Portrait of a Marriage: The Mister

Ten years after publishing his debut novel Mrs Bridge (1959), Evan S Connell revisited the story with a companion novel Mr Bridge (1969). Covering the same time period - 1920s through 1940s - in this novel the story of the Bridge family is told from the perspective of the husband and father. 

Walter Bridge is a busy lawyer with a devoted wife, India, and three children. The novel starts with a chapter on 'Love' in which he reflects on his deep devotion to his wife. 'My life did not begin until I knew her. She would like to hear this, he was sure, but he did not know how to tell her' (p1). 

He expresses his love for his family through tirelessly working to secure their futures. He pays for their lifestyle, their country club membership, and gives them stock options as Christmas gifts. He tries to instil his conservative values in his children, which often leads to conflict. He is rigid in his thinking, and his children are often exasperated with his out-dated views. He bemoans his children's willingness to quit summer jobs, to hang out with friends who are beneath them in social status, and their frivolity with money. When his eldest daughter Ruth moves to New York she befriends artists. Mr Bridge considers himself 'reasonably broad-minded' (p180) but cannot understand how Ruth would become acquainted with homosexuals. 

Mr Bridge is instantly recognisable as an archetype of a conservative, white, straight, family man. He is casually racist and antisemitic, but doesn't see himself as such because he can name a black or Jewish person that he likes. He doesn't understand why someone would invest in and admire art, cannot comprehend men dancing in a ballet, and won't give money to beggars as he believes that if they want money they should get a job. 

We learn that Mr Bridge is just as confined by gender stereotypes as his wife is. There is a remarkable scene at a Chinese restaurant in the chapter 'Good Luck' where his wife swallows the paper fortune inside a fortune cookies. Mr Bridge realises his naive wife has been so sheltered and that since their marriage he had taken the role of her father and 'she knew nothing she had not been permitted to know' (p 210). He blames himself, but also judges her for not being more worldly. 

Written in the same format as Mrs Bridge, this unconventional novel is told in 141 short, chronological chapters with titles like 'Boxtops', 'Tijuana' and 'Bleh!'. Interestingly each chapter is almost double the length of those in Mrs Bridge, as if Mr Bridge had more perspective to offer on this family despite spending so much time away from them.  He was a mysterious void in the first novel, but here we see a complicated, conflicted man determined to fulfil his role as provider, yet with numerous vulnerabilities he hides from others.

I adored Mrs Bridge and enjoyed Mr Bridge almost (but not quite) as much. While I preferred the first book,  I am so pleased to have read both, as they are remarkable character studies written in such concise prose by a gifted writer. The Bridge family will stay in my memory for a long time.