Contemporary American Literature Selections 8
(From "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" by Thornton Wilder)
It's a powerful novel.
Thornton Wilder's moving novella, "The Bridge of San Luis Rey," begins with the simple sentence, "At noon on Friday, July 20, 1714, the most beautiful bridge in Peru collapsed, and the five men walking on it fell into the deep chasm."
A priest from Italy who had traveled to Peru to spread the gospel witnessed the accident and was deeply shocked. He himself was about to cross the bridge. A question then came to his mind: "Why did this disaster befall only those five people? Why not me?" Was it God's decision? If so, why?
He then begins to investigate the backgrounds of the five victims. Over the course of six years, he visits every house in Lima, asking questions, and filling up his notebook with descriptions of the five victims. And what he discovers is...
I kept thinking about this novel when I was writing my non-fiction book, Underground (even though I only interviewed 62 victims over the course of a year). It's a powerful novel.
