The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

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 The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder



This slim, 139-page Pulitzer Prize-winner was a thought-provoking read. It centers on three of five people who died in a bridge collapse (imagine a rickety, thin, wood-slatted bridge with vine rope handrails a la Indiana Jones.)  The disaster occurred in 1714 in Peru, and Franciscan Brother Juniper spent six years afterwards investigating the lives of the victims in an attempt to determine if they were fated to die on that bridge. Was it God's will? Were the dead deserving of their destinies more than others? Were their scales ultimately weighed down by their sins and shortcomings compared to their good and pious sides? Why weren't other people, who should have been karma-slapped, right there beside them?

 

Along with a common theme of love and loneliness in each of their interrelated stories, one particular actress and singer also coils through each of their lives. Other characters like the Archbishop, exposes the hypocrisies of the church, which is so relevant today. The archbishop knew that most of the priests of Peru were scoundrels and it took all of his might to overlook it. 

 

“It required all his delicate Epicurean education to prevent his doing something about it; he had to repeat over to himself his favorite notions: that the injustice and unhappiness in this world is a constant; the theory of progress is a delusion; that the poor, never having known happiness, are insensible to misfortune. Like all the rich he could not bring himself to believe that the poor…could really suffer.” Why wasn't he or any of the priests on that bridge?


Online it states that this was Wilder's most famous novel. Apparently it is so good that four movies or TV adaptations have been made of it.

 

At first I didn't find the book all that engaging. But the more I read the more poignant it became. If I had had to choose between this novel or his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Our Town, while halfway through reading this book, my vote would have gone for Our Town. But the end redeemed itself. This seems to be Wilder's style, because while reading Our Town, it didn't grab me until the 3rd act. Likewise, it wasn't till the last part of the book that I truly appreciated this novel.


I read this book last January.  Just getting to post it now. Oops!


Happy Reading,

Annette

 

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