Review of The Bridge

[Musa Mncube]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Bridge" by Andrew Palmer.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The Bridge by Andrew Palmer takes place in two different timelines. The present and the past. In the present, the protagonists Ben and Esther, engineering students attending University, were paired on an opinion-based ethical assignment to do with a traditional engineering ceremony called the 'Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer', that graduate engineers partake in as an obligation. While these two were doing research from an old historical reference book in the library, we encounter the last protagonist, Alec Durand, through the lens of time , who happens to be one of the few people at the forefront of the tragedy that occurred in the past and the reason why the current ritual exists.

Andrew Palmer took inspiration from the "Quebec Disaster", a historical Canadian event that resulted in the collapse of a bridge and several people's death, and turned it into a tragedy. Through an ingenious method, he took the attention away from the disaster and focused it on to the people involved. This opened avenues for character development, different perspectives, the reasons behind it all, the affect it had on the families who lost loved ones and most importantly, what has changed to right the wrong that occurred on that day.

"With great power comes great responsibility." This lesson becomes more relevant as the story continues to unravel itself. It is communicated through the struggles that general workers face in the workplace in conjunction to upper management issues; and the abandonment of ethics and morals for personal gains when in power. The results of ambition without responsibility become the focal point of this lesson.

The Bridge brings a new perspective to engineering, one that I was previously ignorant of, in order to display the sheer amount of critical thinking and problem solving required for this position. Engineering requires extreme accuracy in everything, especially the numbers. For a miscalculation in a project consisting of thousands of calculations, from the density to the weight and types materials used, could lead to the overall failure. Thus, I have newfound respect for this position. Andrew Palmer has made a huge service to engineers in writing this book.

The Bridge is not perfect, nor is it the best book out there, but it is a pleasurable read with room for learning. Its use of history to teach meaningful lessons that can be implemented in our day to day lives is something that resonates with me, as I love analysing the pattern of history. It is well written and very engaging with a bit of betrayal, growth and life lessons to take as food for thought.

Overall, I rate it 4 out of 4 stars. I did not come across any notable problems and it was enjoyable. I recommend this book to engineers and aspiring ones.

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The Bridge
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[SINGH JAY]

This book was fantastic! The research that went into the story was fantastic. The frame story that occurred was fantastic.
I simply adored this book. This, in my opinion, would be a fantastic reading selection for an advanced classroom.