Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
As Russell Banks states in his introduction: "We eventually learn, of course, that those five lives were not at all what they at first seemed to have been. They are a complex, engaging, all-too-human mix of characters...in time we learn that there is more, much more, to [their characters]...As, one hopes, would be the case for any of us: if our secret lives were sufficiently examined and known, we would not seem better or worse than first thought; only more complex and mysterious."
"The novel lives on...because it celebrates our conflicted, contradictory, eternal human nature, our essential humanity. We are the only species that does not know it's own nature naturally and with each new generation has to be shown it anew." And that nature, as Wilder puts it, is merely to love and be loved. There is no need for memory, for keeping score, for weighing vice against virtue...Our nature, the meaning of our existence, is to love. It's enough.
"The novel lives on...because it celebrates our conflicted, contradictory, eternal human nature, our essential humanity. We are the only species that does not know it's own nature naturally and with each new generation has to be shown it anew." And that nature, as Wilder puts it, is merely to love and be loved. There is no need for memory, for keeping score, for weighing vice against virtue...Our nature, the meaning of our existence, is to love. It's enough.
"Some say that we shall never know, and that to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer day, and some say, on the contrary, that the very sparrows do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God."
You might think a book so focused on God and faith would fail to have the desired effect on an atheist like me. But, actually, I think the religious factor of this novel is just a small part of something which affects all of us: our need to question why things happen. When tragedy falls upon our loved ones, or perhaps not even that, perhaps a news story captures our attention of young children involved in a fatal accident, completely in the wrong place at the wrong time - when life presents us with such situations as these, it seems it is a common element of human nature to ask that question which has plagued philosophers, priests, historians and scientists for millennia. Why.
This book begins with the collapse of the San Luis Rey bridge in Peru. Brother Juniper witnesses the disaster and watches as five people plummet to their deaths in the gorge below. He finds himself wondering why those people at that exact point were chosen to die, what it was about their lives that shaped such a destiny for them. We are taken on an emotional journey into the lives of the deceased, exploring questions about life, death, religion, faith and chance. Did these five people die because of some grave sin that doomed their souls? Or was it something far more complicated than that?
"Now he discovered that secret from which one never quite recovers, that even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other. There may be two equally good, equally gifted, equally beautiful, but there may never be two that love one another equally well."
This beautifully written novel captures numerous emotions in a very small amount of pages and also gives the reader an interesting view of the ruling classes in Spanish South America at this time (18th century). The book can be viewed as several gradually entwining short stories which feature very different lives that end in the same unfortunate way. It is quite a painful read, especially when looking at the relationship between Dona Maria and her daughter, the former longing for the latter's love but unsure how to obtain it. Knowing the outcome of each tale adds a looming cloud of despair to the stories and makes the characters' situations that much more tragic.
What many see as this book's major weakness and I found to be its greatest strength was the lack of answers to the questions first pondered by Brother Juniper when he witnessed the collapse of the bridge. Wilder purposely leaves the ending open for interpretation as to whether these people were the victims of chance or deliberately targeted as part of God's greater plan. The only certainty is that, in one way or another, love brought each of those people to that bridge at that exact point. And I believe the ambiguity makes it all the more powerful.
"There is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning."
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book surprised and challenged me. I think mostly I was barely up to it, intellectually, so there are levels that didn’t land because of my own insufficient understandings. That said, I loved the challenge ruminating on how religion and morality overlay life, and how Brother Juniper was inspired to his work/applying a laboratory like effort to a disaster. A pious man trying to make sense of loss of life. There were outstanding sentences written about life purposes, death, loss, and love. Gorgeous writing.
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
The ending is the reason I enjoyed it if we’re being honest
Stopped in Half Price Books to get some classics on CD for our road trip and picked this up. It is a period piece about the early 1700s in colonial Peru. It is about five separate people who die when an Incan grass bridge parts and sends these people to their death. The writing is ok and the characterizations are fine but it's like reading five separate biographies under the heading of a single story. They are never really woven into a coherent piece very well and some of them drag on too long. Keep in mind this time period doesn't interest me in the least so that also has an effect on my rating. Let's just say I think there are a whole slew of Pulitzer and Nobel prize winning books out there that you could start with before this one. Two and a half stars if I could give them, but I have no problem rounding down. Pick this one up off the shelf if this time period interests you but otherwise move on to something more intriguing.
I hadn't read anything by Thornton Wilder since 'Our Town,' in high school. I liked it and think I am with the reviewers who think it is more sarcasm than sentiment. The whole premise of the priest setting out to prove faith and divine action by investigating this freak bridge collapse points me in that direction.
It was a good read and I enjoyed it.
It was a good read and I enjoyed it.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated