Interesting look at Ordained Fate or Bad Luck
Thornton Wilder won the 1928 Nobel Prize with this concise novel about the tragic collapse of a bridge in Spanish Colonial Peru in 1714. A Catholic Friar named Brother Juniper witnesses the tragedy as he was about to cross the 100-year old bridge when it collapsed, killing all that were aboard. Brother Juniper then sets out to learn all he can about the lives of the five victims. He also seeks to determine whether their tragic end derived from luck, fate, or devine ordination. Together with Brother Juniper we come to know and care about the five victims (Dona Maria & Pepita, Estaban, Uncle Pio & Jaime). Clearly there are parallels in these pages to the tragic hand of fate that sometimes strikes people we know, leading so many of us to ask why? Ironically, Brother Juniper's six-year quest about the tragic causation leads to his own demise as a heretic.
We read this book as high school freshman and liked it's easy-reading style. I remember enjoying the book's presentation of life in Colonial South America, but as a teen not entirely understanding its examination of those dark questions about fate, luck and tragedy. Some readers praise this novel as masterful; others find it more worthy than outstanding. Whatever your view, the author never quite answers the central question with iron-clad certainly. But then, what human ever has?
Excellent -- Thought-Provoking, Moving, and Beautiful
The Bridge of San Luis Rey is Thornton Wilder's most famous novel and rivals his play Our Town as his most famous work. It is certainly his prose masterpiece and, though it does not belong with the truly greatest novels, is excellent overall and exemplary in many respects.
The central idea is brilliant, perhaps the best out of the hundreds or thousands of books I have read in terms of plot and otherwise - a bridge collapses, killing everyone on it and leading an onlooker to investigate their lives for some kind of divine meaning behind it. The book is thus not a novel in the usual sense so much as a series of interlocking short stories. The stories are very good in themselves - interesting and extremely readable; they could stand alone with slightly altered endings. Characterization is strong, but some may be dismayed by how the stories end just as we begin to make a truly emotional connection - but this is after all the point. The characters were all at an important point in their lives when the bridge fell, perhaps even life-changing ones, but their plans were cut unexpectedly and tragically short. Perhaps they would have succeeded; perhaps not. The point is that they - and hence we - will never know; the transition is deliberately jerky in order to let us feel the magnitude of this, the sadness of what could have been.
However, Wilder's artistry truly comes into play when he makes them all mesh in the central conceit; his execution is seamlessly deft. It is a remarkable technical feat and interesting enough in itself to carry a book, but its highly thought-provoking nature is the real strength. One can only wonder why such tragedies happen; is it simply chance - bad luck, if you will - the inevitable statistical result of a universe without a benevolent god or any other controlling force sympathetic to humanity? This might be the expected conclusion of a twentieth century novel, but Wilder - dubbed an unfashionable optimist by one critic - is significantly more ambiguous. He cleverly makes the observer a religious figure understandably determined to see God's Providence. Despite diligent striving and sincere faith, he cannot do so to his satisfaction, and he is to a large extent a figure of ridicule. However, Brother Juniper is also sympathetic in being truly genuine and honestly searching, and he certainly does not deserve his punishment; his narrow-minded and unfair execution is another shot at religion, but it would be wrong to put the novel with the great agnostic/atheist works. Wilder deliberately leaves the question open; Juniper may have been naïve, but there is no proof that he was wrong. Other characters in any case take solace in love's redemptive power, which is depicted as stronger than death - sufficient for meaning in life and continued optimism regardless of Providence's existence or non-existence. This common secular conclusion may disappoint the religious but has rarely, if ever, been put forth so movingly and powerfully. The book's final paragraph is one of the most beautifully lyrical and sublimely poignant ever written - so great that the book is worth reading for it alone and would be worth the wait even if one liked nothing before it. Whether we agree or disagree with the conclusion, its thought-provoking nature is notable, and the final paragraph will stay with us for a long time - likely forever.
This brings up another of the book's great strengths - remarkable prose. Wilder writes with incredible beauty and precision, somehow managing to reach great poetic heights and infuse considerable meaning in under two hundred pages. This has some of the loveliest writing to be found anywhere as well as vivid characterization, detailed historical narration that makes an unfamiliar world seem truly alive, and even strong, well-done elements of diverse styles such as satire.
All told, while missing the indefinable something characteristic of the greatest novels, this is an excellent one with wide appeal, and anyone who likes classic literature should check it out.
Beautiful Collector's item
The Bridge of San Luis Rey is a Thornton Wilder classic and well worth the read in any form, but the edition I purchased from provider, Leo Sun Sign, is an exquisite collector's item with gorgeous colored illustrations. The book arrived quickly and was in impeccable condition. The perfect gift for any book lover.
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