The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Rating:
Summary: the miracle of connections
Review: If you have ever wondered what would have happened had you left your house a few minutes earlier this is a book for you. Would the day have been different? Or would your life have been different? Maybe not, but in our minds we make connections about coincidences all the time. The beauty of this book is that it attempts to get at the heart of connections and why a particular group of people happen to all be on a bridge at the time it collapses. The best part of the book is the monk going in search of the people's past because -- being a man who believes in predetermination -- he wonders if indeed the people were fated to be on the bridge at that moment. Those who call this book boring simply don't get it. And those who call it unrealsitic don't have much of an imagination. This book is fiction at it's best because it has the ability to make us actively think about the connections in our lives. And amazingly for all that heady stuff it can be read in one day!

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Summary: A poetic philosophy blade to the heart!
Review: I have not read much philosophy in life, but what I haven't studied or marked, is made up for in The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Like many readers, I was more acquainted with Thorton Wilder's plays, i.e. The Matchmaker and Our Town, etc... This novel is equally good as his plays. The core question that the book asks is why? Why did the bridge collapse with the specific five people on it? Were their lives conducted in a fashion that warrented death? Or, was death a blessing? Were these five people being rewarded and their souls/spirits being elevated to a godly netherworld? There are so many questions that can be posed as a result of this remarkable novel/novella.It is true that the prose is difficult to read, but if the reader takes his/her time, it is a book that is definately worth reading and rereading.

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Summary: Three things about this book:exquisite, exquisite, exquisite
Review: If you want to read a novel written in masterful, melodic prose with exquisite character development, an intriguing and beguiling plot structure, and a work of profound substance and meaning, read this book. It is a true work of art. Read it, then read any contemporary American novel, read any winner of the National Book Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, etc., and see the dearth of talent that exists among even our most "distinguished" prose stylists. Read it aloud and hear how a master of the English language can construct a narrative that is as perfect to the ear as a piece of classical music.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: A brilliant book. Wilder richly deserved the Pulitzer that this book earned. Short, at 133 pages in this edition, it is uniformly excellent. Wilder's sharp wit and turn of phrase are unmatched. The book's theme is powerful and resolved in an unexpected and profound way. Brother Juniper, a thoughtful friar, witnesses the collapse of a rope bridge over a gorge in rural Peru in 1714 and the death of the five people walking along it. He views this event as an opportunity to prove the existence of god and, finally, to elevate theology to the rank of the hard sciences. Juniper instinctively believes that there must be a divine reason for those five to have been chosen for death. He senses god's powerful, latent hand in the bridge's collapse and commits himself to learning all there is to know about the victims in order to discern the plan and prove god's existence. Who were the victims? What were their lives like? Why did they die?

Juniper's conclusions are, of course, inconclusive. He never found the pattern, but remained convinced that it was there, just that he was too poor an intellect to see it. Such questions, naturally, were anathema to the church of the age and Juniper and his book were destroyed for heresy. Readers who focus on the same questions as Juniper are doomed to be just as frustrated. Wilder is far too insightful to let Juniper have the last word, for ultimately, it is not Juniper who stumbles upon the meaning of the five deaths, but the survivors -those who loved the victims- as well as the reader. What the five had in common was that they were human beings, with tender sides and flaws and significant unrequited loves. There is nothing remarkable here, we are all built that way. After their deaths, the Abbess whose orphanage was home to two of the victims realizes that the meaning lies in the lives themselves, in the love the victims shared with those near to them. That there is no immortality, not even memory or good works, so that what matters is the fleeting existence of goodness, and therein lies god's grace. Love is a powerful and immediate force, not a point for theological debate. "Many who have spent a lifetime in passion can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday."

Wilder's prose is smooth and polished and yielding of aphorisms: the six attributes of the adventurer (a memory for names and faces, the gift of tongues, inexhaustible invention, secrecy, a talent for chatting with strangers, and a freedom from conscience); or an observation that "the public for which masterpieces are intended is not on this earth." Every line is adept, every page a wonder.

While Wilder wrote the book in 1927, it is perhaps a perfect inquiry into 17th century baroque worldviews and the rationalist philosophies they spawned. The baroque had reached Spain, if not Peru, by 1714. Its fascination with death and the brevity of life ("carpe diem" and countless reminders of the inevitabiity of death) resound her, as do its emphasis on vanity, and theater as a metaphor for life. Lima's theatre, its actresses and audiences, are central to the book. And it is only when the beautiful actress is struck by tragedies that she reaches her resolution in grace. Juniper himself embodies that strange blend of baroque scientific materialism and divine idealism of an age in which Descartes could prove the existence of god while Newton demonstrated god's machinery in motion.

Wilder's solution is much more satisfying than Descartes' or Juniper's. Wilder may have been baroque in his cynicism, but he was decidedly 20th century american in his hopefulness. "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" is a stunning book.

Rating:
Summary: Love is Enough
Review: The hardest books to review are your favorites. This is my fifth attempt on this one.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey concerns one of the primary questions of human existance. Does God have a plan for our deaths and is there a reason we die? (Pretend that was only one question.) This novel is certainly the best to explore the topic. It is vastly insightful and gives its insight within a powerful narrative.

The novel begins with the collapse of the bridge of San Luis Rey which kills the five people crossing it. Brother Juniper witnesses the catastrophe, and he decides to use this opportunity to study the reasons for death. What follows is the story of each of the persons' lives who died. In each story you find a connecting bond: love. Each had been touched by love. The stories together reaveal simply that. Everyones' life matters because of love, and the dead are still connected to the living by a bridge of love.

What I've written about the novel is really too simplistic. The Bridge of San Luis Rey is only a very short novel, but within those pages is a multitude of insight which cannot be explained in a short review (especially without giving away too much of the book). I think that I'll just conclude this rambling review by saying that this is a beautiful little novel which deserves a place among the very top novels of last century. I also think that in wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy, The Bridge of San Luis Rey could gain importance by giving the people affected insight into the tragedy and comfort them.

Rating:
Summary: a quiet study of lives lived
Review: There is not much to The Bridge at San Luis Rey. In the opening chapter the entire premise is undone, telling of one Brother Juniper and his quest to prove God's motive in a terrible accident that claimed five diverse lives. The narration of this part goes on to tell us that Brother Juniper was unsuccessful in his quest and was eventually charged with heresy for this undertaking and burned at the stake. We then go back in time and learn about the distinctive lives of these five victims, both of their lives and their affect on those around them. It is a quite beautiful story, sweet and hopeful at the end, an enduring picture of lives having meaning and, regardless of the abandonment of the story's initial premise, really quite effective and engaging. Four and a half, rounded down because the book a read immediately prior to it was something held very special in my heart.

Rating:
Summary: an elegant set of stories that tugs at the heart strings...
Review: 'The Bridge of San Luis Rey' is a deceptively simple set of inter-related stories about a handful of people who perish when a primitive bridge collapses in eighteenth century Peru. Sounds dull? Well,.. wrong. Thornton Wilder does a fine job in describing personal angst and hardship of these people; their plight can easily be told in a modern setting. I was especially moved by the one story of a older woman trying to come to terms with the decaying relationship between herself and her daughter. Yet, unsurprisingly, not all the stories affected me personally. Sort of hit-and-miss. But in the end I felt moved by it all; this short book does leave you with the feeling you've read something significant.

Bottom line: an uneven but ultimately very satisfying read.

Rating:
Summary: Kinda Lost Me...
Review: I read this book in a 2 day period. I was kind of lost after the 3rd part. I will try to reread it and hopefully I can get more out of it. I just know noticed they made a movie of it. Maybe I need to see the movie!! Still its okay!

Rating:
Summary: A Deeply Moving Story.
Review: The story takes place in South America in the 1700s, as five people die when a rope bridge fails and they fall to their deaths. A priest is convinced that God has punished these five for a reason, and he sets out to discover the evil in their pasts that led God to destroy them. What you will uncover is a story and an ending that will come back to touch you again and again. Beautifully told and one of the books I will always treasure.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing Book, Great Reviews
Review: This is a great book, and I have enjoyed reading the reviews also. A lot of people really liked the book and thought about it. I think the review by "richard_t" from South America is beautiful, and it made me understand the book better. Thanks.