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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
My dad sent me this for my birthday, indicating it was for my "writer soul."
Wilder's play "Our Town" is something my father and I have shared since I was a child. Back when I was younger, and he'd tell me stories, I can remember him reinventing the scene where Emily is dead and has chosen to go back to her birthday party. When I finally read it when I was older I was blown away...
I'm not sure that this was the right time for "The Bridge." I've said it before in previous reviews, that books know when you need them. This is one I'll have to come back to.
It follows five people in Peru who are killed when the bridge of San Luis Rey collapses, and Brother Juniper sees it. Struck by this event and what deeper meaning it might hold, Brother Juniper chronicles the lives of those lost in a book that causes much controversy. The majority of the story is chapters dedicated to each life that was lost, and how they all connect. As individual stories, I had my favorites (Esteban, definitely) and dislikes (the Marquesa, though she was written to dislike). But as a whole I felt like I was missing some greater message.
I will return to this story again and perhaps see it anew.
Wilder's play "Our Town" is something my father and I have shared since I was a child. Back when I was younger, and he'd tell me stories, I can remember him reinventing the scene where Emily is dead and has chosen to go back to her birthday party. When I finally read it when I was older I was blown away...
I'm not sure that this was the right time for "The Bridge." I've said it before in previous reviews, that books know when you need them. This is one I'll have to come back to.
It follows five people in Peru who are killed when the bridge of San Luis Rey collapses, and Brother Juniper sees it. Struck by this event and what deeper meaning it might hold, Brother Juniper chronicles the lives of those lost in a book that causes much controversy. The majority of the story is chapters dedicated to each life that was lost, and how they all connect. As individual stories, I had my favorites (Esteban, definitely) and dislikes (the Marquesa, though she was written to dislike). But as a whole I felt like I was missing some greater message.
I will return to this story again and perhaps see it anew.
This won the Pulitzer in 1928, deservedly so. The opening of the book doesn't bury the lede. "On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714 the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below".
The rest of the story is about Brother Juniper, a monk who witnesses the tragedy and proceeds to want to investigate to prove if these people were taken thru divine intervention or pure chance.
It is a very good, but short, quick read. It shows the interconnectedness of people and their perceived worth vs who they truly are. It also touches on the awaking of science in the early 18th century and how it clashes with the Church.
9/10
"Some say that we shall never know and 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."
"There was something in Lima that was wrapped up in yards of violet satin from which protruded a great dropsical head and two fat pearly hands; and that was its Archbishop. Between the rolls of flesh that surrounded them looked out two black eyes speaking discomfort, kindliness and wit. A curious and eager soul imprisoned in all its lard...."
The rest of the story is about Brother Juniper, a monk who witnesses the tragedy and proceeds to want to investigate to prove if these people were taken thru divine intervention or pure chance.
It is a very good, but short, quick read. It shows the interconnectedness of people and their perceived worth vs who they truly are. It also touches on the awaking of science in the early 18th century and how it clashes with the Church.
9/10
"Some say that we shall never know and 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."
"There was something in Lima that was wrapped up in yards of violet satin from which protruded a great dropsical head and two fat pearly hands; and that was its Archbishop. Between the rolls of flesh that surrounded them looked out two black eyes speaking discomfort, kindliness and wit. A curious and eager soul imprisoned in all its lard...."
A new favorite! Short, quick read, but also funny and meaningful.
This is the kind of masterpiece that sends me back to my 5-star reviews to demote as many as possible to a humble 4.
“Her religious beliefs went first, for all she could ask of a god, or of immortality, was the gift of a place where daughters love their mothers....”
“He was contemptuous of the great persons who, for all their education and usage, exhibited no care nor astonishment before the miracles of word order in Calderon and Cervantes.”
"... that ghost of a passion which, in the most unexpected relationship, can make even a whole lifetime devoted to irksome duty pass like a gracious dream."
“Her religious beliefs went first, for all she could ask of a god, or of immortality, was the gift of a place where daughters love their mothers....”
“He was contemptuous of the great persons who, for all their education and usage, exhibited no care nor astonishment before the miracles of word order in Calderon and Cervantes.”
"... that ghost of a passion which, in the most unexpected relationship, can make even a whole lifetime devoted to irksome duty pass like a gracious dream."
emotional
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Originally published on my blog here in August 1999.
In 1714, a bridge collapsed in Peru, and five people were killed. This may seem fairly trivial on the scale of human tragedy, but Thornton Wilder uses it as the peg around which his best known work is hung. He explores the lives of these five people up to the point where they came to this sudden stop; the small scale of the disaster means it can be given a human dimension rather than being reduced to statistics.
Thus each part, except for the introductory and concluding sections setting things up and dealing with later events, occurs simultaneously with all the others. Since Lima was a fairly small town in the eighteenth century, the same characters appear over and over again, and we gain further insights into the fatalities on top of what we see of them in their own sections.
One of the most remarkable properties of The Bridge of San Luis Rey is its brevity. Wilder manages to pack his portraits of these five people, as well as a fairly complicated structure, into only one hundred and forty pages. He does it so skilfully, too, that his prose does not seem overly densely packed with information, nor his portraits sketchy.
Wilder makes you see something interesting in each of the people who died on the bridge (with the possible exception of Don Jaime, who is so young that his most interesting features are his relatives). You really feel that each was a loss to the human race. And yet, as we are reminded at the end of the book, their fate is to be forgotten within a few years of their deaths. Thus while Wilder is saying that there is something worth preserving in us all, he is reminding us that (in the vast majority of cases) nothing will preserved of ourselves for long after we die.
In 1714, a bridge collapsed in Peru, and five people were killed. This may seem fairly trivial on the scale of human tragedy, but Thornton Wilder uses it as the peg around which his best known work is hung. He explores the lives of these five people up to the point where they came to this sudden stop; the small scale of the disaster means it can be given a human dimension rather than being reduced to statistics.
Thus each part, except for the introductory and concluding sections setting things up and dealing with later events, occurs simultaneously with all the others. Since Lima was a fairly small town in the eighteenth century, the same characters appear over and over again, and we gain further insights into the fatalities on top of what we see of them in their own sections.
One of the most remarkable properties of The Bridge of San Luis Rey is its brevity. Wilder manages to pack his portraits of these five people, as well as a fairly complicated structure, into only one hundred and forty pages. He does it so skilfully, too, that his prose does not seem overly densely packed with information, nor his portraits sketchy.
Wilder makes you see something interesting in each of the people who died on the bridge (with the possible exception of Don Jaime, who is so young that his most interesting features are his relatives). You really feel that each was a loss to the human race. And yet, as we are reminded at the end of the book, their fate is to be forgotten within a few years of their deaths. Thus while Wilder is saying that there is something worth preserving in us all, he is reminding us that (in the vast majority of cases) nothing will preserved of ourselves for long after we die.
'There is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.'
Which is all that needs to be said, isn't it? Except that this is a wonderful book written in spare simple prose (which is always, to me, the mark of a master because, as Fred Astaire said, 'If it doesn't look simple you're not working hard enough'.)
Which is all that needs to be said, isn't it? Except that this is a wonderful book written in spare simple prose (which is always, to me, the mark of a master because, as Fred Astaire said, 'If it doesn't look simple you're not working hard enough'.)