The Bridges of Madison County

Rating:
Summary: Star-crossed Soul Mates
Review: "In a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once, and never again, no matter how many lifetimes you live." Robert Kincaid

Robert Kincaid and Francesca Johnson had only four days together but their love lasted for a lifetime and beyond. In 1965 Robert, a writer/photographer for National Geographic and freelancer travels to Madison County, Iowa to photograph the 7 covered bridges found in the county for a story. There he meets Francesca who acts as a guide and an assistant while her family is away at the State Fair. The two fall in love. Robert wants Francesca to leave her stifling life and go with him but she chooses her children. Each year on her birthday she goes through a ritual of remembrance to recapture those four days.

This is a breathtaking love story, a must read for any reader who loves romance!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably cliched, pretentious, and manipulative
Review: I read this book at the recommendation of a very bright friend. I was skeptical initially because this is not the type of book I would typically read. I wanted to appreciate the book because I trust the judgment and intelligence of the person who recommended it. What I found was a grossly amateurish, intellectually pretentious, and stunningly manipulative piece of drivel. I absolutely hated this book, particularly because of obvious attempts at using emotionally loaded language to appeal to those with Emma Bovary Syndrome - an insistence on believing that somehow infatuation and projection are the "real" basis of love between two adult human beings. This is not good thinking, it is not good writing, and it is certainly not good literature. Save your time and your money.

Rating:
Summary: Don't give up on Waller, just rent the movie!
Review: I had read Bridges before I'd ever seen the movie, but after doing a Tearjerker marathon DVD night with the girlfriends, I was struck by how much better the movie was than the book. I think Waller really did make an effort to reflect how these two people feel and what they meant to each other, even years later, but failed miserably to do so. Maybe it was the challenge of trying to put it all in words versus watching the romance being play out on screen. I have not read his other books, but I certainly am looking for them now (that's why I was on amazon.com today). I'm not giving up on him, but I would recommend the movie over the book any time!

Rating:
Summary: Don't Give Up On Waller After Reading This Book.
Review: Okay, so maybe this Romance Novel slips over the edge of mushy sentimentalism. I read this years ago when it came out and promptly dismissed the writer. DON'T DO THIS. You will miss reading the thought-provoking insights and well-crafted writing of an author who possesses the story-telling skills and lyricism of Wallace Stegner. I urge you to read One Good Road is Enough (essays). One essay in this book is the best summary I've read on how to write well. Some of the later fiction is better than "Bridges". This is a gifted writer.

Rating:
Summary: An unforgettable love story
Review: I picked this book up because of the familiar title and after reading it I fell in love with Robert James Waller and his ideas. The Bridges of Madison County was a wonderful love story - the kind that every girl wishes could happn to them. I found myself admiring both Francesca and Robert for their decisions and their maturity in handling the circumstances. I feel that the sort of love that Robert James Waller wrote abut in The Bridges of Madison County is rare in today's society and this book was a nice reminder that it can still exist!

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious!
Review: If you want to have a good laugh, please read this book. It was so incredibly bad that it is a parody of itself. The author/main character is so conceited and narcissistic (One scene that cracked me up was when a gorgeous model sniffs that basically she can't get close to him because he is too deep, brooding - HELLO! Can this be anymore silly? Talk about a male fantasy!) I believe a parody of this was written called "The Ditches of Edison County" but there really isn't any need to read that because you'll laugh just as much reading this rubbish.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most over-rated novels in history
Review: If I had to guess, Robert James Walker wrote this book as the settlement of a bet. I imagine that during a party or a drinking binge, a friend insisted that no one could pass off a pulp romance novel as literary fiction, and Walker took up the challenge. If my hunch is right, then clearly Walker has won that bet, because "Bridges of Madison County" could easily keep Danielle Steele's novels company on the bookshelf.
Walker's main characters (in fact, all of the characters) are caricatures, easily painted in a few broad strokes of descriptive cliches that immediately tell us what type of character we're seeing. We have Robert Kincaid (a melding of Walker's own first name with the kind of last name only given to lean, muscular men with chiseled faces and strong chins), a photographer and world traveler who has the kind of broad experience in life and exotic cultures that instantly make him fascinating to any woman. The "any woman" is Francesca, who is trapped in a loveless, joyless, dull marriage without any sexual excitement whatsoever. The only difference between these two and the pair painted on the cover of a Harlequin romance is their age - Robert and Francesca are middle aged, approaching their golden years.
Walker employs many of the cliches of the romance novel in his style as well, including ridiculously simplistic internal monologues, one word sentences, and the vocabulary of an eight-year old with just enough big words thrown in to make the whole thing sound like a poor high-school student's term paper.
A waste of time to read. I understand, however, that the movie is a major improvement over the book, which doesn't surprise me.

Rating:
Summary: I seem to be in the minority with my opinion.
Review: The story behind The Bridges of Madison County is undoubtedly a beautiful one of true love that comes too late, of loss, of fate. But the book itself was awful. I, personally, do not understand how it became a best seller. The biggest problem was that Robert James Waller has no talent for dialogue. The Bridges of Madison County is full of long monologues by various characters. They are stiff, formal, and unrealistic, not at all the way people hold conversations. The writing style, too, could be improved--it was very simple, very predictable, very unsophisticated. In short, I do not think this book is worth reading. If you're looking for a beautiful love story, try something by Anita Shreve.

Rating:
Summary: i am not sure what you'll make of this
Review: i gifted this book to a woman i loved. i wrote this review with the hope that she might see these lines someday.
we dont always get to do what we believe in. and we dont always get to believe in what we do. there are very few instances in our lives when we feel complete. but sometimes, certain circumstances dont allow us to enjoy these instances for too long.
sara, if you're reading this, i want you to know that i've been living the life that i've been given but i still wish you were mine and not a day goes by without me wondering about who is ever going to take your place.
i dont think anyone can. and i dont think anyone will take francesca's place in the wide open spaces of robert kincaid's heart either.

Rating:
Summary: The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
Review: "The Bridge of Madison County" by Robert James Waller.

To a casual reader, the book appears to be just another juicy love story between a divorced man, Robert Kincaid, a writer-photographer from Bellingham, Washington and Francesca Johnson, a farmer's wife in Madison County, Iowa. In August 1965, he was 52 and she was 45. To a serious sensible reader, the book is much more than that. It is a powerful book.

Kincaid was on an assignment to photograph covered bridges in Madison County for 'National Geographic' when he dropped in on a farmhouse on a country road. A woman was sitting on the front porch. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for a covered bridge out this way, and I can't find it. I think I'm temporarily lost," he said. "You're pretty close. The bridge is about two miles from here," she said. "I'll be glad to show it to you, if you want."

They spent next four days together in the farmhouse. Francesca's husband Richard and her son Michael, 17, and her daughter Carolyn, 16, were at Illinois State Fair. They fell hard for each other in these four incredible days. They danced in the kitchen to candlelight, and they made love in the kitchen, in the bedroom, and in the pasture.

Then he was inside her again, whispering soft words into her ear as he loved her, kissing her between phrases, between words, his arm around her waist, pulling her into him and him into her. And she murmured, softly, breathlessly, "Oh, Robert . . . Robert . . . I am losing myself." He was an animal. A graceful, hard, male animal who did nothing overtly to dominate her yet dominated her completely, in the exact way she wanted that to happen at this moment.

"What are we going to do? he asked at the end of four days. "There is this damn sense of responsibility I have. To Richard, to the children. Just my leaving, taking away my physical presence, would be hard enough for Richard. That alone might destroy him," she said. "On top of that, and this is even worse, he would have to live the rest of his life with the whispers of the people here. And children would hear snickering of Winterset for as long as they live here. As much as I want you and want to be with you and part of you, I can't tear myself away from the realness of my responsibilities."

"Oh, Michael, Michael, think of them all those years, wanting each other so desperately. She gave him up for us and for Dad. And Robert Kincaid stayed away out of respect for her feelings about us. We treat our marriages so casually, and we were part of the reason that an incredible love affair ended the way it did," said Carolyn after reading the letter her mother left. "They had four days together, just four. Out of a lifetime."

Yes, Francesca and Robert spent only four days together out of a lifetime. They wanted each other so desperately. And yet, they endured the rest of their lives away from each other. Why? For what? To do the right thing. The right thing for Francesca was to think of Richard and their children. The right thing for Robert was to respect the feelings of Francesca. Herein lie the strength and power and moral of the story "The Bridges of Madison County."