The Three-Arched Bridge

Taken at face value, The Three-Arched Bridge is a story about the building of a strategically important bridge in 1377 as the Ottoman Empire expanded into southeastern Europe in the dying days of the Byzantine Empire. The local people do not welcome the change, in particular the `Boats and Rafts' company that ferries travelers back and forth across the Ujana e Keqe (`Wicked Waters'). Construction of the bridge is sabotaged, but by whether by human means or by `naiads' or water nymphs is subject to debate. It appears the bridge may fail altogether until an old myth of walling up a woman in the wall of a castle comes to a twisted reality when one of the masons is `immured' in the bridge. Kadare's narrator, Gjon, is a local monk with a skill for languages who serves as translator at various key meeting. The monk exhibits a sharp eye for detail. He travels nears an encampment of Turks and returns greatly fearing their advance. They are foreign in worship, dress, and song (Their music is `hashish dissolved in the air'). Kadare's writing entrances the reader. In a way that this reader found reminiscent of Flannery O`Connor, once the book has been begun, it must be finished. It's been called `strange, vivid, ominous' by Patrick McGrath in the NYT Book Review and I can't do better than that. A sense of foreboding, if not outright dread lingers over the pages. Kadare's story seemingly contains an analogy, but what it is, is not obvious to the Western, or perhaps simply non-Albanian reader. It has been suggested that the analogy is to the collapse of the Soviet Union, but the book was originally published a decade earlier in Albania in 1978, although it was not published in English until 1997. Others have suggested a resonance with the Kosovo-Serbia conflicts and that rings truer because of the long history of that conflict (the great Kosovo battle that Serbs tout occurred in 1398 just 12 years after the story of the bridge.). The simpler answer is that the book is a story about the history and mythology of the clash between the Ottomans and the Byzantines, Islam and Christian, Turks and European set a crucial time and place in that interaction. Kadare himself is a controversial and enigmatic figure. He published books in Albania under the eye of dictator Enver Hoxha, but then fled to France in 1990 just when the regime was collapsing. His claim to dissident status is hotly debated. Moreover, English versions of his books have suffered in the past from being twice-interpreted: first from Albanian to French and then from French to English. The Arcade Publishing edition, however, was translated directly into English from Albanian. Whatever you decide the analogy is or think about Kadare, his writing is arresting. Give The Three-Arched Bridge a try and see for yourself. Very highly recommended.

This is one of the many books written by the great Albanian author Ismail Kadare. Kadare, who fled Albania's communist government in 1990, crafts intricate novels that address various Balkan issues, with a specific eye towards Albanian situations. Albania needs all the help it can get, as it is virtually ignored by the rest of the world. Every Kadare novel I have seen mentions he is short-listed for the Nobel Prize for Literature. I can see why; his novels, even in translation, are stunning works of symbol, imagery, and insight. I suspect that Kadare is one of literature's best kept secrets. What a shame. More people should read Kadare and share in the joy."The Three Arched Bridge," written by Kadare in the early 1980's, is a complex, multi-layered examination of Albania on the eve of the Ottoman invasion of the 14th century. Some of the horror of the story comes from knowing what happened in real life; the Ottomans arrived and didn't leave for five centuries, leaving behind a people with no connections to the outside world and little development to fall back on. Even worse, the Ottomans converted the majority of Albanians to Islam, further alienating the Albanian people from Christian Europe.The story is couched as a history of the bridge built over the Ujama e Keqe River (translated as "Wicked Waters"). The writer of this journal is a Christian monk named Gjon, who acts as a translator to the local Albanian nobility. During the construction of the bridge, all sorts of sinister activities take place: foreigners arrive to build the bridge, the bridge is sabotaged, and a gruesome sacrifice in which a local man is plastered into the bridge takes place. During the construction of the bridge, the Albanian nobility fight amongst themselves while the Ottoman threat looms in the distance.This is a grim story, full of drama and suspense. The nobility can never get their act together to unite and protect Albania against foreign threat. Even the family of the man plastered into the bridge fight amongst themselves for his estate. This disunity serves to weaken Albania and invites foreign conquest. The bridge represents many things: Albania as a bridge between Europe and Asia, the bridge between two ages, the old Medieval Europe and the emerging mercantile Europe, or even the dominance of foreign influence over the Albanian people. I think Kadare used the river to symbolize Albania. When the foreigners come to build the bridge, they spread mud from the riverbed all over the place. This is exactly what foreign powers did in real life; they drew up borders and left Albanian people scattered all over the region. With this intrepretation in mind, there are numerous other examples that emerge in the book.Whatever the symbolic implications of this book, it is a great read. Kadare is dramatic without ever drifting into soap opera, and he creates characters with great depth in a minimum of words. If he keeps writing his awesome tales, I'll keep reading them. Give th

Kadare consistently puts out fantastic novels, and this one is no exception. In brief chapters, he is able to illustrate what most writers can't in works twice as long. It tells the story of a polyglot monk in ancient Albania,and the eventual transformation of the economic and social systems of the day. The book also provides a rare glimpse into old albanian(or in this case,"Arberian") history. Short on words,but not on meaning.

The monk Gjon Ukcama, narrator of this rain-swept tale of the 14th century Balkans, says at one point, "...like all the affairs of this world, this story was both simpler and more involved than it appeared." This sentence could sum up the book. In one way, you can read it as a simple tale of how a bridge was built; beginning with medieval machinations, certain unforeseen setbacks, a sacrifice, and ultimate success. A second approach to the novel is to look at it as a little-known historical period brought to life through a legend-like tale---the decline of Byzantium, the subsequent rise of many small principalities in the Balkans together with the ever-rising crescendo of Ottoman power from the East, the new commercial combines directed from the Italian states and other countries further west. A third way of looking at THE THREE-ARCHED BRIDGE is to think of it as an allegory of Albanian history, showing Albania as one of those many small countries to which history "happens" without their having any say-so. In a fourth way, this is a tale about change in any period of human history. Can there be major changes without someone paying a steep price ? A person here, a social class there, an entire way of life over there....Kadare's story move with dark inevitability. Finally, you can read this novel as being about life and death: people struggle to bridge the gap, but the two worlds--of the living and of the dead---remain separate. The legend of an old Albanian bridge tells us this. We can't penetrate further.A Christian monk, writing in the 14th century, might have seen the Turks as a threat, though animosity between Rome and Byzantium was worse than between Islam and Christianity. That is not to say that everyone at the time did see them like that. Many Christian peasants of southeastern Europe preferred to live under the less-rapacious, better-organized Ottomans. Many even gladly converted to Islam. So, although the Turks are portrayed as menacing in this novel, even as symbolic of death and disaster, I would like to point out that Albanian history has been re-written in the 19th and 20th centuries to suit those who opposed the decayed Turkish rule four centuries after the initial conquests. We are still dealing in legends, in other words. Kadare does not vary from nationalist history, which has to be seen for the legend it is. Other than that minor criticism, this is without doubt a five-star book. My only question is---when is Kadare going to get a Nobel Prize ?

I never heard of Kidare until I ran across a review of this book in the NY Times. I am glad I was introduced and look forward to reading his other works. This was a special read; deceptively simple prose, characters, themes and storyline. (Isn't it the simple things that are the best?) The book is loaded with religious imagery; the narrator, a 14th century monk, the three-arched bridge, the designer and master-builder. As in all good literature the setting transcends the particular to the universal. The pre-reformation setting mirrors the world in which we live in today. The novel tells the story of old-money (the boats & rafts, co.) and the inherent old way of doing things versus progress (the bridges & roads, co.) and its inherent changes. Over all this looms the State, both old (the liege Count) and the new (the expanding Ottoman Empire), threatening to undue everything. Intermingled with this struggle are the roles of superstition, religion and myth. Wonderful stuff!