The Search for A Dog that Headed for a Star: A Book Review on Henning Mankell’s A Bridge to the Stars

The Search for A Dog that Headed for a Star: A Book Review on Henning Mankell’s A Bridge to the Stars

submitted by: Renz Danielle Dugenia

Henning Mankell was born in 1948 in Stockholm, Sweden. The Swedish author of a series of adult mystery novels featuring Inspector Kurt Wallander, Mankell has been very much popular in Europe for a number of years. A BRIDGE TO THE STARS, written in 1990 and published in October, 2005 by Andersen Press, the first of Mankell's novels for young adults, which, although very different from his Wallander series of police procedurals, nevertheless are worthwhile for younger audiences to discover as well.

Mankell has received international literary awards for his books, plays, films, and television adaptations. Dividing his time between Sweden and Africa, Mankell is devoted to working with AIDS charities. He is also the director of Teatro Avenida in Maputo, Mozambique.

Joel Gustafson finds two things in life hard to cope with: 'not knowing why, and not being able to do anything about it', in an adult world he doesn't quite understand, and dreams of entering.

Twelve-year-old Joel sometimes feels like his life is just one big mystery. Why does his father, a former sailor who loves to tell stories of exotic places and longs for the sea, now work as a lumberjack in far northern Sweden, about as far from the sea as one can get? "How could he find any satisfaction in going into the forest every day to chop down trees when he'd never succeed in felling enough for him to be able to glimpse the open sea beyond?" Joel asks.

Most of all, Joel wonders about his mother, Jenny, who disappeared when he was a baby, leaving Joel's father moody and Joel to feel "like a mother to myself." Joel’s father keeps a single photograph of Jenny but refuses to talk about her, and Joel wonders why his mother abandoned them so long ago. Now, as his father keeps company with their small town's barmaid, Joel grows increasingly concerned that he is about to be abandoned for a second time.

It is then that Joel forms a Secret Society, with a specific mission - he keeps a logbook of each day's events, hidden under his father's glass-covered model ship, the Celestine.

Joel’s secret place is the rock that splits into two. Here he could alter reality to his wishes. During night excursions, Joel makes the acquaintance of colorful local folks - Simon Windstorm, confined in an institution for ten years, who drives about in his lorry under the night sky; and Gertrud No-Nose, who wears a handkerchief where her nose used to be. Walking to his secret split rock, Joel meets a newcomer to town named Ture, who announces to Joel that he'll be running away from home in a few weeks. Joel invites Ture to join the Secret Society. Joel shows Ture around town at night, believing that he is the leader. But Ture plans pranks that make Joel doubt his new friend's character and intentions. To prove to Ture that he's not a coward, Joel takes a life-threatening dare, discovering in the process his father's real love and the concern of friends.

Imaginative Joel is a private fantasist; this is the source of his creativity. Ture is an activist - he has no imagination. "The purpose of a secret society is to create fear," he says, and sets about inveigling Joel into tormenting one of his neighbors, one of those things he does not want to do but seems powerless to resist - but already he can see through Ture's superficial glamour. The other boy may be a whole year older than Joel, but Joel's nature and circumstances have made him a faster developer. He is beginning to appreciate the company of others on the fringes of society, an area where he places himself.

The greater part of this loosely autobiographical novel takes place during the long, dark winter and slow spring of 1956, beginning one starry night when Joel looks out of a window and sees a dog running in the street. He encounters it only once more but it haunts his memory and he tries to coax it into his dreams. The secret society is dedicated to "The Search for A Dog that Headed for a Star". He knows that it is a childish notion but he also knows that his childhood is ending - not with regret but with anticipation - and Samuel has promised that when Joel leaves school they will go back to live near the sea. His silly revenge fantasies of wandering into the forest to freeze (you'll be sorry when I'm dead) are terminated by the accident that kills one of Samuel's workmates. Death, he decides, is not an awfully big adventure, but life can be, and the book ends as Joel's winter of discontent is about to burst into glorious summer.

One of the things I've most enjoyed about Henning Mankell's A BRIDGE TO THE STARS is the way the author probes into the psyche and emotions of his protagonist. It is a very effective portrayal of a boy on the cusp of adolescence. Searching for independence on his nightly forays with his charismatic new friend, Joel nevertheless still longs for safety and security, as represented by his desire to remain close to his father and to discover more about his absent mother.

Like Joel, I, myself is also longing somebody’s presence, my father. I have not known my biological father since birth and I wanted to discover more about him. And I could say that somehow Joel’s story and mine to a certain extent is parallel. As Joel investigates his father’s mysterious absences and continues to search for the dog, he discovers his own inner strength and learns about adult disappointments and needs.

Joel is an attractive character, his adventures in his town at night will, I imagine, be highly interesting and slightly magical for children to read. As are Joel's discoveries about himself and his family.

It's written in a style ideal for its audience, has an excellent, slightly offbeat story, and Joel exhibits a kind of imagination that many children will find familiar. Not only that, but it says some rather touching and important things about growing up. This is a deep, serious story, written with the lightest of touches and no hint of condescension.

The blurb presented me with a book that seemed both interesting and mature. I read the first pages and was enraptured in the majestic world of the boy, a world which is both magical and incredibly touching.

I would recommend this book to anyone who's looking for something that is easy to read but still gives you a brilliant story with characters that give you insight into the complexities in mid 21st Century Europe and the horror that comes attached to losing your mother.

Joel's thoughtful story is enhanced not only by the boy's imaginative fancies and by Mankell's lyrical writing (capably translated into English by Laurie Thompson), but also by the array of memorable and eccentric characters who populate Joel's small town. Hopefully Mankell will expand his portrait of this northern Swedish village --- and further explore Joel's compelling character --- in his other books about Joel Gustafson.

The fundamental driving force of Henning Mankell as an author is to create a changing world we live in. It becomes worse and worse on every level. It is about exploitation, plundering and degrading. He has a small possibility to participate in the resistance. Most of the things that He does are part of a resistance, a form of solidarity work. He wishes that he could do more of value and that the world changes to a place of decency.