Mrs. Bridge

A series of vignettes capturing the life of a 1930s housewife-- the well-meaning, bigoted, conservative and largely ignorant Mrs Bridge. It's a short book written in tiny snapshots, which makes it possible to zoom through quickly. What's odd is that this archetype of the white, suburban housewife, wh......more

This is a beautiful, heartbreaking, and understated character study of a country-club wife in the early 20th century--of a woman dedicated to outward appearances, to decency and propriety, to doing what is expected. And all the while you get the suffocating sense of a person who's becoming more and......more

If you’re like me, there may be certain privileged disenchanted types you feel like telling, “Get a real problem!” I thought for a while Mrs. Bridge would qualify for that kind of reproach. She had a comfortable life at a time when many did not, she had few responsibilities, and the status quo, such......more

5★ “Her first name was India—she was never able to get used to it. It seemed to her that her parents must have been thinking of someone else when they named her. Or were they hoping for another sort of daughter? As a child she was often on the point of inquiring, but time passed, and she never did.” T......more

Interesting format. Book is told in 117 chapters or actually vignettes. Most in my paperback edition were 1-4 pages. Most of the story takes place in the late 1930s pre-World War II in Kansas City. Mrs. Bridge is married to Mr. Bridge…he is a lawyer, and they live in the very fashionable part of tow......more