Written in 1927, this felt like it could be written significantly later as well. Somehow it was reminiscent of other books in the “life philosophy“/spiritual genre!
The premise is simple: five people die as a bridge collapses in 18th-century Peru. A monk witnesses this tragedy and decides to look into who died, and possibly why. Are they being punished? Why did they die? What can their lives tell us about why they died?
Despite the religious overtones and the possibly saccharine premise, this is actually just a very human novel with great character sketches. And in some weird comforting way, learning about their lives did make their ending more palatable. Counterintuitive, I know.
There’s some really great mother-daughter and children-caregiver explorations going on here. This book feels very honest.
The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928 and was one of the most sold novels of its time, but it seems to have lost its popularity, though it routinely makes “great literature lists”.
This book is surprisingly fresh, entertaining, and Wilder doesn’t attempt to underline or simplify its own philosophical viewpoint.
One word: irreverent.
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