Book Review: THE BRIDGE ON THE DRINA by Ivo Andrić

The Bridge on the Drina: Introduction by Misha Glenny by Ivo Andrić
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"This is not a building like any other, but one of those erected by God's will and for God's love... the greatest blessing is to build a bridge and the greatest sin is to interfere with it"

My dad had a well-worn, much-loved copy of this book, one I'd heard of but never really thought of getting until I saw Papa's copy. And I knew at once I HAD to read it! Sadly I had to order a new edition as the old copy had several missing pages.

Elif Shafak said that when she finished reading this book, something in her had shifted forever.

And I, typing with moist eyes after closing the cover, have to agree.

What kind of book would win the 1961 Nobel over contemporary contenders such as John Steinbeck and J.R.R. Tolkien?

This book about a bridge, written by one who personally knew Gavrilo Princip (the assassin who started World War I) and Adolf Hitler. Ivo Andrić survived World War I and II, being incarcerated in prison and under virtual house arrest in both wars due to his work (the Yugoslavian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and assistant to the Prime Minister!!).

"The time has not come to die but to let it be seen of what stuff a man is made. These are such times."

When he writes of war and peace, it is from one who has lived in both times. When he writes of men and governments, it comes from close scrutiny borne from lived experience. When he writes of the history of his country as seen from the people who live around an Ottoman-built bridge dating from the Italian Renaissance (that still stands today!!!), he writes of his own hometown of Višegrad in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina (NOT to be confused with Visegrád in Hungary). He knew the bridge's history intimately and when he writes of it, it becomes alive! As do the people: Jew, Christian, and Muslim, living side-by-side in peace for the most part, only driven to atrocities after orders come down issued by heads of state in distant countries.

"That wild beast, which lives in man and does not dare to show itself until the barriers of law and custom have been removed, was now set free. The signal was given, the barriers were down."

The book is an amazingly accurate portrayal of 400 years of history with so many characters that Andrić makes us care for -- not an easy thing to do! He tells of GENERATIONS in the span of about 400 pages, and it feels like reading the Bible at times, only that he features men and women of three faiths, featuring the heights and depths of human experience. The most unforgettable chapter involved the ones were criminals were impaled by Ottomans (described in bloodcurdling detail!!!), and the best ones were when the university-educated young men were debating on their future and that of their country. All take place on this great bridge: deaths, weddings, love affairs.

To tourists, it is the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge. But anyone who has read Andrić's immortal novel now thinks of the bridge with something approaching love. I didn't know it was possible to feel this way about a structure!! And yes, the Nobel is richly deserved. This book both condemns and uplifts humanity. What a movie, what a play it would make! There are monologues and dialogues here, of such delight!

"Anything might happen. But one thing could not happen; it could not be that great and wise men of exalted soul who would raise lasting buildings for the love of God, so that the world should be made beautiful and man live in it better and more easily, should everywhere and for all time vanish from this earth. Should they too vanish, it would mean that the love of God was extinguished and had disappeared from the world. That could not be."

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