Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is a book which showed me one good way to handle story’s secrets.
News Leads to Books
I try to get my news through a few different sources.
One of my favorites is on the Catholic TV channel EWTN. This would be reporter Raymond Arroyo’s weekly news show The World Over.
The interviews are what make the show. They feature a good variety of guests.
Arroyo conducts the interviews as calm and informative conversations. Still, he does manage to throw in a few harder questions when needed.
My favorite Arroyo interviews do not come from the basic weekly news though. No, my favorite Arroyo interviews come from his “Storiented” segment.
These interviews focus on books, especially young adult books. All done to promote literacy.
Naturally, these interviews have led me to more than a few books. One would be the latest instant classic from the author of the classic young adult novel The Book Thief.
I speak of Markus Zusak’s Bridge of Clay.
Intriguing Interview
Many details in that interview got my attention. Least of which was the fact this was Zusak’s thirteen-year passion project.
Zusak believed the book to be his best idea and put so much pressure on himself to finish it. Honestly, this part of the interview reminded me of many of my own projects. My lifelong literary project Story Chronicles is especially one.
I was also interested in Zusak’s comments on how his main character uses the building of a bridge to rebuild his life and his family. Such strong symbolism at the core of a plot tends to be interesting.
Then Arroyo talked about the book’s complexity, and I was hooked.
The story just sounded so weird that it had to be great.
This book was a family saga arranged in all orders except chronological. The story was tugged and told in all sorts of different directions.
Bewildering Beginning
That complexity was seen as soon as I began.
The narrator Matthew went to an old house. He dug up a long-buried typewriter laid to rest alongside a dog and a snake. Matthew’s story then began with a “murderer, a mule, and Clay.”
Soon enough, the first time jump happened. The story shifted form a cluttered home of five boys and no parents being ransacked by a murderer to a city. Matthew was helping his brother Clay do some running training.
Stories kept swapping each chapter. Eventually the present story started intermingling with tales of smalltown romance and Russian piano players.
I could barely keep track.
So many timelines and characters to remember. So many present things just going by unexplained.
I mean, why was Clay always hanging out with this one girl Carey on a mattress in a garbage dump? What started that? Why the dump?
Thankfully, the book did provide some help.
Only two timelines were present in any single part of the book. They tended to alternate by chapter too.
While many modern books tend to overstuff chapters with scenes and characters, Bridge of Clay was a bit too smart to do that. Still, things first felt like a chore to keep together.
I suppose I knew what I would be getting into, but that does not chance the fact I was tempted to shelf the book a few times.
Pushing Through
Then everything started to click.
I kept reading, and all the puzzle pieces really did start coming together.
The smalltowner met the piano player. The family of boys emerged and gradually took over the house. Even the mule and the junkyard mattress had heartwarming explanations.
I saw all these scattered stories come together into something beautiful. Heart-wrenching, but beautiful.
I dare not go into too many more details here. Arroyo and Zusak did everything to avoid spoilers in their interview. I will honor those efforts.
I will say that, given time, Bridge of Clay becomes a book anyone can find something in. The story of this one family can so easily feel like the story of your family.
Honestly, the time jumps help with that feeling. Most family history tends to be shared through stories that jump all over the place.
Trust me when I say this is a book to make time for. Take the time to work with it, and it will work wonders in you. Any author should be proud to make a book like this.
Pondering Inspiration
Any author would also naturally be anxious about making a book like this. Remember, Zusak said that Bridge of Clay took him thirteen years.
He had to keep writing and rewriting everything. He even had to quit for a bit. Then the lack of this book in his life drove him mad enough to actually go back to it.
I do not aim to set myself on a pedestal with this man. Still, I do find our experiences somewhat similar.
My lifelong literary project Story Chronicles is all about telling multiple stories in one. I wanted to capture the joy of writing. So, I began work on a book about a young writer and his writings.
While Zusak jumps through time, I practically jump between worlds linked only by a shared creator.
I always look at Story Chronicles and wonder if readers will see everything I believe I am putting into it. I have to wonder if people will be able to handle everything.
I try to make things easier by creating four-chapter parts with stories in the same order each time, but I do wonder sometimes if that is enough.
I also have to wonder if my experience with Bridge of Clay would mirror a reader’s experience with Story Chronicles. Would my book be something people would even be willing to take their time with?
If I were not a heavy sleeper, these are the kinds of thoughts which would keep me up at night.
Zusak’s Bridge of Clay may have led me to a fit of pondering and wondering, but this book also gives me hope. Hope that books which tell many stories in one have a place in this world. Hope that completing a somewhat strange passion project can prove worthwhile.
Kotcher’s Call to Action
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