“Kind or sexy – was this a division that split the world in two? Was Rhiannon right? Did everything in the world have to be either kind and ineffective or sexy and heartless?“
The glittering success of His Dark Materials made Philip Pullman a household name, but also unfortunately obscured some of the great stories he wrote before that fantasy hit. In particular, The Broken Bridge is a beautiful coming-of-age novel set in Wales, clearly aimed at younger readers but absolutely a touching read for adults. The protagonist, Ginny, is a half-black teenage girl of sixteen in 1990s Wales, raised by her father alone as her mother is dead. She is an aspiring artist. Then a series of revelations cause her to question all she knows about herself, and she must come to terms with herself and her past.
The sheer richness of the premise promises a whole host of themes to be explored, which Pullman does with aplomb. It is a book about art and stories, about family and belonging, about Wales, about race and young love, about truth and life, about the extent to which there is a difference between what the novel calls “sexy” and “kind”. It’s the kind of young adult fiction I love the most, not the kind that is about love triangles, but rather a novel that simply seeks to simplify the grand ideas, for teenagers and young people are often the most profound of people. They are capable of great silliness and shortsightedness, but are nonetheless grappling with deep meaning in a way adults do not.
Ginny is a wonderful protagonist, a deeply human and relatable character. She can be cold and jealous, unsure of who she is, but also confident in her talent and loving to her father. She has a deep interiority whilst spending much time chatting with her friends. She is easily close to her father, but also understands him and resents the secrets he keeps from her. She isn’t perfect; she has no great heroics. She is simply, at some deep level, good, and in The Broken Bridge, we watch her find her feet.
Typically of Pullman’s writing, the scenes flow easily, and the sentences are beautiful, poetic and lush. Reading his books is like soaking in a warm bath of lyrical English. The emotion is simple but never cheesy, and so the book reaches the highest possible art, the art of being profound without being difficult, and tackling big ideas without sacrificing basic enjoyability. As the story proceeds, it borrows a lot of the qualities of a mystery or a thriller, until all is explained, and plot twists abound. I love that Pullman always writes a good plot twist into his stories. So much literary fiction nowadays dislikes the plot twist, but Pullman is no snob. He writes what works, and he writes it well.
The thing is, this monumental coming-of-age novel with Ginny and her family and friends and a whole host of mysteries, adventures, themes and questions comes in a small book that I read comfortably in a day. Pullman is so economical with his writing, so able to synthesize plot and story, that this book is short without any sense of rush or cramping. The Broken Bridge shows that Pullman was a great writer long before he invented daemons and Dust, and can write about any topic, because he is always interested in the big questions, the great questions. Don’t miss out on The Broken Bridge because it’s not famous. It’s a read you won’t soon forget.
Wet Broken Things 