Thornton Wilder

The bridge of San Luis Rey

Sarah Sammis

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder was the 1928 Pulitzer Prize winner. Set in Peru this historical fiction explores the ways in which the actions of individuals might play together in some great cosmic whole. The novel traces the lives of three of five victims of an Incan rope bridge and the friar who decides to use the tragedy to finally prove God's existence.

The first and final chapters focus on the bridge and friar while the middle three trace the lives of three of the dead: the Marquesa de Monte mayer, Esteban, and Uncle Pio. Although brother Juniper sets out to document every detail of their lives he never learns "the central passion of Doña María's life; nor of Uncle Pio's, not even Esteban's." (p. 7). The randomness of life and the secret driving forces of people is a central theme of The Bridge of San Luis Rey.

Although the novel is only 116 pages, being really more of a novella than a novel, it is one that needs to be read slowly and pondered. I reread a number of passages feeling comfortable taking the time to rethink what I'd just read since I wasn't committed to a lengthier work. For its turn of phrase and its location, I was reminded a bit of Isabel Allende's novels.

Thornton Wilder’s classic novel—now available in a limited Olive Edition—features previously unpublished notes and other illuminating documentary material as well as an updated afterword by his nephew, Tappan Wilder, and a foreword by Russell Banks. "On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." With this celebrated sentence, one of the towering achievements in American fiction, and a novel read throughout the world, begins. By fate or chance, a monk has witnessed the collapse. Brother Juniper, moved by the tragedy, embarks on a quest to prove a higher order is at work in the deaths of those who perished. His search leads readers on a timeless investigation into the nature of love and the meaning of the human condition.

A Novel

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Ivan Zarea

Human in that beautiful poetic sense. There's stuff that you cannot latch onto, it's built from the tiniest of details, thrown haphazardly, as if at random, as if real, all forming a picture that's vivid and very, very relatable.

This beautiful new edition of Thornton Wilder's classic novel features previously unpublished notes and other illuminating documentary material as well as an updated afterword by his nephew, Tappan Wilder, and a foreword by Russell Banks. "On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." With this celebrated sentence, one of the towering achievements in American fiction, and a novel read throughout the world, begins. By fate or chance, a monk has witnessed the collapse. Brother Juniper, moved by the tragedy, embarks on a quest to prove a higher order is at work in the deaths of those who perished. His search leads readers on a timeless investigation into the nature of love and the meaning of the human condition.

Christopher McCaffery

Pranav Mutatkar

4 1/2 stars. 

The premise is interesting and ambitious. A religious man, named Brother Juniper, tries to examine the lives of 5 people who just passed away in an act of God (a bridge collapsing). Brother Juniper's faith leads him to believe that there is some reason that these 5 were chosen to die. Maybe there is something about them that is evil, something that goes against God, or maybe it is clear from their stories that they sinned in a way where they deserved to die. 

As we delve into the stories of these people, we (along with brother Juniper) realize that is this far from the truth. All of them are human with all the good and bad that includes. 

I did think that Wilder could have used a different structure or way of presenting the novel. It was good, but there were certain parts of certain stories that were less interesting to me and I wanted to see Brother Juniper's examination of these people. Instead, we are served with stories of them which works, but I don't think is as effective as it could have been. 

It was a 4 star book until I reached the last line, which I absolutely loved. It refers to an existential issue all humans face. How long will we live? How will we be remembered? I think I will be going back to it time and time again as I face all the things life has and will continue to deal me. 

“We ourselves shall be loved for awhile and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”

El puente de San Luis Rey

Jose Vera

Tengo que admitir que el libro me sorprendio, en primer lugar por que esta ambientado en el Perú colonial (1714 para ser exactos), segundo, que el autor gano un Pullitzer, tercero que fue escrito por un norteamericano.

Pero tanto el lenguaje usado, como los personajes (algunos muy conocidos por la tradición como la Perricholi) son extraordinarios, adecuados a la época y muy brillantemente plasmados en el libro.

La historia inicia con la caída del puente de San Luis Rey, donde cinco desconocidos pierden la vida, Fray Junípero trata de darle un sentido teológico a estas muertes, con lo que nos encontramos es con cinco historias de soledad y amor, diferentes tipos de soledad y diversas formas de amor que atormentaron no sólo a las víctimas, si no tambien a sus allegados.

The bridge of San Luis Rey

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