The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927)

Three intermingled stories of various Peruvians living in Lima during the Spanish colonial era, and dying by an act of God while crossing the famous Incan bridge. The story as a whole is an exercise in answering the question "Why? Why them?" Thornton Wilder's answer was simple, and well-loved (he got the Pulitzer, the book was a smash and unprecedented success and the proceeds from this one short book, written in his twenties, set him up for the rest of his life).

By the way, the Foreword by Russell Banks is bad and I would advise avoiding it, but the Afterword by the author's granddaughter is very good, going into his letters, interviews and original drafts. ( )

"Some say that we shall never know, and that to the gods we are like the flies that the boys kill on a summer day, and some say, on the contrary, that the very sparrows do not lose a feather that has not been brushed away by the finger of God."

You might think a book so focused on God and faith would fail to have the desired effect on an atheist like me. But, actually, I think the religious factor of this novel is just a small part of something which affects all of us: our need to question why things happen. When tragedy falls upon our loved ones, or perhaps not even that, perhaps a news story captures our attention of young children involved in a fatal accident, completely in the wrong place at the wrong time - when life presents us with such situations as these, it seems it is a common element of human nature to ask that question which has plagued philosophers, priests, historians and scientists for millennia. Why.

This book begins with the collapse of the San Luis Rey bridge in Peru. Brother Juniper witnesses the disaster and watches as five people plummet to their deaths in the gorge below. He finds himself wondering why those people at that exact point were chosen to die, what it was about their lives that shaped such a destiny for them. We are taken on an emotional journey into the lives of the deceased, exploring questions about life, death, religion, faith and chance. Did these five people die because of some grave sin that doomed their souls? Or was it something far more complicated than that?

"Now he discovered that secret from which one never quite recovers, that even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other. There may be two equally good, equally gifted, equally beautiful, but there may never be two that love one another equally well."

This beautifully written novel captures numerous emotions in a very small amount of pages and also gives the reader an interesting view of the ruling classes in Spanish South America at this time (18th century). The book can be viewed as several gradually entwining short stories which feature very different lives that end in the same unfortunate way. It is quite a painful read, especially when looking at the relationship between Dona Maria and her daughter, the former longing for the latter's love but unsure how to obtain it. Knowing the outcome of each tale adds a looming cloud of despair to the stories and makes the characters' situations that much more tragic.

What many see as this book's major weakness and I found to be its greatest strength was the lack of answers to the questions first pondered by Brother Juniper when he witnessed the collapse of the bridge. Wilder purposely leaves the ending open for interpretation as to whether these people were the victims of chance or deliberately targeted as part of God's greater plan. The only certainty is that, in one way or another, love brought each of those people to that bridge at that exact point. And I believe the ambiguity makes it all the more powerful.

"There is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning." ( )

A beautiful, elegiac discourse on the nature of love and life. Rarely do I read such moving literature. The prose boarders on poetic. I would highly recommend this. It's a quick read, but deserves carful contemplation. ( )

When several people fall to their deaths in the collapse of a bridge in a small South American village, a priest investigates the victim’s hoping to learn if there is any spiritual significance to their deaths and their lives.

Thornton Wilder said that he was posing a question: "Is there a direction and meaning in lives beyond the individual's own will?” Wilder refused to answer the question with the story, leaving the reader to come to individual conclusions. The strength and beauty of Wilder’s writing is his ability to create characters and a story that do not point to an answer.

Bottom Line: Wilder poses the question but forces the reader to draw conclusions.

4 bones!!!!! ( )

In 1714 a main bridge in Peru collapsed. The bridge took travelers from Lima to Cuzco.

There were five travelers on the bridge who perished when the bridge collapsed.

Brother Juniper was also traveling and about to go onto the bridge when it went down. He decided to study the lives of the travelers to see if there was anything in their lives that might have been a reason for God to let the bridge fall.

Excellent dialogue and depiction of life in Peru. An easy read and a book that won the Pulitzer Prize. ( )