Life isn't fair. It's a lesson our parents start trying to teach us young, usually, but it takes a long time to really stick. Sometimes good things happen to bad people for no reason, and the reverse is even more infuriatingly true. It might sound bleak, but this kind of thinking actually makes me feel better when bad things happen. It's nothing personal, it's just the way things are. But to Brother Juniper in Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey, that explanation isn't good enough. Brother Juniper is a monk, and in his eyes, people die for a reason. So when five people fall to their deaths when a Peruvian bridge collapses, he gathers their stories to try to puzzle out why.

The five are are an older woman estranged from her beloved daughter, that woman's young helpmeet, a young man mourning the loss of his identical twin brother, a stage manager who made an actress famous, and the actress' son. It's a brief little novella, but it's actually more a series of interconnected short stories than anything else. There are four stories going on: the story of the fall of the bridge and its effect on the local populace, the story of the woman and her companion, the story of the twin, and the story of the manager and the actress' son. The people on the bridge, far from being sinners cast down by a vengeful deity, were for the most part flawed but fundamentally good people who had experienced sorrow but were about to make a turn into happiness. What divine justice is there in that?

Even Brother Juniper can't see any. But while the mysteries of life and death may not be revealed by the story of those who perished with the bridge, what really comes through in these stories is love. The love of a parent for her child, the affection between companions, the love of siblings, romantic love, unrequited love...it actually reminds me of Love, Actually (which I know some people wish would vanish entirely from the earth, and definitely has issues, but I attach a lot of sentimental value to) in the way that it highlights the bonds between people. At the end, it's love that moves us, no matter what form that love takes.

This is a small book with a big reputation, and I...didn't really get the hype? Yes, it was good and surprisingly thought-provoking considering its length, but I wouldn't have identified it as a literary classic if I didn't already know it was exactly that going in, if you know what I mean. It was definitely a quality piece of writing, but it wasn't...special. I would be willing to bet that within a year I will have forgotten that I ever read it. But it is a classic, so it's apparently been very meaningful to some people and it's definitely an enjoyable, quick read, so no reason not to try it out if you're curious! ( )

“Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan.”

The finest footbridge in Peru, the bridge of San Luis Rey, breaks and five people die. Brother Juniper witnessed the tragedy and is resolved to investigate and understand why those five met with that fate.
Doña María and Pepita. Esteban. Uncle Pio and Don Jamie.

Beautifully written, with flowery language and a strong sense of place and people of Lima and the places around it. Definitely glad that I finally read this!

And what an ending!:

"But soon we shall die and all the memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while 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." ( )

This book is so good that even a strong conclusionary atheist and antitheist like myself is not annoyed by the meaningless, and in any case faint, religious framing. ( )

This book is an odd, delightful treat that won’t take up too much of your time. It’s that weird ice cream flavor you try (maybe lobster or sweet potato) that ends up becoming a personal favorite.

In a Peruvian mountain pass, a seemingly sturdy and reliable rope bridge snaps, sending five souls to their deaths. A Franciscan friar sets out to find out why these five should have died and not someone else, looking for a way to justify to man the divine plan he’s so sure of at work in the world.

What follows is a neat little story delving deep into the lives of three individuals in their time leading up to the fatal bridge collapse. There is Dona Maria, an aging great lady who’s desperate for the love of her aloof daughter, the young Esteban dealing with his strained relationship with his twin brother, and old Uncle Pio, an elderly scoundrel who discovered a peasant girl and raised her into a prodigy of the Spanish stage. While all these stories are intriguing and thought provoking on their own, the ending and what it has to say about the meaning of life and death is what truly makes this a classic worth revisiting.
( )

Deliziosi i primi due capitoli - il secondo in particolare.

Il resto, pur bello, m'e' parso un po' piu' di maniera. ( )