The splendidly gifted (and faintly scandalous) writer Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway’s famously unhappy third wife, is the presiding spirit over a great romance. Two American soldiers, torn apart by the war, meet and fall in love with Martha’s protégé—the irresistibly charming and vulnerable young reporter, Annie March.Their story begins and ends on the beautiful Pont Neuf, the oldest and best-loved … best-loved bridge in Paris. For Annie, every bridge connects two different worlds; to cross a bridge is to make a choice. For her, crossing Pont Neuf means choosing one man over the other, one life over another. It is a haunting love story that will move readers to tears.In its Homeric themes of death and love, Eros and Thanatos, Pont Neuf also recalls the epic sweep of Byrd’s earlier novels, especially his acclaimed Civil War novel Grant. Its accounts of the last two massive battles of the war—Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands and the cataclysmic Battle of the Bulge—are riveting and authentic, the result of years of research. These historic moments are not simply a backdrop for romance, but also the treacherous and explosive landscape through which love itself moves.The New York Times called Max Byrd “an expert in blending historical and fictional characters.” Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Joseph Ellis, called him “the reigning champion of American historical fiction.”
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Pont Neuf is a bit of a strange book. It’s not really a military or a historical romance. It has a basic storyline of one woman torn between two men, but a true romance never evolves. More time is spent describing battles than the love sequences.
A twenty-something year old female war correspondent (Annabella “Annie” March) arrives in Paris, riding on the shirttails of Martha Gelhorn, Ernest Hemingway’s soon-to-be ex-wife, both of whom are also war correspondents. I read the book looking for more insights into these two people, but was to be disappointed as both are essentially caricatures of what themselves.
The two men are Harvard roommates known as the “twins,” though one is from the East Coast and the other from the Midwest. One becomes a captain on the front lines while the other becomes an intelligence staff officer. Annie has thoughts of both but gradually settles on one of the twins.
The idea of twins continues with Gelhorn mentioning Thanatos and Eros, Death and Love, “stalking the fields of war.” Death there is aplenty; love comes in many forms here: love of self, love of country, love of fellow man, etc.
There was almost no character development as the book. It is hardly more than a novella and is not long enough to encompass a romance with World War II settings in Europe (Paris, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany) and the Battle of the Bulge. That said, the research seems to be impeccable. the point of view was also so distant it was difficult to feel much for any of the characters
Pont Neuf, Max Byrd’s latest historical fiction set during World War II, resides on a bridge between two worlds. Contextually, Pont Neuf, the bridge in Paris, is a meeting point for two soldiers and a woman they love, after the Battle of the Bulge. Figuratively, the bridge stands for a point between living and dead, involved and distant, war and peace, innocence and maturity.
The novel inhabits these transoms with a literary command worthy of its writerly characters. Annie March, the fictional main character, sends articles and pictures from the front to Vogue magazine. Her mentor is the factual third wife of Ernest Hemingway, Martha Gellhorn, a New York Times contributor of her own fame. Martha introduces Annie to The Twins, Harvard roommates who attract like opposite poles of a magnet. Shaw, aka the Killer, is as fierce a fighter as he is a loyal friend – and Jefferson devotee. Adams studies math and maps. His forte is cracking code. One of these will win Annie’s heart while Martha loses her love for Hemingway.
“When you looked through glasses’ lenses, [Annie] thought, the world came clearer…. You only thought about the abstract technical challenge of taking a good picture” (15). Without losing the technical clarity of distance, the novel moves the action through graphic, up-close scenes on battlefields, in war torn cities, makeshift hospitals, spontaneous parties and dive bars. The pacing is frantic and unpredictable, as varied as from Shaw’s impulsive thirst for justice to Adam’s calculating mind. As the story travels through these chaotic paths, Annie develops a moral compass and becomes a better journalist.
The appearance of famous figures such as Eisenhower, Cronkite, William Walton and Patton gives the text a luminous quality. The present of the book is tethered to the past through frequent references to ancient history and literature. Although the atrocities of war and the trends of the era affect Annie’s moral compass, timeless wisdom also guides her. With Shaw’s ferocity, Adam’s precision, and Annie’s charm, Pont Neuf navigates a slice of time, a chasm between worlds, with a breadth of wit, pathos and humor.
Max Byrd expertly mixes real and fictional characters in moments of high drama, and there’s pretty much no higher drama than 1944 during World War II. “Pont Neuf” (New Bridge) is a title well suited to the protagonist, 24-year-old Annie March, a fledgling war correspondent (It’s also, ironically, the name of the oldest existing bridge in Paris). Real-life war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, married unhappily to Ernest Hemingway, befriends Annie and provides the older, wiser, cynical perspective of men and war. Hemingway makes a cameo appearance, boozing and boasting, no surprise there.
To Annie, “a bridge connects two worlds.” The phrase has several meanings. First, there’s the time before WWII, and now…during the war. It’s also a connection between countries. And most important to Annie, a bridge represents the choice between two men. Two American officers, best friends, vie for her affection, and Annie spends much of her time balancing those relationships.
Although the story takes place after D-Day when the war is going the Allies’ way, the action focuses on two battles that cost the Americans and British dearly. Both suffered from poor intelligence and incompetent planning. Those campaigns – “Operation Market Garden” in the Netherlands followed by the ferocious German assault through the Ardennes Forest (“Battle of the Bulge”) – allow Byrd to demonstrate his considerable ability to describe warfare at ground level. It’s the rare writer who’s equally strong on the battlefield and with human emotions. Byrd is the real deal.