This Pulitzer-winning book was the first of three Pulitzers for Thornton Wilder, who also won for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. It has an interesting premise. One that people could relate to today (in light of the Omaha Mall killings) and in recent years (9/11). When a bridge collapses near Lima, Peru, the question is asked, “Why did those five particular individuals die, and the rest did not?” A monk who witnesses the event seeks to delve into the lives of the five who were killed and into the lives of the survivors to see if he can find any answers. The book then flashes back to the histories of those dead, and we get a glimpse of their goodness and piety (or lack thereof) and their usefulness to society. This ‘formula’ is used by the monk to try to determine an explanation to this question.
I have read Our Town and have also seen it performed, but I was not prepared for Wilder’s gorgeous writing. I will definitely be seeking out more of his books and plays. Two that look promising are Theophilus North and the one-act play “The Long Christmas Dinner.”
I’ll leave you with a sample of his prose:
All night they talked, secretly comforting their hearts that longed always for Spain and telling themselves that such a symposium was after the manner of the high Spanish soul. They talked about ghosts and second-sight, and about the earth before man appeared upon it and about the possibility of the planets striking against one another; about whether the soul can be seen, like a dove, fluttering away at the moment of death; they wondered whether at the second coming of Christ to Jerusalem, Peru would be long in receiving the news. They talked until the sun rose, about wars and kings, about poets and scholars, and about strange countries. Each one poured into the conversation his store of wise sad anecdotes and his dry regret about the race of men.
This was a quick read, and one that probably deserves to be re-read in the future.
1927, 129 pp.
Rating: 4.5
Wow, sounds like a fantastic book. I’m only familiar with Our Town, but I certainly won’t hesitate to pick this one up if I run across it.
Much is made of the characters and destiny, but what of the bridge? Anybody wanna talk about it?
this book was hard to read it was a book full of sorrows and pain more for dona maria. she longed for her daughter to love her and to say that she was the best mother of all. also dona maria had a change of heart towards the end of the book just before she died.
Can it be that those who died were those who suffered deeply at the hands of unrequited, torturous loves? The daughter in Spain, the telepathic twin, the young girl sent away to tend to the old aristocratic lady was deeply in love with the Abess who cast her out. All these characters were wretchedly obsessed and haunted by the othert, the one who did not return their love. They could not “push on”, but became trapped and even entranced in their own brooding inner world. In contrast, the sea captain, who lost a daughter and was no stranger to tragedy, pushed on. But Esteban, Pepita, Marquesa, these were the haunted, tormented souls obsessed with the uninterested “other”. Did they unconsciously invite harm’s way? You bet they did. The sea captain, grieving his young daughter to the very day the bridge collapsed, left the bridge to tend to earthly, practical matters. He was not a happy man, but rooted in the now, and strong in his stalwart silences. I came away feeling those 5 had to die, in order to live! Freed from torment, unchained by pre-occupation with another, more powerful self than the self each possessed.
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