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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
Finished the summer reading assignment with two days to spare! Glad I don't have to write the paper. Somehow I missed this classic over the years. It was a smart choice on the teacher's part - not too long for a summer project, yet a theme worth pondering. Lovely.
This is such a quiet but beautiful story. I was surprised to find I couldn't put it down.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Absolutely awesome—short, compelling, powerful, and stylish. I plan to recommend this everywhere.
Slightly corny but beautifully written and fascinating. Feels allegorical, but in a good way. And the setting is refreshing and interesting.
Look, you should not take Thornton Wilder at his word. Best known for Our Town, he's also the author of The Skin of our Teeth, one of the most wildly meta and chaotic plays I've ever seen. So when this book starts with an explanation about how a Brother Juniper decided to investigate whether there is a divine plan in a bridge collapse in Peru that killed five people maybe you should take that with a grain of salt.
But what you get is a funny charming beautiful little gem of a novel. And what it says is there may not be Providence, but there is the great tragicomic pageant of a humanity that has to ask the question.
But what you get is a funny charming beautiful little gem of a novel. And what it says is there may not be Providence, but there is the great tragicomic pageant of a humanity that has to ask the question.
Not sure what I was expecting, but this wasn't really it. Seemed like more of a character study than anything but didn't go into any great depth. Maybe it was because I was doing other things while listening to the audiobook and missed any deeper meanings.
This is one of those novels where there’s a lot I love that’s hindered by one big thing I hated. The concept itself is so interesting: five individuals are killed when a bridge collapses in colonial Peru. A priest decides to take it upon himself to determine why these specific people were killed. It discusses a lot of philosophical and deep questions and topics and handles it really well.
The one thing that killed this for me is that I just found it boring. The novel approaches all of these philosophical topics with the tone of a Wikipedia article. It may have been because I listened to the audiobook and that was just how it was narrated, but it made something that is genuinely really interesting on the outside unbelievably dull at time.
So yeah, I enjoyed the overall product but the journey of reading it itself was just boring to me. 3/5
The one thing that killed this for me is that I just found it boring. The novel approaches all of these philosophical topics with the tone of a Wikipedia article. It may have been because I listened to the audiobook and that was just how it was narrated, but it made something that is genuinely really interesting on the outside unbelievably dull at time.
So yeah, I enjoyed the overall product but the journey of reading it itself was just boring to me. 3/5
Read my full thoughts over at Read.Write.Repeat.
While the plot of the story did not necessarily entrance me, the writing certainly did. This is the first work of Wilder's which I have read (I have seen productions of Our Town, but I am not counting those). His writing is...I don't even know how to describe it. Clear and smooth and polished. It is simple, yet refined. It reminded me of F. Scott Fitzgerald in a way; perhaps because they were contemporaries. Wilder seems to have mastered the beauty of simplicity and letting his characters and his novel speak for themselves. The book is short, but brilliant.
While the plot of the story did not necessarily entrance me, the writing certainly did. This is the first work of Wilder's which I have read (I have seen productions of Our Town, but I am not counting those). His writing is...I don't even know how to describe it. Clear and smooth and polished. It is simple, yet refined. It reminded me of F. Scott Fitzgerald in a way; perhaps because they were contemporaries. Wilder seems to have mastered the beauty of simplicity and letting his characters and his novel speak for themselves. The book is short, but brilliant.