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The Bridge
 
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The Bridge [Audiobook] (Audio Cassette)

by Iain Banks (Author), Peter Capaldi (Reader)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Audio Cassette
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Audio; New edition edition (19 Mar 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 000711608X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007116089
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,801,709 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #5 in  Books > Audio Cassettes > Authors A-Z > B > Banks, Iain

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Product Description

Review
From Scottish writer Banks (Consider Phlebas, 1988; Walking on Glass, 1986), the surreal, often baffling - but always intriguing - story of a man who awakens from a coma into a weird and wonderful world. A man has been in what appears to be a bad car accident on a bridge; he is trapped and may be dying. He regains consciousness - or does he? - to find himself in a hospital as a complete amnesiac. The doctors have named him John Orr. Exploring his new world, Orr discovers that he is living in what seems to be a gigantic Bridge. His psychiatrist is a quack named Dr. Joyce - who medicates him but doesn't help with his amnesia. Gradually, Orr becomes a "favored" patient of Joyce's, even getting a large apartment at the top of the Bridge; but he soon falls into disfavor and ends up drifting down through the many social strata that make up the Bridge, and finally "awakens" in yet another hospital bed - but into what world and what reality? Banks makes it deliberately hard to tell dream from reality, but once one stops looking for linear plot developments, this can be read as an entertaining (and rather funny) exercise in examining the subconscious. (Kirkus Reviews)

DAILY MAIL
'Iain Banks of THE WASP FACTORY eclipses that sensational debut...a real dazzler' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

35 Reviews
5 star:
 (18)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (35 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Virtually perfect example of this writing style, 27 April 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Bridge (Paperback)
I bought this book many years ago on a whim, I'd heard of the writer but not read any of his work. I read it on holiday in Edinburgh (a coincidence)and it blew me away. The overlapping stories are confusing but patience and a good memory reward the reader. Having read a number of books in this flashback style I have to say this is a virtually perfect example of the style, Mr Banks certainly likes to challenge the reader and meeting that challenge is half the fun of this book, although I've found some of his later books virtually unreadable (Feersum Endjin for one) in this book everything works. Mr Banks skillful narative and pacing create a genuine sense of tension as the book reaches a climax and upon finishing you can only sit back and say 'wow'. This is definitely a book that deserves a second and third reading, there is so much packed in that can only be appreciated second time round. The book will not be to everyones taste, but if you have enjoyed any other Iain Banks book you will enjoy this, read it once, read it twice - you won't be disappointed.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Great idea, mediocre execution., 4 Feb 2004
This review is from: The Bridge (Paperback)
Banks is without doubt a remarkably inventive and talented author and "The Bridge" highlights some of his best features - the story is initially gripping and some of the imagery is inspired. Unfortunately the story flags towards the end, losing focus and meandering and not maintaining the mystery and intrigue of the earlier chapters. Whilst I appreciate that this may have been a deliberate ploy to better portray what our main character is experiencing, imagery is no substitute for a tight story-line and cannot carry a book alone. I really wanted to like "The Bridge" but for me, it wasn't quite up to the standard of some of Banks' other works.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A graet - if challenging - read, 8 Nov 2001
This review is from: The Bridge (Paperback)
This is the first of his books I have read. At the start I was a bit annoyed. Making up dreams seemed a bit cheap. But then the suspension of disbelief got in there and the the narrative and the description of this place took over.
A brilliant "other place" that completely takes you over. The vision of the place is completely visual - you can see it on the page.
The chapters with the dialect I found hard going and for preference I would have prefered a text that kept the pace going.

A brilliant read and I am shopping for more.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Not his best
I'm quite a big fan of the Iain Banks novels I have read ('The Wasp Factory', 'Dead Air') but this was a real disappointment. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. Nm Edwards

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved This Book
I read this many years ago and it was one of my all time favourite books. It was the kind of book I just didn't want to end. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Ian B

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappears up its own posterior rapidly
Good start but gets bogged down in its own knowing cleverness very rapidly and drifts rapidly into mediocrity. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Sibby the Cat

4.0 out of 5 stars Tossing A Coin For Luck
Iain Banks was born in Scotland in 1954 and published his first book - "The Wasp Factory" - in 1984. Read more
Published 10 months ago by cluricaune

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and engrossing
I've read most of Iain Banks's books and this is my favourite. I was engrossed in the various stories and couldn't put the book down although I would have to agree that it did... Read more
Published on 13 May 2007 by Katie Wightman

4.0 out of 5 stars Life is but a dream
Iain Banks' 3rd novel tells the tale of a car crash victim and the symbolic dreamscape he inhabits while deep in a coma. Read more
Published on 14 Sep 2005 by dogbarkssome

1.0 out of 5 stars "Lanark" it is not...
Having read some of Banks' other works, "The Wasp Factory", "Complicity" and "The Crow Road", I was an admirer of his style. Read more
Published on 31 May 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly creative
I've read a large number of Iain Banks books, and rate this the most creative. Others may be more bizzarre, but the construction of the surreal institutional world of 'The Bridge'... Read more
Published on 19 Nov 2002 by Charles Smith

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Start but peeters out towards the end
This book starts brilliantly with some excellent images, particularly that of the trawler being lifted up past the bridge by a balloon and had me wondering what on earth this book... Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2002 by Colin Gray

4.0 out of 5 stars In Deep
An ordinary man who has lived and loved lies unconscious, dreaming in the landscape of his mind. He tastes his deepest fears and longing, and journeys to places he may have not... Read more
Published on 27 Jun 2002 by Hilary

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