Bridge of Clay

Matthew Dunbar is the eldest Dunbar boy and narrator of the novel. During his mother’s illness, he dropped out of school to work in construction and help pay the family’s mounting bills. After his father’s abandonment, he becomes the primary caretaker of the household and the guardian of his younger brothers. Matthew is a reader with a passion for films made in the 1980s. Through Clay, he becomes better acquainted with Claudia Kirkby, the woman who becomes his wife. Matthew learns to fight from his father after being bullied as a child; later, he continues exercising and training with Clay, contributing to Clay’s physical prowess and toughness.

Matthew’s status as narrator is singular in that he centers the story on Clay rather than himself. He tells his family history in the same way that Clay told it to him, fleshing out the Dunbar past while showcasing the ways that Clay helped them heal from their many traumas. Matthew only focuses on himself when establishing parts of his background that become integral to Clay; his bullying gives him the ability to teach Clay to fight, and his deep rage at being abandoned by his father results in his physical vengeance against Clay upon his initial return from Silver. Even in the novel’s Epilogue, Matthew only shares enough details about his new life to underscore the importance of Clay returning home. He turns himself into a supporting character in his own story, instead choosing to uphold Clay. Matthew’s honesty and distance from the story being told are representative of how much he loves his younger brother; he is devoted to telling the story truthfully and with the correct emphasis.

Rory Dunbar is the second Dunbar brother. Rory’s grief makes him angry and violent; when Penelope falls ill, he quickly develops a reputation for brutality and gets in trouble for fighting at school. After her death, he is expelled and subsequently devotes himself to working and drinking. While intoxicated, he does mischievous acts like stealing mailboxes. He is very verbal in how much he dislikes the many pets the Dunbar brothers acquire. As he ages, he grows gentler, and at the novel’s conclusion he spends time with Matthew and Claudia reminiscing about the past.

Despite Rory’s combative behaviors and the reputation for cruelty he builds throughout the novel, he is also the only one of the characters that really sees and understands Clay. He recognizes a desire for violence in Clay that Matthew cannot see, and he becomes the person who transitions Clay’s training from running to fighting. Rory is thus integral to Clay’s trajectory as bridge builder and reconciler. Not only does Clay become physically fit under Rory’s guidance, but Clay also becomes capable of withstanding intense physical beatings. This grants him the necessary fortitude to survive his fight with Matthew, allowing him to bring Michael and the other Dunbars together again.

Henry Dunbar is the third Dunbar brother and the most charismatic of the five boys. He is a natural salesman who is capable of convincing others do to what he wants. He often engages in betting, both at horse races and in Clay’s fights. After he and Penelope attended a yard sale together before her death, he becomes involved in secondhand item sales, ultimately getting involved in real estate. He is the most verbose of his brothers, teasing them indiscriminately from a place of clear affection. Although he is known to make poor choices, his love for his brothers is deep and evident.

Henry is the brother who follows Clay in mending his relationship with Michael. Henry is the first brother to ask Clay for details about Michael when he returns from Silver. He shows curiosity that previously wilted under Matthew’s rage. As he overcomes his betrayal, he helps Clay feel more at home and welcome, supporting him even if he cannot understand why he makes the choices he does. Much of this dedication to healing comes from Henry’s youth. During the main events of the novel, Henry is still a teenager in school, protected from the stresses of adulthood by his older brothers. His own intimate experiences with grief, paired with his more youthful perspective, helps him understand and support Clay. If Clay is the foundation of reconciliation, Henry is the support, growing upon what already exists while being vital for future progress.

Tommy Dunbar is the youngest and most sensitive of the Dunbar brothers. He has a passionate love for animals, which begins from a daytime excursion to the museum with Penelope after her diagnosis. His brothers are often rough with him, teasing him and beating him up, but they are also gentler with him than they are with each other. Of the brothers, Tommy is the only one to complete his college education; he becomes a social worker with a service dog to support others in times of strife.

Tommy serves his brothers by giving them an outlet for their softer emotions even in times when they lean into chaos and violence. Clay and Matthew begin their habits of bringing pets home under the guise that it will make Tommy happy. To a certain extent, that is true. The boys are filled with guilt when Hector the cat disappears and bring home a dog, hoping to alleviate some of Tommy’s grief. However, the animals are as much for the other brothers as they are for Tommy, with Achilles being the prime example. It is through Tommy that the Dunbar boys accept having love in their lives again and grow in their confidence in expressing love to others.

Michael Dunbar is the father of the Dunbar boys. He is described in his youth as having aqua eyes and dark, wavy hair. He is also athletic, which contributes to his day job as a laborer in adulthood. Michael works as a construction worker and a miner, although his true passion is art. The focus of his art as a young man is his lover, Abbey; decades later, he starts sketching and painting Clay.

Michael is referred to as “the Murderer” for much of the novel. This moniker stems from Matthew, who dubs him a killer because of his abandonment after Penelope’s death. In leaving, Michael “kills” the family structure in place for his sons, leaving them essentially orphans despite still having one living parent. Michael only becomes named in the novel’s present storyline when he and Clay begin to heal their relationship, connecting over love, art, and the act of building the bridge. The abandonment itself is not explored within the novel—at no point does Michael try to provide his sons with the reason why he left. The novel is less concerned about the reason for leaving than it is the reconciliation, showing that the boys are focused on growth over the past.

Michael’s search for family and reconciliation act as the inciting incident of the novel just as his abandonment acts as the inciting incident for the boys’ abrupt shift toward adulthood. Michael draws Clay from his comfort zone and into a space where he is forced to explore his own capabilities, creating artistry in the process. Michael divides Clay from his brothers, a separation that ultimately strengthens their bonds and allows them to heal. Their family is re-born through Michael’s actions as much as it was destroyed by them, making him instrumental for his sons’ maturity.

Penelope Dunbar is the mother of the Dunbar boys. She is a thin, blonde woman from the Eastern Bloc during the time of communism. Her mother died giving birth to her, leaving her raised by a single father who instilled in her a love of piano and Greek mythology. Her talents at piano secure her escape from the communist regime. She is sent to Australia as a refugee, where she works as a cleaner and meets Michael. She ultimately achieves her teaching degree and teaches students in one of the roughest schools in the city. She is diagnosed with cancer when her boys are young and survives her diagnosis long past what the doctors predicted. She dies in an assisted suicide after her condition has deteriorated.

Penelope is the carrier of stories, a task she bestows to Clay. She not only introduces the family to the Greek myths of her childhood, but she tells Clay the unedited versions of her and Michael’s histories, giving him the necessary context for the Dunbar family. She teaches him how to tell stories so that he may transfer them to Matthew, making her foresight and lessons necessary for the novel to take place. It is thus symbolic that Clay is the one who carries her into the garage and helps her end her life; the death of one storyteller enables the rise of a new one.

Penelope’s death alters the lives of her sons; in dying, she strips them not only of their mother, but also their father. The grief the Dunbar boys experience while watching her die and following her death shapes them. The days she spends with each son individually propels them to their more mature interests and obsessions, showing the echoing impact of grief and connectivity.