| | |  | Amazon Kindle | Home » » » The Invisible Bridge (Vintage Contemporaries) | | | | | | | Description: | | Paris, 1937. Andras Lévi, a Hungarian-Jewish architecture student, arrives from Budapest with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a mysterious letter he promised to deliver. But when he falls into a complicated relationship with the letter's recipient, he becomes privy to a secret that will alter the course of his—and his family’s—history. From the small Hungarian town of Konyár to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the despair of Carpathian winter to an unimaginable life in labor camps, The Invisible Bridge tells the story of a family shattered and remade in history’s darkest hour.
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Average Customer Review:
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297 of 315 found the following review helpful:
 A powerful and authentic look into a dark timeApr 25, 2010
By Bryan Newman
"alaskanoutfitting.com"
World War II and the Holocaust have been covered so extensively in so many formats, and yet there are so many under represented stories. This book takes up one of these side stories, the story Jews in Hungary, that didn't make the textbooks or documentaries. And unlike textbook or documentary coverage, it brings the day-to-day realities of the war to life and will touch you in the way, only a personal story can.
Obviously this is a historical fiction, which is different from a primary source, but the writing is authentic and either very well researched or edited by a very knowledgeable historian. So many historical fiction books lose credibility on historic slips, but this book never does. When a new radio is described, it is Bakelite, not plastic. The words painted vivid pictures that had me craving croissants in Paris and Paprika and Potato dumplings in Hungary.
But the power of this book is that it will make you appreciate your warm bed, your clean sheets and each meal and trip to the grocery store by portraying what it was like when all these things were unavailable. It has been hard to get all of these deprivations out of my head since I finished the book. I have read remarkably few books that describe the hunger of those living in Europe as eloquently as this book.
It did take me a while to get into this book. 600 pages is pretty intimidating and it is dense in Jewish and Hungarian names, but after 100 pages I was hooked and drug along. The writing is immensely readable and I felt a connection to the characters (enough so that I have to admit I flipped to the back to make sure at least someone made it through.) The book culminated in a marathon session when I just couldn't put it down. It's a powerful book that is high on my annual recommendation list.
I loved this book for many of the reasons that I loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Random House Reader's Circle) because it shone light on a forgotten war story and it felt so authentic. Great book.
56 of 58 found the following review helpful:
A romantic elegy to Hungarian Jewry in historical fictionJun 21, 2010
By J. A Magill
If it is an author's highest goal to fully absorb her reader into the novel, then Julie Orringer's "The Invisible Bridge" stands as a marvel. When her characters joyed, I smiled. When they faced terror, my mouth went dry and my breath grew short. As they suffered, I found myself pushing back tears. As a reader I am rarely sentimental, yet something here seized my heart, and through almost 600 pages, this author artfully cupped it in her hands.
As Europe races towards war, a young Jew young Andras Levi travels to Paris to study architecture. Through school where he is a star, and the theatre where he works, Andras meets a parade of colorful characters. When set up with a girl, he instead falls in love with her mother, Klara. The two become swept up in a passionate affair, and in time she reveals the dark secret which forced her to flee Hungary sixteen years earlier. Orringer weaves a web of gripping digressive sub-plots, each of which pulls us along, but there is never any real doubt where these characters will end up -- Andras and Klara will spend the war back in their native Hungary.
With the library of novels written describing the Holocaust in Poland and Germany, and more seeming to appear every day, I found it fascinating to read Orringer's well researched descriptions of the experience of Hungarian Jews. Hated by the Fascist Arrow Cross Party, yet "protected" from Hitler by the regent Horthy they suffered abuse, humiliation, and often murder, but through much of the war were spared becoming grist for the mill of Nazi genocide. Hungarian Jews, as the last of Europe's great communities to be destroyed, as well as being perhaps the least considered, here receives a very fine elegy from the descendant of one survivor.
At heart, "The Invisible Bridge" is a war romance, much in the vain of "The English Patient" or even more Halprin's superb "A Soldier of the Great War." As such, one often has to suspend disbelief and the prose can at time graze against the purple. Coincidences abound. Our hero Andras, may indeed be too good to be true, though he does suffer from an excess of intellectual pride and a certain naïveté. Yet if you are someone inclined towards historical romances, such things are besides the point; you read on because you are compelled to do so, to see what becomes of these people, to pray that you see them safely and happily to the end. This would be an evocative piece of fiction even if it weren't Orringer's first novel. As such, it is simply extraordinary.
206 of 231 found the following review helpful:
 Impressive historical research; unbelievable romanceApr 04, 2010
By Evie Getchell
I do not especially care for most romance novels but I do love historical fiction and The Invisible Bridge appealed to me as a Jewish love story set against the backdrop of Hungary and France during World War II. As a first novel for Julie Orringer, The Invisible Bridge is indeed an impressive achievement in the research and presentation of established historic events. I am not Jewish so I have a great appreciation for any knowledge of Jewish history, particularly of the Holocaust and World War II, that I might learn through literature. The Invisible Bridge proved to be no exception. It is reminiscent of some of great works of historical literature that I have the highest respect for, including Fatelessness by Imre Kertesz, Night (Oprah's Book Club) by Elie Wiesel, Mila 18 by Leon Uris, The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945 by Wladyslaw Szpilman, and Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky to name a few. I might not put Ms. Orringer's first novel up againt any of those as a literary achievement but I think The Invisible Bridge really demonstrates knowledge, skill and accomplishment. In fact I think this novel leans more toward the tradition of James Michener, another writer of historic fiction who I still admire to this day.
The novel is indeed well crafted and the language poetic. I must admit though that I cared least for the first 200 pages of this 600 page novel. In the opening chapters where the plot is meticulously developed and the characters fleshed out, I almost had to give up on the book entirely, wondering if I really wanted to invest any more time in what I thought was an overly long, overly sentimental, "Harlequin-style" romance.
First of all, the many, many unbelievable coincidences upon which the story is built completely blocked my willing suspension of disbelief and annoyed me greatly. Secondly, the main character, Andras Levi, is just too good a hero to be true. He is without a flaw ~ handsome, intelligent, talented, charming, devoted, honest, exceptional in every way. He's a good Jewish son, a devoted lover, a dedicated friend, an excellent student, the perfect employee, a great patriot. Likewise, his mysterious beautiful heroine is also dramatic perfection. Furthermore I thought too much of the dialogue was unnatural and rigid, lacking nuance and personality.
Since I can never put down a book unfinished that I intend to review, I persisted on, reading with a skeptical eye rather than a sympathetic one. Interestingly enough, by Part Four I realized that I had entirely forgiven the book its earlier weaknesses and had completely thrown myself under the spell of Ms. Orringer's powerful storytelling. I was riveted; I could not put it down.
The historic presentation of the book is as forceful and gripping as it is chilling and haunting. Ms. Orringer's ability to translate into words the shattering horror of the Jewish experience of the Holocaust and World War II is masterful storytelling of wrenching emotional intensity. The story is familiar, telling of the subjection of the Jews ~ the subjection of human beings to the social forces which have stripped away everything from them and are "made nonsensical, made small, consigned to impossibility, crammed into a space too narrow to admit life. But today as he'd marched to work and shoveled dirt and eaten the miserable food and slogged home through the mud, he hadn't felt indignant, he hardly felt anything at all. He was just an animal on earth, one of billions." Yet Andras learns to survive. He survives by remembering the great love in his life and by pretending, by fooling himself into staying alive; making himself "a willing party to the insidious trick of love."
The strength of Ms. Orringer's novel is the tender and poignant testimony of the human spirit, the fragile structure of a human being standing against the barbaric forces of history. It is a touching story of the power of love, the foundation of life which withstands the horror and tragedy, grief and despair of war.
It is just a pity that her focus is on romantic maudlinism and contrived, ridiculous plotting in the first part of the book. I can't quite get beyond those weaknesses and therefore rate it 3 stars rather than more.
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
Wonderfully worth it.Jan 31, 2011
By JGrace
"JGrace"
The Invisible Bridge - Julie Orringer
5 stars
Sometimes, there is a final deciding factor that puts a book into the five star category. In the case of The Invisible Bridge, the book moved from four stars to five because I could not stop thinking about it. Two weeks after reading this book, I'm still thinking about the characters, the setting, the art and the historical background of this novel.
It is the story of Andras Levi, a young Hungarian Jew who immigrates to Paris to study architecture on the eve of World War Two. I was fascinated by the detailed descriptions of life in Budapest and Paris. I learned aspects of art and architecture that are still sending me to google for more information. In addition to the details of Andras' intellectual life there is his deep affection towards his brothers, his loyal friendship with other Jewish students and his complicated, passionate love affair with an older woman. Even before the war begins, the book depicts the consequences of widespread anti-Semitism affecting Andras both in his native Hungary and in Paris. In the end, all of the growing success and future hopes of the Levi brothers come crashing down into the day to day need for survival. This was a very powerful story; well worth the telling and well worth reading all of the 600 pages.
14 of 15 found the following review helpful:
EXCELLENT!Jan 09, 2011
By Theodora Evadne Noll
Having spent time in Budapest, particularly at the opera house, and having been to Auschwitz (though Auschwitz isn't a focus in this book), I am familiar with Budapest and the surrounding areas. I am also well read on the subject of the Shoah and conditions people faced during this time. Orringer's writing is highly descriptive, well researched, and her appropriate use of the Hungarian language peppered throughout gave this writing local color realism that was visceral and believable. I couldn't wait to turn the next page to find out what happened to Tibi and Matyas--the whole family, in fact. Her writing had me smiling, crying--it was poignant and at times heart wrenching, as she was able to accurately evoke hardship, love, suffering... I can't wait to read what she writes next!The Invisible Bridge (Vintage Contemporaries)
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