59 Glass Bridges: A Novel

Abstract

59 Glass Bridges is a novel chronicling a man's attempt to navigate a labyrinth. Unfortunately, the labyrinth does not lend itself to logic: it is full of looping corridors, winding rivers, and bridges leading on into yet more mazes. As he wanders, the labyrinth warps itself to reflect his adolescent memories, adopting features reminiscent of the wood bordering his grandparent's estate, his childhood bedroom, and even a funeral home. Soon, however, the maze turns sinister. A boatman steers the man across a turgid river, a ghost leads him through a forest barbed with thorny vines, and alone he climbs a mountain of ice in which countless bodies are frozen. 59 Glass Bridges uses these scenes to explore its relationship with another text, Dante Alighieri's Inferno. Through explicit reference and intertextual allusion, 59 Glass Bridges highlights the interdependence of texts and the evolution of textual interpretation since Inferno's publication.