Five people are killed when a small bridge breaks in Peru. A priest investigates the lives of the five people to try to understand why these five were killed. ( )

This is a short book about the separate lives of five people who are killed in an accident when a bridge in 1714 Peru breaks. A Catholic monk just barely avoids being amongst the five, and decides to attempt investigating the reason for their deaths. Why did he arrive a few moments later? Why those five people in particular? Was it coincidence, or divine intervention?
His search leads him to look into each of their lives, and "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" chronicles their both commonplace and extraordinary events, each chapter about the five people ending in what led them to traveling over the bridge that day, and ultimately their deaths.
This simply written, concise little story is to the point yet still eloquent and subtly poetic. Highly insightful, sensitive, and inquisitively philosophical.
I liked this book that searched the topic of death in a meaningful, unique manner.
A good book - 4 stars. ( )

It was a really interesting premise but it didn't actually go anywhere. I was disappointed that there was no analysis by the monk at the end, which seemed to be the original point. More detail on the reception to the study would have deepened it as well. The character sketches were still very well done. And it's weird how much of my reading lately references the same classical Spanish poets and playwrights. ( )

We all have a worldview (don't we?) that influences just about everything we encounter. Literature is no exception. Perhaps that is why I thought the main point of Thornton Wilder's outstanding The Bridge of San Luis Rey was so obvious.

In many of the reviews I've read, many have stated that Wilder leaves the main conclusion up to the reader. I must disagree. The final line, so quoted by many of the reviewers, makes it all very clear to me. "All those impulses of love return to the love that made them." Perhaps, had Wilder capitalized the second "love" more would have drawn the same conclusion as I. That love is, of course, the love of the Father.

This short book is rooted in Christian realism -- summed up in that final page. Life and God's ways as they pertain to life, are a mystery to the believer. Seemingly saintly people die far too early in inexplicable circumstances-- a bridge that has lasted for centuries one day breaks under the weight of an old woman, a cripple, an old man, a young girl, and a young man. But the "why" is not for us to know. We all must live in the comfort that it is His will that reigns, not ours, and that the love which sustained us in this life will see us to the next.

Perhaps Brother Juniper found his answer. I know I recognized mine. ( )

Meh

Sure, this is well written. But there is just nothing here that makes me care, makes me want to continue reading, makes me understand why it is so well regarded. (The Pulitzer???) A bridge crashes and Brother Juniper decides to learn about the lives of the people killed. The people are of some interest, and their lives mingle slightly. But none of the lives are interesting enough to warrant my time. Nor, are any of the personal discoveries (the people’s, the brother’s, mine) worth the time. The only thing this has going for it is that it is a quick read. Yet, even being quick, it is not really worth the time. ( )