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Richard Russo rose to fame with excellent novels such as “Nobody’s Fool” and “Empire Falls.” Russo won the Pulitzer for “Empire Falls.” “Bridge of Sighs” is another excellent Russo novel, but it lacks the narrative drive and character development of his past works. Make no mistake. The characters in “Bridge of Sighs” are well formed, but readers may not find the connection to these protagonists as they did to characters in earlier Russo books. There’s a plot here, too, but not as engaging as his past novels. Essentially, “Bridge of Sighs” is the story of two men pushing 60. They were childhood friends, well, sort of. One lives in the past having lived a life in his native small town. The other is haunted by the same past, having become a world-famous artist living in Venice. The majority of the book deals with the man living in his past as he writes a memoir of his childhood days. This memoir is the majority of the book. “Bridge of Sighs” touches upon themes of optimism vs. pessimism, deluding one’s self, and seeing people, places and situations as they are rather than how we wish them to be. This book was published near the end of the Bush Administration and seems a veiled indictment of that now-passed era — the novel feels more dated because of that implication rather than the majority of it being set in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. The paperback edition of “Bridge of Sighs” has recently been released. “Bridge of Sighs” is appropriately named: You will be reading it and, sigh, wondering when the narrative will get going. Some will wonder if it shouldn’t have been titled “Bridge of Yawns.” It is a slow-mover, but there is a point when a reader will become caught in the characters’ lives and the inevitable pull of Russo’s story and style. Then “Bridge of Sighs” becomes a bridge that must be crossed.