Bridge

Mano's book is weirdly prescient about the burgeoning power of the green movement and he explores the darker ramifications of a world ruled by a green/socialist government whose ecological politics have tainted and warped the very fabric of society. Mankind is no longer dominant in this world, but has willingly ceded his dominion over it. The big change comes during a civil war between the Green/Eco forces and the Realist/Christian forces. In the end the Greens won and proceeded to radically remake the world, tearing up highways and parking lots, planting genetically modified plants that could grow in the harsh and polluted soils of the cities, and ending man's consumption of nature's resources. Pretty much what the Greens seek to do now, actually. But in this dystopian future we see what would happen if it is taken to it's ultimate end, such as the PETA or ELF folks would have it. For in this future no one farms or raises food, in fact eating or drinking anything is forbidden and punishable under the law. To subsist everyone consumes a liquid e-diet provided by the government. The e-diet is a chemically constructed nutrient rich fluid that the body can consume completely and produces no waste products at all, it is also loaded with narcotics to keep the people docile. Pollution of all forms has also been outlawed, even noise pollution - people are forbidden to listen to music, watch movies, or speak. In fact all communication is by a type of finger-speech or reading lips, and anyone making noise or speaking aloud, even in surprise, can be punished under the law. No competition is allowed either, playing games with others or competing against one's fellow man is a sign of anti-social behaviour and punishable under the law. There are more such laws that Mano introduces us to, and he does so in an interesting way. He has Priest, the main protagonist for much of the book, a newly released convict travel from Yankee Stadium (where he was imprisoned for speaking in anger) back to his home in New Loch to be with his wife and new born child. The government has released Priest because their latest policy decree is that the very act of human breathing is offensive to nature (because of the germs and virii killed in the process) and therefore everyone must die. Priest now has seven days to get home before the decreed day of death is final. In those seven days we explore this world and discover that it is a study of opposites, at once verdant and yet bereft life, and that Priest is at once both a hero for wanting to live and choosing life over a senseless death, and at the same time an ugly savage and anti-hero for his actions and behavior. With the sparing use of other characters such as Paul Xavier, the aged Catholic priest who befriends Priest on his trip home, Mano does an excellent job of showing us the logical result of the faux intellectualism and arrogance of the nannystate that a green/socialist government ultimately leads to; a society of death

The storyline is unusual enough - In the near future humanity has tired of its miserable life so much that a fanatical government decides to give earth back to nature. While all around Dominick Priest humanity is either commiting suicide or being killed by fanatics, the hero struggles overland toward his home village, not really knowing what awaits him there. On the way there, including during the crossing of the name-giving storm-tossed suspension bridge, he slowly goes mad and becomes the prophet of a new religion that embraces life - perhaps a bit too much...