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From the New York Times–bestselling and National Book Award–winning author of The Cloister, this decades-spanning novel tells the story of Sean Dillon, who escapes from the rough world of the Chicago stockyards to become an agent in J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, and then rises to the very top of military intelligence on the eve of its greatest challenge—and the nation’s greatest failure.
An Irishman, a Catholic, and a lawyer obsessed with justice, Dillon is a man whose fierce integrity has always set him apart. His indomitable wife, Cass, can see what his defiant adherence to principle is costing him, especially when he is charged with an impossible duty as an air force general. As America becomes more deeply entangled in Vietnam, Dillon will discover that his son has inherited his merciless conscience—and that he is deeply opposed to the war.
From the gangster-ridden politics of Depression-era Chicago to the intrigue and glamour of wartime Washington; from the triumph of virtue in World War II to the moral chaos of Vietnam; from turf battles in the Pentagon to tear-gas conflict in the streets; from a man’s inbred solitude to the story of an extraordinary love— Memorial Bridge is both a journey through twentieth-century history and a tale of one family trying to span the divisions of the American heart.
“[Carroll] writes with sweep about faith, redemption, truth, honor. . . . There is beauty and power in his characters and themes, and there is mystery in the big questions that inform Carroll’s moral fiction.” —The Boston Globe
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 1, 2018 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780547971186
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780547971186
- File size: 1409 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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April 29, 1991
Spanning the mid-century, from the Depression to the war in Vietnam, this earnest, weighty if sometimes slack saga of modern America features ex-seminarian Sean Dillon, working in the Chicago stockyards and studying law when he meets Cass Ryan, whose uncle has been killed by a local ward boss. Joining the FBI on graduation, Sean is instrumental in drafting the Selective Service Act, whose provisions send the ward boss to prison. As WW II begins, Sean and Cass marry and move to Washington where Sean's espionage skills earn him a military post as head of security for the newly formed Air Force. Although struggling ``to be a husband and a man both,'' as well as a father to their son, Richard, Sean becomes increasingly immersed in Pentagon politics; with the Vietnam conflict on the horizon, he is put in charge of all defense intelligence. Coming of age in the 1960s, Richard joins the peace movement, flees to Canada and is arrested on his return for violation of the act his father helped design. His son's trial affords Sean an opportunity to face his own anguish about the war. In Sean and Cass, whose traditional beliefs are challenged by events, Carroll ( Mortal Friends ; Prince of Peace ) captures a commitment to principle and fierce, bewildered bravery emblematic of a generation. Movie rights to Pacific Artists; author tour. -
April 15, 1991
Memorial Bridge follows the popular formula of an impoverished immigrant's rise to power. An Irish Catholic seminarian who drops out just before final vows, Sean Dillon works in the famed Depression-era Chicago stockyards to finance his way through night law school. He nearly fails to get his law degree when he misses his final exam because he stayed late to pull the corpse of a murdered man from a blood drainage pipe in the slaughterhouse. In seeking justice for the murdered man, Sean finds both the love of his life, Cass Ryan, the victim's niece, and his life's work in the FBI. Finally, as a Pentagon general, he comes to agree with his conscientious-objector son that America has created a slaughterhouse in Vietnam and that the war must be stopped. Readers who like this sort of thing will enjoy this too. Movie rights sold; extensive author tour.-- Patricia Y. Morton, State Lib. of Pennsylvania, HarrisburgCopyright 1991 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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January 2, 1995
This weighty saga of modern American politics by the author of Mortal Friends traces the career of an FBI agent, his family troubles and draft-dodging son.
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