Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by craftygoat
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
5.0
I had to pull out my Post-It flags for this one -- I kept finding beautiful, thought-provoking passages to bookmark. I especially enjoyed Wilder's thoughtful observations on human nature & his interesting perspective on love. Here are a few of my favorite passages:
"[Dona Maria] saw that the people of this world moved about in an armor of egotism, drunk with self-gazing, athirst for compliments, hearing little of what was said to them, unmoved by the accidents that befell their closest friends, in dread of all appeals that might interrupt their long communion with their own desires." (p. 18)
"[Camila] was quite incapable of establishing any harmony between the claims of her art, of her appetites, or her dreams, and of her crowded daily routine. Each of these was a world in itself." (p. 88) [I can *so* relate to this!]
"The discrepancy between faith and the facts is greater than is generally assumed." (p. 113)
And, of course, the final passage:
"Even now, almost no one remembers Esteban and Pepita, but myself. Camila alone remembers her Uncle Pio and her son; this woman, her mother. But soon we shall 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. 123)
Don't know how I missed out on reading this book in school, but I'm glad I've found it now. While it doesn't answer the question of why tragedies occur, its message is an uplifting one.
"[Dona Maria] saw that the people of this world moved about in an armor of egotism, drunk with self-gazing, athirst for compliments, hearing little of what was said to them, unmoved by the accidents that befell their closest friends, in dread of all appeals that might interrupt their long communion with their own desires." (p. 18)
"[Camila] was quite incapable of establishing any harmony between the claims of her art, of her appetites, or her dreams, and of her crowded daily routine. Each of these was a world in itself." (p. 88) [I can *so* relate to this!]
"The discrepancy between faith and the facts is greater than is generally assumed." (p. 113)
And, of course, the final passage:
"Even now, almost no one remembers Esteban and Pepita, but myself. Camila alone remembers her Uncle Pio and her son; this woman, her mother. But soon we shall 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. 123)
Don't know how I missed out on reading this book in school, but I'm glad I've found it now. While it doesn't answer the question of why tragedies occur, its message is an uplifting one.