From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Thornton Wilder,

Russell Banks (Foreword)

Start date: April 1, 2019

Finish date: April 30, 2019

Discussion: Lesser Know Classics

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What Members Thought

Jul 21, 2019 Sara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary-fiction, classics, philosophy, short-stories-novellas, pulitzer-prize-winners

On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below.

Thus begins The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Brother Juniper, a Franciscan monk, witnesses the collapse, and he sets out to know about the five people and determine why God chose to end those five lives on that day.

Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan.> poses Brother Juniper. In doing so, he asks the fundamental question that On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below.

Thus begins The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Brother Juniper, a Franciscan monk, witnesses the collapse, and he sets out to know about the five people and determine why God chose to end those five lives on that day.

Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan.> poses Brother Juniper. In doing so, he asks the fundamental question that haunts all of us at some time in our lives, particularly in a time of loss in which we can see no pattern and no good. The five are old and young, they are wealthy and poor, they are all embarking on some significant change, and they are all expecting to make it to the other side of the bridge, as indeed thousands have done for centuries, and live.

As we begin to know the five individuals who plunged from the bridge to their deaths below, we see not paragons of virtue being harvested by God, nor minions of evil being punished, but five people, involved in life, planning their futures, embarking on new paths, who are suddenly and abruptly gone. What struck me most was that each of them had grappled with some overwhelming adversity and each was looking at a glimmer of hope for finding their way forward when their lives were stopped.

Dissertations have been written on this short masterpiece, and without giving significant plot away, it would be impossible for me to add anything of value. I find it staggering that so much depth of understanding of the human dilemma, the different varieties of love, and man’s struggle to comprehend God could be packed into such a short work. Wilder has perfected the art of saying only what is needed and nothing more.

I could not close this review without adding one last quote. It struck me as being one of the most true and important things I have ever read:

”Even now,” she thought, “almost no one remembers Estaban and Pipita, but myself. Camila alone remembers Uncle Pio and her son; this woman, her mother. But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and then 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.”
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Nov 05, 2019 Shirley (stampartiste) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-classics, challenge-bingo-2019, challenge-back-to-the-classics-2019

This may be a book that I will eventually move up to a 5-star rating (a rating I normally reserve for books that I know will stay with me). For me, this was a book about how people experience love in their lives... how they accept love... how they demonstrate love... how they live with it or exist without it... Wilder presented some profound thoughts through his characters. Many times, I actually experienced the pain his characters were experiencing.

Wilder summed up his views on life and love in ...more

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Jul 26, 2025 Jill rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This book really didn't click with me, but the last page is worth the whole price of admission. ...more

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Nov 17, 2020 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

I heard a fair amount about this -- and it was not quite what I expected. I, for whatever reason, expected it to be more religious and stodgy. Not at all. It was a short exploration of love, or was it? On the surface its a classic appreciate those around you before they are gone tale- a lovely, sentimental story. It makes a decent story that way. But, some of these folks that we are supposed to appreciate are seriously demented, if not outright hateful. Whats up with that? The ungrateful daughte ...more

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