Mrs. Bridge

In Mrs. Bridge, Evan Connell creates a portrait using the tesserae of everyday events and confrontations. Connell cuts away the middle-class security blanket of uniformity to expose the arrested development beneath. Mrs. Bridge recedes more and more into doubt and confusion as her three children and husband become more remote and silent. The raised evening newspaper becomes almost a fire screen to deflect any possible spark of conversation. A fly caught unawares in amber for eternity is no more immobilized and exposed than Mrs. Bridge, trapped in her garage as her novel ends. Set in Kansas City in the 1930s this companion volume to Mr. Bridge offers stunning portrayals of the lives of "solid citizens" of modern American society.