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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
At first, when I put it down, I thought it surprisingly slight and not as important as I’d hoped it would be – but it has grown into those hopes and expectations the longer I’ve thought about it. More than anything, I think the book displays Wilder’s immense talents as a prose stylist and thinker: he manages to get you caring about people you’ve never heard of – and he makes you care exactly the right amount so that his lesson will strike home once they’re taken away from you. This is not playing with the reader’s emotions but instead knowing how one’s emotions will influence the reading and comprehension of a story. I look forward to reading more Wilder – because his worth extends, clearly, far beyond the wonders of Our Town.
More at RB: https://ragingbiblioholism.com/2016/06/10/the-bridge-of-san-luis-rey/
More at RB: https://ragingbiblioholism.com/2016/06/10/the-bridge-of-san-luis-rey/
reflective
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
An interesting book about relationships and how tragedies occur. Fate vs. destiny is what we are studying, and this novel accurately depicts both (or neither, depending on your viewpoint.) Still kind of wondering who else was nominated for the Pulitzer during "The Bridges" time.
reflective
sad
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“There existed a need of one another so terrible that it produced miracles as naturally as the charged air of a sultry day produces lightning.” I read this slim book on our family camping trip, the woodsy air complementing Wilder’s lyrical writing. The novella is three stories about five Peruvians who perish in a bridge collapse, their tales functioning as an inquiry into the nature of love – its types, its consequences, and its roughshod relationship with time, fate, and history. Like in Our Town, that perennial theatrical favorite, Wilder lets many aching truths of life slip into our field of vision. It’s a book that’s quietly complex; intense, but peaceful.
I loved reading The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Wilder's prose is beautiful without being precious. He totally lacks that "Look at me, Ma! I'm writing!" quality that I find so grating and that so many writers indulge in. In fact, the narrator does sound detached, and that's part of what's so appealing in this emotionally charged narrative. While none of the initial questions posed about God are even remotely answered, the depths of love in all of its permutations are explored through the 5 lives ended on the bridge.
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Interesting short book. Very well-received in its day, even won the Pulitzer in 1928. It poses a philosophical question: Why do some people die in a freak accident? It examines the lives of those who died in a bridge collapse to try to answer this question. But of course nothing is definitive and all the reader gets is a fairly in-depth recounting of the lives of the five deceased. It is interesting in its own way although it feels very old-fashioned, in some ways not a novel at all but a moral fable. The modern twist is that there is no answer.