The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić

Name: Ivo Andrić

Year Won: 1961

Read: "The Bridge Over the River Drina"

Original Language: Serbian

Reason: "for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country"

About: "The Bridge Over the River Drina" is actually a pretty accurate title. The novel is about a bridge. On the River Drina. Like, seriously. The story is about a bridge. There are descriptions of the bridge, how the bridge is made, and what happens around the bridge.

To be a bit less sarcastic, the rest of the novel plays out of things happening around the bridge. People fall in love. There are wars. Children play by it, etc. Most of the "novel" is a series of vignettes about daily life around the bridge, both Christian and Turkish. It's not really a story, per se, as vignettes of life near a bridge. (Oh, and stories about the bridge's construction, how people see it, etc.

What I liked: Some of the stories are pretty interesting. Also, Bosnia/Serbia sound like pretty interesting places, full of history and clashing cultures. I kind of want to visit now.

What I Disliked: This isn't a novel in any kind of conventional sense. It really is a bunch of vignettes. They're beautifully written, but the only thing connecting them is a bridge.

Should it have won a Nobel: I didn't really like it and will admit that I'm far more a fan of novels that, y'know, are actually novels. With that said, it *did* paint a very interesting picture of hundreds of years of daily life in a country and is a very unique format. So maybe? I feel like it's too experimental for my taste, but is an impressive work all the same.

Next Up: "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck