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Title: This Side of Brightness

Author: Colum McCann

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-06-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

From the author of Songdogs, a magnificent work of imagination and history set in the tunnels of New York City. In the early years of the century, Nathan Walker leaves his native Georgia for New York City and the most dangerous job in America. A sandhog, he burrows beneath the East River, digging the tunnel that will carry trains from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Above ground, the sandhogs--black, white, Irish, Italian--keep their distance from each other until a spectacular accident welds a bond between Walker and his fellow diggers--a bond that will bless and curse the next three generations. Years later, Treefrog, a homeless man driven below by a shameful secret, endures a punishing winter in his subway nest. In tones ranging from bleak to disturbingly funny, Treefrog recounts his strategies of survival--killing rats, scavenging for discarded soda cans, washing in the snow.

Between Nathan Walker and Treefrog stretch seventy years of ill-fated loves and unintended crimes. In a triumph of plotting, the two stories fuse to form a tale of family, race, and redemption that is as bold and fabulous as New York City itself. In This Side of Brightness, Colum McCann confirms his place in the front ranks of modern writers.

Members Reviews:

Exquisite Narrative

Exquisite narrative, although the ending was predictable. McCann writes brilliant sentences, even in this early work. If you are looking for mystery, action, or suspense, read another author. McCann writes about the inner narratives of people in ways that wrap grace around your heart.

Too sad but too good to put down

There is a fascination/ revulsion compulsion that affected me deeply while reading this book. I was too enraptured to put it down, but too depressed to continue at times. This story is heartbreaking. It wrenched my insides as I felt what poverty and racism can do to lives in succession. I am not surprised to learn of the sandhogs since their story is so much part of New York's history. However, what did surprise me was the nature of McCalum's prose. It is not eloquent but it is elegant. I am a fan of Steinbeck, especially Grapes of Wrath and here McCalum's writing seems to echo Steinbeck's treatment of language. I bought this book because I immensely enjoyed McCalum's other novel Let the Great World Spin. I paid little of nothing for it and I am almost ashamed that this is so. I had to put the book down at several points because the poignancy of the story touched me almost painfully and I sought escape from its wounds. Growing up in Atlanta during the civil rights movement means, for me, the issues touched upon in the novel are part of my memory, however painful it is for me to recall. Although I was a small child, it made no sense to me that people with darker skins were treated with such disrespect. It still doesn't make sense but even then, to my young heart, it seemed uncharitable. I had friends that were black and we played together with such gusto and abandon that I never sensed that anything was wrong. I had some teachers that would try to separate us but this was always temporary and done almost without feeling, only halfheartedly. Children serve as an example to us all. Growing up in the Deep South with it's deep seated prejudices never impacted my own feelings regarding race. Thankfully, I had the wonderful presence of a black woman in my life to dissuade any impact negative talk might have had on my belief system.