The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder: book review

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) is set in Lima, Peru, in 1714.

At noon, on Friday 20 July 1714, ‘the finest bridge in all of Peru’ collapsed. Five people – pedestrians walking across the bridge – fell to their death. Who were these five hapless individuals?

Red-haired Franciscan monk, Brother Juniper, witnessed the harrowing incident. From northern Italy, he was in Peru, near the bridge, by chance. He vowed to learn about the identity of the five people, and to know of their lives, their characters, and their destinies.

The old woman, Dona Maria, Marquesa de Montemayor, originally from Spain, and her travelling companion, the little orphan girl Pepita from Lima, raised by the Abbess Madre Maria del Pilar, are the first two people he learns about. Then there is 22-year-old Esteban, the twin brother of Manuel, both orphan boys also raised by the Abbess of the Convent, Madre Maria del Pilar. Lastly, Brother Juniper reveals the lives of 50-year-old Uncle Pio, the aide to the famous singer Camila Perichole, friend of the Marquesa de Montemayor, and the singer’s young son Don Jaime.

Their lives were all connected in some way to each other. From the lives of five people, Brother Juniper learns a lot about himself, human nature, love and loss, and divine intervention.

My favourite chapter is the one about Esteban, a life so entwined with the life of his twin brother. A life of solemn silence and duty.

This short story is remarkable. Simply told, it is a profound account of the importance of life.

Thornton Wilder writes of this ficitonal bridge incident as if it were a true historical event. In 1929, two years after its publication it was made into a film (with Henry B Walthall as Brother Juniper), and again in 1944 (starring Donald Woods).

Most recently, the novel was depicted in the 2004 film, starring Kathy Bates, Geraldine Chaplin, Gabriel Byrne, Robert de Niro, Pilar Lopez de Ayala, and Harvey Keitel.

Despite bad reviews for the 2004 film version, the story is timeless.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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