My Rating: A+

My Review:
This book is about spirituality, not necessarily religion. It's about good and evil, but not as a big monster and a great hero, but about the good and evil in humanity. It's about growing up and changing and dealing with what life hands you and sucking it up and getting over it, after wallowing in self pity for a while.

Between the Bridge and the River caught me completely off guard. Coming from Craig Fergusson, I expected rowdy hilarity, some sex jokes and a lot of great fun. These were all components of this book but I was not expecting the complete depth that is offered in this text. It's a bit dark and quite literary, with some of the best writing I've read. It reminded me of Douglas Coupland's work and also of Christopher Moore, in the sense that you think you're being carried along happily on a funny train and then all of a sudden, you're really thinking.

Only one thing bothered me in this novel, and that was a beautiful phrase that at first was like a huge dramatic sigh and it fit perfectly, but it was used over and over again and I'm not sure if it was suppose to be like that, or if he just didn't realize how often it was used, but it was a bit like beating a dead horse by the end.

Other than that, this book was pure perfection and I absolutely can't wait for Craig to write another one. ( )

I bought it because I've always liked Craig, and was pleasantly surprised. It's clearly a first novel; there are a lot of clumsy passages, and parts of it seem overly smug, but it's quite funny. One of the reviewers compared it to a Vonnegut (which I don't know if I want to go into on lj, at least not on this post, but: ) novel, which I think was overstating it a bit, but it's true that there's a confessional tone to the book, like he wrote it not just to tell a story but to work out his own issues and let other people look on while he does, that is similar to a lot of Vonnegut's work. I enjoyed Ferguson's novel particularly, because I love when books begin with a string of unrelated characters and events and then wrap them all up in the end; where you can re-read the book and notice all the parallels and hints and nods and continuity. I like puzzles and I like things fitting neatly together, but also, I like that it very obviously shows that a lot of care and thought was put into the writing of the book. ( )

Terrific. Go read it now. ( )

Despite his celebrity status, this book is surprisingly smart, cynical and funny. Give it a shot. ( )

I love his show and he has a great train of thought style but not the best. ( )