I performed as Harriet from Pullman Car Hiawatha in State Competition for one-acts, and we won! It is quite moving if done right, and is a lot like Our Town - on a shorter and more eccentric verson.

El Puente de San Luis Rey. Thorton Wilder.

Mas, hasta cuando estaba hablando, otros pensamientos pasaban detrás de su mente. " Hasta ahora---pensó---casi nadie a no ser yo, recuerda a Esteban y a Pepita. Solo Camila recuerda a su Tío Pío y a su hijo; esta mujer, a su madre. Pero pronto moriremos y con nosotras todo el recuerdo de aquellos cinco que dejaron la tierra, y a nosotras mismas nos amaran un poco de tiempo y nos olvidarán. Mas el amor habrá bastado; y todos los impulsos de amor retornaran al amor de donde vinieron. Ni siquiera el recuerdo es necesario para el amor. Hay una tierra de vivos y una de muertos, y el puente que las une es el amor, lo único que sobrevive, lo único que tiene sentido."

P 123.

Junipero, un franciscano que presencio la caída del puente de San Luis Rey se embarca en la misión de establecer el significado de la vida de esas cinco personas que en ese momento perecieron. La historia de esas cinco vidas es una tarea demasiado copiosa para el religioso y al final su obra es quemada junto con él, quien es acusado de herejía, cuando lo único que trataba de hacer era demostrar que Dios tiene un plan para cada ser humano y que el fin de esas vidas iba de acuerdo a Su Plan.
Esta historia, situada en el mítico Perú de 1714, podría estar situada en cualquier país y en cualquier tiempo remoto, es mas una alegoría, una disección de la vida de los personajes hasta el momento en que sus vidas se ven cortadas por la caída del puente. Al final solo nos quedan sus recuerdos, como son recordados por las personas quienes los amaban. Pero como dice el autor, el amor vuelve al amor y eso es lo único que importa.
La obra esta escrita de la forma hermosa a las que nos tiene acostumbrado el autor. Para los que no han tenido la oportunidad de leer a Wilder, les diré que es un escritor en quien lo poético se realza por encima de la obra contada, llegando en ocasiones a escribir obras de hermoso virtuosismo literario, pero carentes de sentido o dirección, como en el caso de Teophilus North. En este caso, El Puente de San Luis Rey, la novela tiene sentido, se mueve. La vida de los personajes es intensa, como en el caso de la Marquesa de Montemayor, solitaria, como en el caso de los gemelos y aun naciente como en el caso del hijo de Micaela.
¿Quién nos recuerda?Al morir solo las personas que nos aman y que aun viven. Después de su muerte, morimos la segunda muerte, la del olvido de nuestras cualidades que se tornan difusas y después se olvidan para siempre. ¿Acaso no tiene sentido la vida y el esfuerzo, cuando la muerte y el olvido nos borran? ¿Acaso volvemos después en otra vida y en otro tiempo, o acaso hay un plan maestro del cual somos meras piezas? No estamos destinados a saberlo y el autor en lugar de caer en pesimismos nos da una obra bella que realza el amor como sentimiento que no se elimina con la muerte y el olvido sino que retorna a sí mismo y crece.

Luis Méndez.

The epic story of Dolly Levi and her attempt to catch the heart of the grouch, Horace Vandergelder. Who has fallen for the city-girl, Irene Maloy, who has just, in a moment, fallen in love with Cornellious Hackle who....well all I can say is that this book is one of the most interesting plots that this bookworm has ever read. If your not a big reader then you should see the movie adaptation, "Hello, Dolly!". I give this book two glorious thumbs up.

Conspiracion politica en el tiempo de la Roma antes del Imperio. Especificamente es la conspiracion para asesinar a Julio Cesar que debia realizarse durante los 15 primeros dias de ese ano. Se comentaba en la alta sociedad de Roma, entre los Patricios.

En la superficie, la novela es la intriga para matar a Cayo Julio César, cónsul romano. Pero su alcance es mucho más profundo: el hombre más poderoso de la tierra en ese momento, considerado casi un dios, duda de sí mismo, es decir, de su supuesta divinidad: los demás se engañan con él; él no logra engañarse a sí mismo. Esa duda lo lleva a otra mayor: ¿existirá realmente un dios que rige la vida de todos los hombres? El, que sostiene por conveniencia la credulidad de los demás, no puede creer y eso lo atormenta. Es una de las mejores novelas que he leído en mi vida.

Contrary to what we could think, this novel is not dedicated to Julius Caesar's death, as Shakespeare did in his tragedy. It does not talk about his life, either. It just tells us about his last eight months.
He does it with a tecnique different from tradicional historical novel from the XIXth century and it's different, too, from the pseudo-memories, which is the favourite form of historical novel in the XXth century. Thornton Wilder prefers to juxtapose in four books a series of documents from different sources: letters, political pamphlets, inscriptions, poetry... He does not follow a chronological order but, as a kind of consecutive focusing, each book starts before and ends later than the previous one. And the very core, the central point, is September 45 BC, when an attempt against Julius Caesar's life was made. This way of telling the story is very pleasant but it asks a little effort from the reader to organize those materials in his mind.
Anyway, Thornton Wilder is not strictly historical, and he tells us beforehand. Some events happened years before 45 or 44, some characters were already dead. I think he does not really want to talk about Caesar or his time. He prefers to talk about loneliness: of a ruler that can trust no one, of man in front os his own mortality, of the absence of gods (lived not dramatically but with no consequence, either).
In the last part of the book I think he tells exactly what he's worried about: the mistery of life is very huge. It's so big that we have not a definitive idea about it, is life good or bad? tidy or chaotic? To sum it up, has it got any sense at all?
It looks as if Caesar was only worried about posthumous glory, the way future generations were going to remember him. It sounds a very poor reward, but it is more that what the majority of us will achieve.
I liked some femenine portrays in this book. Not Cleopatra or Clodia Pulcher, the first one is a mistery in herself (a Greek princess in an Egyptian kingdom), the second one so evilishly depicted by Catullus poetry that we could never get what she really was. The great women are the Roman matrons, the ones that had such a big influence in the Roman Republic, and the respect towards them as the real shadow cabinet.
Why should anyone read this book? Because it's very entertaining and you could learn some philosophy and a little bit (not too much, really) history.

Fine blend of history and storytelling. Captivating story told through letters between and among key Roman characters. Fun and entertaining read. Don't have to be a history or antiquities buff to enjoy.

I really liked Thornton Wilder's "The Ides of March" because of it's drama and it's philosophical content. The first thing to note is the great structure of the book which makes it very dramatic. The book is structured into four separate parts and each parts leads up to a scene that is anticipated throughout the part. For part I, it is the dinner at Clodia and Clodius Pulcher's; for part II, it is the reception at Cleopatra's; for part III, it is the profanation of the mysteries of the goddess by clodia pulcher and her brother; and for part IV, it is Caesar's assasination. From the very start of each part, Wilder whets your appetite for how the climactic event is going to go and I was so anxious to find out what happened, which kept me turning the pages. The second thing I want to mention is the great amount of thought provoking philosophical content in this concise, 246 page novel. There is alot of reflection in Caesar's journal about the rational grounds for religion (a belief in God or the Gods), there is a passage on living one's life with the knowledge that one will die one day, and stuff about love and relationships. Also, there is alot of character analysis, analyzing Caesar's character, contrasting it to Cicero's and Junius Brutus's and others. The fact that Caesar and these others are these famous historical figures from ancient rome tinges it all with that feeling that one is gaining an education about the roots of Western Civilization, in touch with the classics. My favorite parts are probably the letters of Caesar to his friend Lucius Mamillius Turrinus because of the great philosophical content and also the letters at the end of each section where some other character will describe in a long letter what happened at the climactic event. I heartily recommend this book because of the great drama and philosophical content. I've read other books set in the ancient past, such as Mary Renault's "The Last of the Wine", set in ancient Greece during the Peloponessian War, but I like this one better because there is more drama, more excitement, as well as more philosophical content, more real wisdom about life. And it does all this in 246 pages compared to around 430 for Renault's book. Any fans of this book who have recommendations for me please e-mail me! Greg Feirman

At once a nice travelogue of Newport, Rhode Island, in the 1920's and a novel of human interaction, "Theophilus North" is a well-written and engaging (at first) book. It's just hard to understand why Wilder wrote it. There is so little of it in the way of dramatic or comic invention. The protagonist is a bodhisatva (a saint on earth) who spends his days doing good. All the time. You keep expecting some rising action - after 100 pages you yearn for it - but it never comes. Just one good deed after another. It isn't a bad read, and it might even be a good thing to put into the hands of teenagers (if you can get them to sit still for it). But there's no inner struggle going on in this first person narrative. And that makes ultimately for a weak plot. The book was something of a hit when it first came out, but it has since sunk to the obscurity it probably deserves. That saddens me, because I thought the author's "Our Town" and "Skin of Our Teeth" to be some of the finest writing this side of Heaven.

I read this book more than 20 years ago as a college student and I still find myself thinking about it now. I was a persnickety English student and I wouldn't have imagined the book was making much of an impression on me at the time. Maybe I needed to age considerably before I could appreciate Wilder's idea that you do get everything you wish for -- just not on your schedule, and seldom packaged as you may have hoped or expected.

this author, which has written books so beatiful, has given the world this one which is also beatiful, but pointless, i guess that the main character is himself. the book does not have a plot or at least is not going anywhere, but it is not boring, and it is a good read. i just loved it, even though when i finished i had the sensation of not being told anything new. the book has gone into oblivion and will propably stay there, the one i read i took it from the library and i was the only one who got it from the shelf in more than a decade, i guess it is there in the shelf at the library, waiting for another ten years until some reader will take it down, and write another pointless review about it....

LUIS MENDEZ luismendez@codetel.net.do

A triumph of technique, The Eighth Day may be the ultimate achievement of Wilder's novelistic career - in microcosm, a story of the hundred years from 1845 to the Second World War, the novel focuses on two families in one town and the aftermath of a murder. While the writing gets bogged down in verbiage from time to time, the characters are exquisitely drawn, and the tale is gripping and powerfully told, without sentimentality, and completely unpredictable. The murder mystery at the story's heart is, alas, a great big red herring and not particularly satisfying - but those who read the book for its evocative portrayal of a bygone America and its uniquely Wilder-esque turns of phrase will be thrilled and moved.

This novel was given to me by a friend and lover years ago, and remains one of the books that has moved me more than any. As he does in his better known works, Wilder manages to touch his reader deeply with the complexity of the human spirit, move us to tears without ever resorting to sentimentality. A powerful exploration of the "American Individual", the family, love and man's search for self and meaning. A must read, and a generous gift to those you love. One cannot help but reach within one's self and do a bit of soul-examining while/after reading this book. Haunting, inspiring and memorable.

I was wonderfully surprised by Wilder's writing style. This was the first novel of his that I read and found myself moved by his ever present ideologies regarding life, death, family etc. The book doesn't use dramatic crescendo's to keep the reader's attention, instead it's Wilder's ability to make the each character's daily struggle very human or common.

I would recommend this book to reader's who enjoy books that are more intellectual, filled with philosophical insight, perhaps similar to that of Rand.

Our Town is not just a usual play, it's a play in a play! The stage manager leads us through the performance by giving us information about the little village of Grover's Corner and its inhabitants. Even if I found his speeches and monologues a bit too long, I can say that I liked the book as a whole. Reading it gave me new points of view of our life. I would say it's a play dedicated to life. We should appreciate every moment of it and care for our family and friends, that's the message Thornton Wilder wants to give us. I can recommend it to anybody who doesn't stop reading a book if he doesn't find it thrilling after the first few pages! It's one of the books that are getting better and better the longer you keep on reading. So read it!

Our Town is, i would guess, the most produced stage play in america. You need no props,no singing,no dancing.It introduced of place,Grovers Corners,N.H. into the lexicon. The play though first produced in the late 1930's takes place in the early part of the 20th century. It tells the tale of two families, the Gibbs and the webbs,in love life and death{Wilder never skirted the issue of death in his writings>}Its timlessness lies in the essence of wilders writings: how the simple ,the mundane taken together make us who we are, and how important the quotidian chores of daily existence are. The heartfelt exclamtion near the end of the play asking if human beings ever realize thier lives before it ends? followed by the wise narrator's some saints and poets has stayed with me since childhood. An easy read, though not a simple one.Is this the great american play? Who knows.It is certainly great and good,and stands up very well almost 70 years later. Essential reading,on anyones list.

Through the use of small town characters and the element of simplicity, Thornton Wilder creates universal themes about the cycle of life that reign eternal even today. The play Our Town tells the story of two simple families, the Gibbs and the Webbs, living in the town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. In three acts, Wider journeys through the cycle of life, from the birth of a new life, all way up to the inevitable. Throughout the play, the reader experiences the great milestones in life that they can relate to, such as new life, first love, long lasting love and the effect of death. The last act holds a special significance. In the last act, Wilder uses the theme of death to show the reader how humans fail to "realize life while they live it." Our Town's simplicity also helps it appeal to a multitude of audiences, whether young or old, past or present. From the characters, to the diction, to the set design, Wilder simplifies everything to help the reader better relate to the story. When writing the dialect for the play, Wilder uses typical country vernacular and has the Stage Manager speak directly to the audience, which makes the reader feel apart of the story. Wilder's sets, or lack there of, allow the reader to use their imagination, but not focus so much on scenery that they miss the message. All in all, Our Town by Thornton Wilder is an exceptional play. With this play, Thornton Wilder tries to get us in general not to live life in a blur and to stop and smell the roses. Anyone can appreciate the contents and themes in this play, no mater what age, race, or gender. It is ideal for easy reading and will leave you with a newfound respect for life.

Perhaps better known as a playwright (OUR TOWN and THE MATHCMAKER), Thornton Wilder presented a fast-paced world with a stately novella which proceeds at its own tempo--oblivious of modern demands for mindless action and soulless dialogue. Required high school reading as far back as the 60's, BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY still exerts its ingenuous literary charm upon thoughtful readers. Our throw-away society begrudges spending time to consider the deeper questions of life. The Why's of our existence--or mass disaster--prove too mentally stressful to validate such effort.

Conscientious Brother Juniper undertakes an exhaustive examination of the lives of five persons. Although their curiously interrelated lives are not apparent at first, they all died simultaneously while crossing an ancient rope bridge in 18th century Peru. So why should we concern ourselves with the conicidence and obscure destiny of non English-speaking people 200 years ago? Determined to prove to himself (not to mention to atheists and skeptics) that a divine hand masterminded (or simply permitted) the sudden death of five travelers, the earnest friar struggles to juxtapose these ageless questions re the role of God in human life. Is fate merely indifferent to our petty struggles for fame, power and self-esteem? Were these five singled out because of the way they had lived? Were they being punished or rewaded for their earthly sojourns? Or was the fatal unraveling of the rope but a regretful mechanical catastrophe?

Wilder's theatrical experience is revealed in several sections of this novella--where we discern true Scenes and Acts. In fact, he permits increasingly long dialogues between his prime characters in successive chapters. Even his secondary charaters possess remarkable qualities as supporting actors, who appear in several lives. If the bridge which spans the chasm (a metaphor for Life or perhaps Ignorance?) parts without warning, which two landmarks of mortal existence cease to be connected? Individual responses will vary, according to the reader's temperament and moral development. Considered an American litearary classic, THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY provdes much soul food for private reflection.

A brilliant book. Wilder richly deserved the Pulitzer that this book earned. Short, at 133 pages in this edition, it is uniformly excellent. Wilder's sharp wit and turn of phrase are unmatched. The book's theme is powerful and resolved in an unexpected and profound way. Brother Juniper, a thoughtful friar, witnesses the collapse of a rope bridge over a gorge in rural Peru in 1714 and the death of the five people walking along it. He views this event as an opportunity to prove the existence of god and, finally, to elevate theology to the rank of the hard sciences. Juniper instinctively believes that there must be a divine reason for those five to have been chosen for death. He senses god's powerful, latent hand in the bridge's collapse and commits himself to learning all there is to know about the victims in order to discern the plan and prove god's existence. Who were the victims? What were their lives like? Why did they die?

Juniper's conclusions are, of course, inconclusive. He never found the pattern, but remained convinced that it was there, just that he was too poor an intellect to see it. Such questions, naturally, were anathema to the church of the age and Juniper and his book were destroyed for heresy. Readers who focus on the same questions as Juniper are doomed to be just as frustrated. Wilder is far too insightful to let Juniper have the last word, for ultimately, it is not Juniper who stumbles upon the meaning of the five deaths, but the survivors -those who loved the victims- as well as the reader. What the five had in common was that they were human beings, with tender sides and flaws and significant unrequited loves. There is nothing remarkable here, we are all built that way. After their deaths, the Abbess whose orphanage was home to two of the victims realizes that the meaning lies in the lives themselves, in the love the victims shared with those near to them. That there is no immortality, not even memory or good works, so that what matters is the fleeting existence of goodness, and therein lies god's grace. Love is a powerful and immediate force, not a point for theological debate. "Many who have spent a lifetime in passion can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday."

Wilder's prose is smooth and polished and yielding of aphorisms: the six attributes of the adventurer (a memory for names and faces, the gift of tongues, inexhaustible invention, secrecy, a talent for chatting with strangers, and a freedom from conscience); or an observation that "the public for which masterpieces are intended is not on this earth." Every line is adept, every page a wonder.

While Wilder wrote the book in 1927, it is perhaps a perfect inquiry into 17th century baroque worldviews and the rationalist philosophies they spawned. The baroque had reached Spain, if not Peru, by 1714. Its fascination with death and the brevity of life ("carpe diem" and countless reminders of the inevitabiity of death) resound her, as do its emphasis on vanity, and theater as a metaphor for life. Lima's theatre, its actresses and audiences, are central to the book. And it is only when the beautiful actress is struck by tragedies that she reaches her resolution in grace. Juniper himself embodies that strange blend of baroque scientific materialism and divine idealism of an age in which Descartes could prove the existence of god while Newton demonstrated god's machinery in motion.

Wilder's solution is much more satisfying than Descartes' or Juniper's. Wilder may have been baroque in his cynicism, but he was decidedly 20th century american in his hopefulness. "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" is a stunning book.

The hardest books to review are your favorites. This is my fifth attempt on this one.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey concerns one of the primary questions of human existance. Does God have a plan for our deaths and is there a reason we die? (Pretend that was only one question.) This novel is certainly the best to explore the topic. It is vastly insightful and gives its insight within a powerful narrative.

The novel begins with the collapse of the bridge of San Luis Rey which kills the five people crossing it. Brother Juniper witnesses the catastrophe, and he decides to use this opportunity to study the reasons for death. What follows is the story of each of the persons' lives who died. In each story you find a connecting bond: love. Each had been touched by love. The stories together reaveal simply that. Everyones' life matters because of love, and the dead are still connected to the living by a bridge of love.

What I've written about the novel is really too simplistic. The Bridge of San Luis Rey is only a very short novel, but within those pages is a multitude of insight which cannot be explained in a short review (especially without giving away too much of the book). I think that I'll just conclude this rambling review by saying that this is a beautiful little novel which deserves a place among the very top novels of last century. I also think that in wake of the Sept. 11 tragedy, The Bridge of San Luis Rey could gain importance by giving the people affected insight into the tragedy and comfort them.