The premise of this book is bizarre — five strangers fell to their deaths when the bridge of San Luis Rey collapsed. A preacher sees this tragedy as an act of God and tries to find the reason why these strangers were selected by fate. The book is a short history of the lives of three of the main strangers, and the heartbreaking relationships that they have with their loved ones — the daughter, the servant, the brother, the adopted child and mistress.
It is a book that is difficult to describe. The storyline goes nowhere. There is no purpose to Brother Juniper’s records of these five lives, in fact he was punished for it. Yet, it is a beautiful book, and although not apparent immediately, it is a subdued effort. The book is cynical in its ideas, almost nihilistic. Why love and dedicate yourself to the ones you love, only for them for them to hurt you or for you to hurt them? and only to be cut short of life any way regardless of your best efforts?
But we’re a sucker for tragedies, and we often see beauty in human sorrow, especially if it is well written. Who hasn’t been betrayed by those close to them? Human relationships are complex and below the surface, it is hard to discern what’s in the minds of our loved ones — why sometimes, our relationship become strained.
It is a meditation on the nature of relationships and love. If we truly love someone, are we truly going to make sacrifices for their sake, or on the other side of the coin, will we sacrifice them for our own happiness, such as when Doña Maria sent her daughter away to marry to remove her? Do we merit love of the ones we betray? The book is full of strained relationship, stretched, broken and most frustratingly, incomplete.
For its 120 odd pages, I wish that some of the characters are explored more in detail. Like the relationships the character with each other, it does feel like the relationship between the characters and the reader is left wanting. And yet, this is not a flaw of the book.
