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ablotial 's review for:
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
by Thornton Wilder
I really liked the premise here; it's one that I've thought of at many points during my own life. It asks the question of why things happen to people. Is it random? Is it fate? Is it part of the plan of a higher being? As the story begins, a bridge that has held for hundreds of years collapses and 5 people fall to their deaths. The event was witnessed by a monk, Brother Juniper, who seeks to find out what these people did to deserve their fates, on the assumption that God has a plan.
He had done this once before when pestilence visited his home village and many died, ranking each peasant's Goodness, Piety and Usefulness with results that had displeased him:
And so this time, he took a different approach, talking to family and friends of the deceased, learning as much as he could about them. Or at least, the adults.
Two of the three who perished were children, and I really wish more time had been spent on them. The three adults each got their own chapters, but the children were only mentioned as part of the adult stories. It seems to me that if you were going to answer questions about whether its part of God's plan, you'd need to take the children into account. After all, they haven't had much time in their short lives to do something that is "deserving" of death. And it seems a cruel, cruel God who would kill a child to punish a "deserving" adult.
The adults were all flawed, but they all had good qualities as well. And they interacted with people who were decidedly more flawed. The thing they had in common was obsession ... or unrequited love and loss, depending on your viewpoint. The ending seems to imply something about love but ... I'm not sure it was meant to be taken literally. There's a bit of a satire feeling to much of this book.
Anyway, it was a nice read. Interesting viewpoints, interesting characters, and a lot to think about. The fate of Brother Juniper says a lot.
He had done this once before when pestilence visited his home village and many died, ranking each peasant's Goodness, Piety and Usefulness with results that had displeased him:
Spoiler
From all this saddening data Brother Juniper contrived an index for each peasant. He added up the total for victims and compared it with the total for survivors, to discover that the dead were five times more worth saving. It almost looked as though the pestilence had been directed against the really valuable people in the village of Puerto. And on that afternoon Brother Juniper took a walk along the edge of the Pacific. He tore up his findings and cast them into the waves; he gazed for an hour upon the great clouds of pearl that hang forever upon the horizon of that sea, and extracted from their beauty a resignation that he did not permit his reason to examine. The discrepancy between faith and the facts is greater than is generally assumed.And so this time, he took a different approach, talking to family and friends of the deceased, learning as much as he could about them. Or at least, the adults.
Two of the three who perished were children, and I really wish more time had been spent on them. The three adults each got their own chapters, but the children were only mentioned as part of the adult stories. It seems to me that if you were going to answer questions about whether its part of God's plan, you'd need to take the children into account. After all, they haven't had much time in their short lives to do something that is "deserving" of death. And it seems a cruel, cruel God who would kill a child to punish a "deserving" adult.
The adults were all flawed, but they all had good qualities as well. And they interacted with people who were decidedly more flawed. The thing they had in common was obsession ... or unrequited love and loss, depending on your viewpoint. The ending seems to imply something about love but ... I'm not sure it was meant to be taken literally. There's a bit of a satire feeling to much of this book.
Anyway, it was a nice read. Interesting viewpoints, interesting characters, and a lot to think about. The fate of Brother Juniper says a lot.