The Bridge Club

By R. Michael Kelley and Krista Noel Kelley

Book Overview

The Bridge Club chronicles the story of an inseparable group of friends who discover their most beloved teacher and basketball coach is gay. More than that, the novel centers around a small American... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0759677239
• ISBN13: 9780759677234
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: 1st Book Library
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A "Bridge" Over Troubled Waters

"The Bridge Club" opens with an unnamed narrator gazing upon a shattered covered bridge some ten years after the main arc of the tale being told. The bridge plays a central role in the story to come and its broken state serves as a metaphor for the melancholy musings in the character's mind - of times, people, and places that now belong solely to the past. Descriptions of locations are given as contrasts between what is and what was. Into those differences are poured reflections on the invincibility of youth, of friendships, and good times that surely must last forever but somehow have diminished along with everything else, passed into the oblivion of fading memory. This prologue sets up the bittersweet tale that follows, a story of teenagers traversing through the certainty of their high school lives, grappling with the uncertainty of the days that will come after graduation. With the gloomy prologue casting its shadow over every aspect of the story, a foreboding sense of inevitability hangs over each page. What is not known though is what, if any, kind of victory might be drawn from a narrative whose conclusion finds only tears and regrets ten years later. This is a credit to the authors, who give the readers a vague sense of the future which forewarns of some things but surprises all the more for the many twists of the tale and how the characters react to them. Everything about "The Bridge Club" is accomplished. The teenagers sound like they ought to, seeing the world in black and white, and we marvel at the possibility that we might have seen things in such a way once upon a time. The adults speak like the parents and teachers we recall (and perhaps have become): murky shades of grey. We read what the adults have to say, half-understanding the ways in which they negotiate life's problems and half-wishing they were not so quick to dial down the ideals and dreams of their children and students. All the characters are well-written, defined by the struggle between idealism and compromise. This inner conflict provides the dominant theme of the book. Framed by the prologue and subsequent epilogue, our own journey with "The Bridge Club" causes us to consider what we have given up in our lives, what we have lost, and what we have gained. Most importantly, we wonder if those parts of ourselves we cherish and have lost might be found again. "The Bridge Club" is a wonderful tale of adolescence into adulthood, and well-worth the time you invest in it.

We love books!!!

This is the greatest book in the United States of America. It is a fun book for people of all ages except if you can't read. It has a lot of pictures in it. The best picture is the one in chapter 5, another heartbreaker is the cover picture. I cried when little Timmy died. It just broke our hearts to see him go like that*sniff*.

Go Ms. Kelley!!!!!! Success!

Happy, happy, joy, joy for Ms. Kelley! She wrote a book that inspired people around the world. It inspired us to write a book of our own this summer. It will be about our lives and reading a book that inspired us. And we shall dedicate to our favorite English teacher Ms. Kelly. It will be about a monster that made us read a book called "To kill a Bluejay", our title will be "The Highway club". I hope we don't get in trouble for this and if anything we should get extra credit.PLEASE!At & Am

Ms. Kelley's greatest accomplishment ever!!!!

This book inspired me to call all of my friends back and have coffee . I truly believe that it is a good book for people of all ages. This is one of Ms.Kelley's and her co-author Michael'sbest work ever. They should plan on writing a sequel. ...

Ms. Kelley's greatest accomplishment ever!

This book inspired me to call all of my friends back and have coffee . I truly believe that it is a good book for people of all ages. This is one of Ms.Kelley's and her co-author Michael'sbest work ever. They should plan on writing a sequel. We very proud of her for her success.We wish her the best of luck on her next book and her wedding!