The Other Side of the Bridge

“Arthur forced his foot to lie flat. The thought came into his mind—not drifting gently in but appearing suddenly, fully formed, like a cold hard round little pebble—that Jake hated him. The thought had never occurred to him before but suddenly, there it was. Though he couldn’t imagine a reason. Surely he was the one who should have done the hating.”

The novel opens with a scene where Jake convinces Arthur to play a game where they throw knives at each other’s feet. In the middle of the game, Arthur wonders if Jake actually hates him. Whether or not he does is never really answered, though the reason he might revolves around Arthur’s relationship with his father, something Jake never gets to have.

“Arthur looked at Jake and saw that he was staring at the knife. His expression was one of surprise, and this was something that Arthur wondered about later too. Was Jake surprised because he had never considered the possibility that he might be a less-than-perfect shot? Did he have that much confidence in himself, that little self-doubt?”

Arthur looks down at his foot after Jake has thrown a knife through it and then immediately looks up at Jake. This scene in the Prologue shows Arthur already second-guessing Jake, unsure of his motives. It also illustrates Jake as someone is unable to consider the consequences of his actions.

“He imagined living in Toronto, or Vancouver or New York. Think of the freedom. You could be whoever you wanted to be. No one expecting anything of you, no one knowing who your parents were, no one caring if you were a brain surgeon or a bum.”

Ian begins the book wishing he were somewhere other than Struan, anywhere outside of the stifling confines of a small town. He, much like Jake, imagines that his family is holding him back and his choices for his future are limited.