MRS. BRIDGE.

By Evan S. Connell Jr. '45.New York: Viking Press, 1958. 254pp. $3.75.

Author Evan Connell (The Anatomy Lesson and other stories) has skillfully dissected Mrs. Bridge into a sort of literary jigsaw puzzle with each of the more than one hundred pieces or episodes fitting together within the framework of the novel to form the completed portrait of Mrs. Bridge and her world. However, as is frequently the case with jigsaw puzzles, the final result is a trifle disappointing with the completed portrait lacking the brilliance promised by some of the individual pieces.

Despite this limitation there can be no doubt of Mr. Connell's perception and appreciation of those daily and routine incidents which so often make up the sum and substance of any woman's life. India Bridge, in the author's words, "was not certain what she wanted from life, or what to expect from it, for she had seen so little of it, but she was sure that in some way - because she willed it to be so - her wants and her expectations were the same."

This statement, appearing in the opening pages of the book, could just as well be reiterated in the concluding pages, for the recorded experiences do not, as the phrase goes, alter or illuminate Mrs. Bridge's life in any appreciable manner, perhaps because, like a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces were all there to start with.

There is remarkable, often brilliant, writing here - the awareness and feeling, perhaps recollection, of those everyday events that are woven into the warp and woof of any family's life. The experiences of Mrs. Bridge with her husband, children, friends, and world span a period of" some forty years, but there is an underlying tragic timelessness to the book which leads the reader to sense that the failures of Mrs. Bridge to respond to the challenges of her family and her world are indeed the failures of many women.

If this be so, it becomes understandable why the portrait of Mrs. Bridge is incomplete. But read Mrs. Bridge yourself. It is a fascinating book. You may be amused, saddened, frustrated, possibly frightened, but you will not be bored and, as with all good books, you will take part of it with you into your own world.