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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
In 1927, Thornton Wilder won the Pulitzer Prize for this short novel and it is easy to see why, as this story hits on themes that we all think about: why are we here? what gives us fulfilment? who do we love? who loves us? Wilder's tone and opinion will be familiar to anyone who has seen his famous play "Our Town" and this novel is just as affecting: the story is set in 18th Century Peru; 5 people are killed when a bridge collapses. This is the story of the people who died on the bridge and of those they left behind. In the end, says one of the story's central figures, we will all be forgotten; love is all there is. Try to love someone and let others love you. A beautiful message.
“The knowledge that she would never be loved in return acted upon her ideas as a tide acts upon cliffs.”
Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey
challenging
emotional
sad
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
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a magical book. Why did some people die on 9/11 or due to COVID? This books answer the same underlying question by examing closely the lives of five people who died in a tragedy.
"But soon we will die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning" (p. 107).
Before he wrote two of the most enduring plays about the enriching and complicated nature of humanity, he wrote of the most enduring novels about the effects of loss on both the outsiders who witness the loss and those who loved the ones that are lost to them. Brother Juniper, the outside witness, attempts to conjure a logical, moral reason to why the certain five people were the victims to the fall of the finest bridge in Peru. While Brother Juniper gathers piles upon piles of information about the five victims and makes his own ignorant generalizations based on his own biased values, the reader is plunged into the lives of the five individuals. We come to realize that these individuals are connected through some common encounters with one another. However, their main similarity is their individual journeys to cope with loss of their loved ones, whether through rejection, death or trauma. We come to emphasize with each of the five victims, and we find that the tragedy of the bridge collapsing is not the loss of five nameless lives, but the lives of five people who carried a promise and hope for a chance to repair their lives.
The tragedy of the bridge hits more and more closer to home as each story closes on that fateful day. Afterwards, each person after the loss come together to hold onto the memory of each loved one and find that they are not endured by sheer memory or traces of immortality (symbolism of written letters and the theatre), but through the love they held for these five individuals.
It is a truly beautiful novel that remains universal to all individuals through it humanist themes and eternal lesson of what truly creates immortality within the human race.
This also proves to be another example of why Thornton Wilder still remains to be one of our most prominent, philosophical writers of our times, and perhaps the only universal writer to have ever existed.
Before he wrote two of the most enduring plays about the enriching and complicated nature of humanity, he wrote of the most enduring novels about the effects of loss on both the outsiders who witness the loss and those who loved the ones that are lost to them. Brother Juniper, the outside witness, attempts to conjure a logical, moral reason to why the certain five people were the victims to the fall of the finest bridge in Peru. While Brother Juniper gathers piles upon piles of information about the five victims and makes his own ignorant generalizations based on his own biased values, the reader is plunged into the lives of the five individuals. We come to realize that these individuals are connected through some common encounters with one another. However, their main similarity is their individual journeys to cope with loss of their loved ones, whether through rejection, death or trauma. We come to emphasize with each of the five victims, and we find that the tragedy of the bridge collapsing is not the loss of five nameless lives, but the lives of five people who carried a promise and hope for a chance to repair their lives.
The tragedy of the bridge hits more and more closer to home as each story closes on that fateful day. Afterwards, each person after the loss come together to hold onto the memory of each loved one and find that they are not endured by sheer memory or traces of immortality (symbolism of written letters and the theatre), but through the love they held for these five individuals.
It is a truly beautiful novel that remains universal to all individuals through it humanist themes and eternal lesson of what truly creates immortality within the human race.
This also proves to be another example of why Thornton Wilder still remains to be one of our most prominent, philosophical writers of our times, and perhaps the only universal writer to have ever existed.
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Interesting book to explore the existence, or lack thereof, of a God or divine power. Explores issues of purpose, death, and fate. Great, philosophical read for people whether or not they are religious or spiritual.
Rating is actually 4.5 here. This book was recommended to me a decade ago by a friend who actually spoke Spanish and was later stranded in Brazil for a time. I don’t know why it took me so long. Take your time with this one. Read at your pace. It knits together slowly. It is most certainly worth it.