Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Fergusson

Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Fergusson
ISBN: 978-0-7394-7197-5
Pages: 329
Back of Book Description:

My copy of this book actually doesn't come with a back of book description. So here's one from Barnes and Noble.com

Bawdy, joyous, messy, hysterically funny, and guaranteed to offend regardless of religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, or profession Between the Bridge and the River is the debut novel by Craig Ferguson, host of CBS's The Late Late Show. Two childhood friends from Scotland and two illegitimate half-brothers from the American South suffer and enjoy all manner of bizarre experiences which, as it turns out, are somehow interconnected and, surprisingly enough, meaningful. An eclectic cast of characters includes Carl Jung, Fatty Arbuckle, Virgil, Marat, Socrates, and Tony Randall. Love, greed, hope, revenge, organized religion, and Hollywood are alternately tickled and throttled. Impossible to summarize and impossible to stop reading, this is a romantic comic odyssey that actually delivers and rewards.

My Rating: A+

My Review:
This book is about spirituality, not necessarily religion. It's about good and evil, but not as a big monster and a great hero, but about the good and evil in humanity. It's about growing up and changing and dealing with what life hands you and sucking it up and getting over it, after wallowing in self pity for a while.

Between the Bridge and the River caught me completely off guard. Coming from Craig Fergusson, I expected rowdy hilarity, some sex jokes and a lot of great fun. These were all components of this book but I was not expecting the complete depth that is offered in this text. It's a bit dark and quite literary, with some of the best writing I've read. It reminded me of Douglas Coupland's work and also of Christopher Moore, in the sense that you think you're being carried along happily on a funny train and then all of a sudden, you're really thinking.

Only one thing bothered me in this novel, and that was a beautiful phrase that at first was like a huge dramatic sigh and it fit perfectly, but it was used over and over again and I'm not sure if it was suppose to be like that, or if he just didn't realize how often it was used, but it was a bit like beating a dead horse by the end.

Other than that, this book was pure perfection and I absolutely can't wait for Craig to write another one.