one high up in the bright sunlight--as a construction worker building skyscrapers. But madness has brought Treefrog out of the light and back to the tunnels his grandfather helped dig as he scrapes out a meagre existence among the drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes and petty criminals that make up the homeless community. But the grimness of McCann's tale is leavened by the beauty of his prose and the intimations all through the book that, even on this side of darkness, redemption is possible. Guy Smit
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
At the turn of the century, Nathan Walker comes to New York City to take the most dangerous job in the country. A sandhog, he burrows beneath the East River, digging the tunnel that will carry trains from Brooklyn to Manhattan. In the bowels of the riverbed, the sandhogs--black, white, Irish, Italian--dig together, the darkness erasing all differences. Above ground, though, the men keep their distance until a spectacular accident welds a bond between Walker and his fellow sandhogs that will both bless and curse three generations.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Colum McCann has written a beautiful book with his work, "This Side of Brightness". Beautiful in this case may seem odd, but I would use the word here as I would use it to describe a work by John Steinbeck. Human nature and behavior often has trouble rising above decent much less beautiful, but a talented writer can bring painful lives and experiences to paper in prose that is wonderful to read. The pain that is documented is not minimized, rather written in a way that allows the truth to remain unvarnished, and the prose to be rendered by an artist like Mr. McCann.
I have read about the men who dug the excavations for the caissons of the Brooklyn Bridge, but never for the hundreds of miles of tunnels throughout the boroughs of New York. Tunneling is an extremely dangerous occupation, and if possible is even more hazardous when tunneling under water. The men must work in highly pressurized rooms in order to keep the river from collapsing in upon them, and yet the pressure cannot be so great that the air violates the walls of the chamber blowing outward as opposed to being crushed. The book documents a true story of men that were literally pushed through the walls of the tunnel they were digging until ejected in to the river and then being blown out of the water. To live through such an experience has to rank with the most remarkable stories of survival.
The book shares two lives that are revealed in parallel as far as narrative, but are intertwined in practice. The lives of both men are occupied at various times by living/working underground, but ultimately one life is spent and finally ends beneath the river, while for the other it is a refuge that ultimately allows him to emerge once again to life above ground leaving his demons buried.
The author also explores prejudice in a variety of forms, and from the book's very beginning shows prejudice and racism for the absolute stupidity it is. Men of various color and ethnic backgrounds enter a vicious working environment where they not only work together but are willing to risk their lives for each other. Black, white, Irish, Italian, Polish, none of these characteristics have any meaning when below ground, once returned to the surface every vile behavior associated with race, and religion once again is in full blossom. Church leaders reinforce the worst and most ignorant tenets of institutional stupidity; de facto Jim Crow rules dehumanize its victims.
Colum McCann does not shy away from any topic of traditional controversy. He takes the reader through generations of a family begun by a white wife and her black husband, their children who are born in to a world that hates them even more than their all black father, if that is possible.
There is one issue I am unclear on and it stems from a quote on the jacket of the book. Frank McCourt writes of McCann's, "having been there", when he writes about homeless living under the city. My question is whether the author did live there for a time while writing this book, or whether he actually was homeless for a period of time. In either event it took courage to live there as an observer, and if the latter, both courage and a willingness to share a desperately difficult and personal part of his life.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Two stories from either end of a century, at first seemingly unconnected, but inexorably working towards each other.
1916 and George Walker is digging the tunnels beneath the Hudson that will form the New York Underground.
1991 Treefrog is homeless and seeking refuge in the same tunnels from the bitter cold New York winter.
This is a story of big events that change lives, about hardship, the human spirit that pulls people through and about how families can shape the bigger history about them. Shaped around a true event where the pressure in the tunnel cracked the roof and sent the tunnelers up into the air above the Hudson on a geyser, This Side of Brightness is a considerable vision.
I don't want to give away too much about how the 2 stories are linked because it is a pleasure to see the skill with which McCann pulls them together.
As George Walker's body forces him out of the tunnels we follow him through the century as his family are affected by racism, war, drug addiction.
At the same time we learn how Treefog used to have a family of his own, used to work building the skyscrapers which make up NY's familiar skyline. How he too suffered his share of problems, mental health issues, the break up of his family and years of surviving in the brutal world underneath the city streets.
One man digging and one man building up, both helping to shape the city that forms their world. The dual narrative pulls us skillfully along, bringing the two men together.
McCann does this big picture, part history/part fiction thing with real finesse, he is a writer of real quality. The recent Let The Great World Spin shows that this wonderful novel isn't a one off.
And while it is a novel of great scope and depth, it is also one of perfect little details, of scenes and images that stay with the reader. A piano found in an abandoned tunnel, a digger holding a bullet in his belly button, the tunnelers suspended above the river on the geyser.
McCann is an impressive writer and This Side of Brightness is a rare thing, an expansive literary novel that reads as easily as a thriller.
1916 and George Walker is digging the tunnels beneath the Hudson that will form the New York Underground.
1991 Treefrog is homeless and seeking refuge in the same tunnels from the bitter cold New York winter.
This is a story of big events that change lives, about hardship, the human spirit that pulls people through and about how families can shape the bigger history about them. Shaped around a true event where the pressure in the tunnel cracked the roof and sent the tunnelers up into the air above the Hudson on a geyser, This Side of Brightness is a considerable vision.
I don't want to give away too much about how the 2 stories are linked because it is a pleasure to see the skill with which McCann pulls them together.
As George Walker's body forces him out of the tunnels we follow him through the century as his family are affected by racism, war, drug addiction.
At the same time we learn how Treefog used to have a family of his own, used to work building the skyscrapers which make up NY's familiar skyline. How he too suffered his share of problems, mental health issues, the break up of his family and years of surviving in the brutal world underneath the city streets.
One man digging and one man building up, both helping to shape the city that forms their world. The dual narrative pulls us skillfully along, bringing the two men together.
McCann does this big picture, part history/part fiction thing with real finesse, he is a writer of real quality. The recent Let The Great World Spin shows that this wonderful novel isn't a one off.
And while it is a novel of great scope and depth, it is also one of perfect little details, of scenes and images that stay with the reader. A piano found in an abandoned tunnel, a digger holding a bullet in his belly button, the tunnelers suspended above the river on the geyser.
McCann is an impressive writer and This Side of Brightness is a rare thing, an expansive literary novel that reads as easily as a thriller.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this epic novel, Mr McCann combines both historical facts and fiction. On the historical side, the story opens with the digging of a railway tunnel under the East River in New York in 1916. The reader follows the main character, a coloured man called Nathan Walker, a sandhog who struggles daily with his shovel against the earth. The working conditions are atrocious: the heat, the noise, the dirt, the physical strain - the digging was done by manpower in these days. Later Nathan marries Eleanor O'Lear, a white woman of Irish descent. Such a marriage was considered by most New Yorkers as a disgrace at that time. They bring up two children, both a social and a financial challenge.
Parallel to Nathan Walker's story, the reader follows another character, a homeless man nicknamed Treefrog who made his home in one of the many disused tunnels in New York in the 1990s. At first there appears to be no connection between Nathan and Treefrog but soon enough the reader discovers how and why they are linked in the novel.
With a marvellous narrative for its economy, Mr McCann constructs a beautiful epic story of laughter and tragedy, of sadness and small victories. It is an authentic account about homelessness, about living below the rich and about the stronghold of the past.
Parallel to Nathan Walker's story, the reader follows another character, a homeless man nicknamed Treefrog who made his home in one of the many disused tunnels in New York in the 1990s. At first there appears to be no connection between Nathan and Treefrog but soon enough the reader discovers how and why they are linked in the novel.
With a marvellous narrative for its economy, Mr McCann constructs a beautiful epic story of laughter and tragedy, of sadness and small victories. It is an authentic account about homelessness, about living below the rich and about the stronghold of the past.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Heavy going, slow, depressing
As another reviewer said it started off well but then it became so boring, slow, and depressing, nothing really going on and definetely not bright. Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. Araceli
'Brightness' it is not
I was attracted to this book because as an engineer I have an interest in the Brooklyn bridge and the Manhattan to Brooklyn rail tunnels. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Telford
Best book I have read in an age
This book shows the depth of love of one human being for another . It will make you weep. It will make you think. It will make you want to recommend it to everyone you meet. Read more
Published on 2 May 2000
moving account of homelessness in New York
Unforgettable tale of generations of New Yorks underclass ,moving ,sad ,superbly constructed story which will make you weep .BRILLIANT
Published on 21 Jan 2000
This book is superb.
You come to love and respect the characters so much, that your emotions are stretched. McCann gets you below the belt sometimes when you are least expecting it, on the turn of a... Read more
Published on 30 Oct 1999 by anita_gresham@yahoo.co.uk.
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