The Bridge of San Luis Rey: A Novel
by Thornton Wilder
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Book Summary Information
Author: Thornton WilderEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-01-06
ISBN: 0060580615
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Harper
Book Reviews of The Bridge of San Luis Rey: A Novel
Book Review: A classic revisited...
Summary: 4 Stars
Thornton Wilder is perhaps best known for his play, "Our Town," which is the staple of high school drama groups and this book, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. I first read the book in high school, now more than 40 years ago and sadly chose it for its length - a short assignment! Some of the negative reviews of the book seem to be from these young, first time readers - I would have been among them on my first reading. Almost certainly you need some maturity (read: life experiences) to fully appreciate Wilder's wonderful, dense, evocative prose.
The year was 1714, the "Sun King," Louis XIV was still on the throne in France, and Peru was an established colony of Spain, when the bridge collapsed. One of the sub-themes of the book is the relationship of the colony with the mother country, Spain, and Peru's efforts to mature, in terms of the cultural and social life available. The central strength of the novel is Wilder's incisive portraits of four individuals: the physically ugly, lonely noveaux-riche, the Marquesa de Montemayor; Estaban, the sole survivor of twin orphans; and Uncle Pio, the wheeler-dealer who "trained" the actress Perichole. The first three fell to their deaths when the bridge collapsed, along with two others, Pepita, the assistant of the Marquesa, and Jaime, the son of Perichole. These two are not characterized in detail, and thus might be considered so much "collateral damage."
Examples of Wilder's succinct and meaningful prose are, in terms of the Archbishop: "A curious and eager soul was imprisoned in all this lard, but by dint of never refusing himself a pheasant or a goose or his daily procession of Roman wines, he was his own bitter jailer." Has schadenfreude ever been better defined that the reaction of the population to the knowledge that the glamorous actress Perichole had become disfigured by smallpox: "...henceforth any attention paid to her must spring from a pity full of condescension and faintly perfumed with satisfaction at so complete a reversal."?
The overall framework of the novel is the search for meaning in this accident, faithfully pursued by a Brother Juniper who investigated each of the characters and their connections with their relations and friends. For his efforts, the Catholic Church burned him at the stake for "heresy" since his conclusion was that it was "God's will" that they were chosen to be called "home." Wilder's own conclusion is equally unsatisfying: "There is a land of the living, and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning."
It was humbling to realize that Wilder wrote this book, with its intense character sketches when he was still under 30. The weakness, despite the Pulitzer, was the overall framework and his facile, trite conclusions as to meaning, in a universe devoid of same, despite our best efforts. Overall, a much better book to read in one's 60's than when one is 16.
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