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A review by apechild
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
3.0
This is a curious book, certainly very well written and worthy; it feels like the slightly melancholic atmosphere from it will stay with me for a while. I found in interesting as well, reading about the characters' lives, but I don't know whether I enjoyed it, in so much as I don't think I'd want to ever read it again, even though it is a novella.
It's all South American literature, religion, passion etc set in Peru, mostly Lima during... I don't know, the 1800s. There's a bridge, the Bridge of San Luis Rey (referring to a French king) that crosses a deep ravine. One day it breaks whilst five travellers are on it, and they all drop to their deaths. A monk, Brother Juniper, can't believe that it's just a case of "that's life" and sets out to investigate why these people in particular died. So most of the book is about their life stories. And sure, none of them were perfect, but they were no better or worse than anyone else, so personally I do just find it a case of that's life. The people who ultimately suffer are the friends and relatives who are left behind.
Brother Juniper hardly appears, just at the start and the end. And I guess in trying to understand God, they decide he is a heretic and throw him on a bonfire. How nice the world can be at times.
The people that die are a mixed bag. There's the Marquesa de Montemayor: an old, eccentric, lonley noblewoman who is remembered for the fantastic letters she wrote to her daughter; and her maid/companion Pepita: an orphan girl from the convent. There's Esteban: the surviving brother of twins; and Uncle Pio: a flamboyant Jack of all Trades from Spain who kind of adopted Camila, who became the greatest actress in Peru under his tutelage, as well as her son, Jaime, who was just a little lad.
It's all South American literature, religion, passion etc set in Peru, mostly Lima during... I don't know, the 1800s. There's a bridge, the Bridge of San Luis Rey (referring to a French king) that crosses a deep ravine. One day it breaks whilst five travellers are on it, and they all drop to their deaths. A monk, Brother Juniper, can't believe that it's just a case of "that's life" and sets out to investigate why these people in particular died. So most of the book is about their life stories. And sure, none of them were perfect, but they were no better or worse than anyone else, so personally I do just find it a case of that's life. The people who ultimately suffer are the friends and relatives who are left behind.
Brother Juniper hardly appears, just at the start and the end. And I guess in trying to understand God, they decide he is a heretic and throw him on a bonfire. How nice the world can be at times.
The people that die are a mixed bag. There's the Marquesa de Montemayor: an old, eccentric, lonley noblewoman who is remembered for the fantastic letters she wrote to her daughter; and her maid/companion Pepita: an orphan girl from the convent. There's Esteban: the surviving brother of twins; and Uncle Pio: a flamboyant Jack of all Trades from Spain who kind of adopted Camila, who became the greatest actress in Peru under his tutelage, as well as her son, Jaime, who was just a little lad.