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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
I kept waiting for a conclusion. All of a sudden the book ended.
I read this book first over fifty years ago. The basics of the story are still remembered. I think it may have been the first truly adult book I ever read. The lesson being that life is fleeting and can end at any time, no matter your age, your dreams or you life's station. Though it takes place my centuries ago in the mountains of Peru, the main characters are ageless. I recognize myself, and others I have known, in them. Certainly a classic I am glad to have rediscovered.
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A classic. A Pulitzer prize winner. Although the links and connections between the characters was interesting, I found the narration did not engage my attention or build any feeling in me for the characters.
A beautiful, elegiac discourse on the nature of love and life. Rarely do I read such moving literature. The prose boarders on poetic. I would highly recommend this. It's a quick read, but deserves carful contemplation.
It starts the way few books do, in the middle, in this case the after effects of a horrific accident that costs the lives of five people on a footbridge in Peru. That is not a spoiler, it's on the book blurb, but the interesting apart is the after effects of the incident that the book touches upon as the reader is introduced to Brother Juniper who wonders, was this an accident or was it fated to be by a higher power?
I can see that I would have completely passed by on this book and again thankful that it was brought to my attention as I actually ended up enjoying the sarcastic writing in regards to religion and culture that I find is just so Latin as we have an odd humor when it comes to some things, sayings or dichos that are threaded in this book that it just reminded me of what I know to be Latin humor.
Really glad that Brien picked this one.
I can see that I would have completely passed by on this book and again thankful that it was brought to my attention as I actually ended up enjoying the sarcastic writing in regards to religion and culture that I find is just so Latin as we have an odd humor when it comes to some things, sayings or dichos that are threaded in this book that it just reminded me of what I know to be Latin humor.
Really glad that Brien picked this one.
Quick easy read!
Some quotations I marked:
"Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan."
"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."
"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."
Some quotations I marked:
"Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan."
"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."
"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."
This is one of the best and most beautiful books I have ever read. Some of the images that Wilder paints are in the most beautiful that I've read, and they remain imprinted on my memory years later.
"Some say that we shall never know, and that to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer's day, and some say, to the contrary, that the very sparrows do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God."
I still cry when I read this.
"Some say that we shall never know, and that to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer's day, and some say, to the contrary, that the very sparrows do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God."
I still cry when I read this.
I picked up this book because I realized that the title connects to a character from Cloud Atlas. The book itself was interesting, but for some reason it took me more than a month to read. The underlying tones of death, love and the Spanish inquisition kept the reading enjoyable. However, it was not my favorite read.