Rating: 
Summary: Life or Death, Accident or Intention
Review: "On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." When Brother Juniper witnesses this tragedy first-hand, he resolves to find in it scientific evidence of God's plan. The randomness of this evident, in Juniper's mind, makes it the perfect laboratory for investigating this question. "Here at last one could surprise His intentions in a pure state." Before the victims had even hit the ground, he already plans on investigating their lives. Short, beautiful, and nearly perfect, THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY earned Thornton Wilder the first of his three Pulitzer prizes.
The lives of the five victims of the bridge are thoroughly recounted leading up to the moment they all came together to cross the bridge. Brother Juniper came up with his conclusions regarding the tragedy, but ultimately, he was not satisfied with his results. He did, however, realize that he learned least about the victims in question in speaking with those that were close to them. It was these very survivors, however, away from Juniper's questions and after the friar's execution who ultimately did find some answers.
I was moved by the final conclusion of the book: that out lives are transient and unremarkable but to those whom we love and who love us, and our very existence dies with those that cared for us. "...almost no one remembers Esteban and Pepita but myself... But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves should be loved for awhile and forgotten. But the love will have been enough..." I can't find a better argument for living in the moment.
Jeremy W. Forstadt
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: 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: 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.
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 book lover
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: a book lover
Review: one of the greatest books i will ever read. so deep and so beautifully written, everyone must read it!
Rating:
Summary: A literary practitioner of gracious artistry
Review: One tends to forget how graceful a writer Thornton Wilder was.
The bridge between Lima and Cuzco broke. It was 1714. It had been made by the Incas with thin slats. A little red-haried Franciscan, Brother Juniper, from Italy did something about the rent in the bridge of San Luis Rey. Brother Juniper wanted to determine why the five people who died had been fated to lose their lives on that bridge. He wanted to experiment, to explain the ways of God to men. He spent six years investigating the lives of the victims.
The Marquesa de Montemayor was separated from her daughter, the Condesa, who lived in Spain. She learned her daughter was expecting a child. In time she made a typical Peruvian pilgrimage to the shrine of Santa Maria de Cluxambuqua. Even before the Incan civilization the ground was holy.
Esteban and Manuel were foundlings. Twins, they invented a secret language for themselves. The language was a symbol of their identity with one another. Their unity was broken by a love of women.
Uncle Pio was active, but nothing made him rich. He came from Europe. He traveled with a cafe singer, the Perichole. Uncle Pio never ceased watching Camila, the Perichole. She became impatient with acting and wanted to become a lady.
A new bridge of stone was built. Brother Juniper's book was held to be heretical. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love.
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: Beautifully written, beautifully read
Review: This slim little novel employs a fairly typical literary technique--a random event, in this case the collapse of a bridge in Peru--results in the death of five people. The novel explores the lives of the five, which touch each other in subtle ways. The ultimate question asked is whether God "planned" that this particular five be on the bridge that day to meet their fate. I don't think that question is answered, but a more profound one--whether each person's life is unique and meaningful--is answered with a resounding YES. The unabridged audio version of this book is excellent. Sam Waterston reads clearly and simply, and conveys a tone of respect for each of these diverse lives. Highly recommended.
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