Robert J Waller's - Bridges of Madison County
Genre: Love Story
Rating: 5/5
Thanks to Priya for introducing me to this book. After a long time I laid my hands on a love story and absolutely loved it. I daresay, it beats Erich Segal's Love Story!
This story is of unique romance that blossoms between a combat photographer Robert Kincaid and a farm-wife Francesca Johnson. Robert Kincaid resigns from the war photography and accepts assignments from National Geographic magazine. He is a divorcee and leads a nomadic, out-of-suitcase life taking photographs for the magazine. On his way to shoot pictures of covered bridges in Madison county of Iowa he gets lost. Francesca, who is married to Richard Johnson and is mother of two kids, is left alone at home as rest of her family is at fair. Robert and Francesca's affair start very innocently when she offers to show him the way.
Since her marriage Francesca had become alien to passion and intimacy and lives within the restrictions that come along with the labels of a mother and a wife. When Kincaid arrives she gets swayed by his looks and deeds. Robert feels the same spark of love when he is with her. On his four-day stay in her town, Robert and Francesca come close enuff to each other and Robert asks Francesca to elope with him. Francesca finds herself in a catch-22 situation. Finding true love wants her to be with Robert for rest of her life, but her family beckons her with the greater force and she decides to stay back.
After the death of her husband she tries to contact Robert but eventually finds him dead. A letter approaches her doorstep with Roberts's minimal belongings and with the note that his ashes were scattered near the same bridge where their love unfolded. Francesca writes a 3-volume diary of this 4-day love affair and wishes her ashes to be scattered at the same place. The dairy is found by her children who are moved by their mother's love-story.
Epilogue says Francesca's children apporached author Robert Waller to write the story based on the dairy maintained by Francesca. Thats when I came to know that the whole story was based on a real-life!
This book deals with infidelity but you dont find urself reacting with rage. At some places you will find intricate details of flipperies, like - how she looked at him, how he moved, which hand he raised, how they touched etc, but at times these details were indispensable to know the characters. Their clandestine dates intertwined with the orthodox looks of rest are so genuine!
Believe me, this not-far-from-reality book is must read if u have little liking for romantic novels!
posted by Mrinal at
2:46 PM
3 Comments:
Nice review. But this made me think more about the book and want to write a few things the way I interpreted them. Will write them here, or on my blog if it gets too long... hopefully over the long weekend.
Was surprised to see a 5/5 for this book, and 4/5 for Wodehouse's book! ;-)
~Priya: Actually this turned out to be the stroy and not the actual review. By the time I completed writing it I was kinda tired to write my real views.. :(
And yes, I liked this book better than Inimitable Jeeves... or it wud be more apt to say - I liked the story better.
I liked the book (and the movie was good too). But what bothered me a little was (in spite of it being based in reality), the lack of physical difference between Kincaid and Waller. He describes Kincaid to be exactly like him (google his image), yet gives him a different name and makes the character extra-ordinary. The way he gives Kincaid a "greatness" is a little creepy and narcissistic.
But as I said earlier, I liked the book and read it long ago in less than a day!
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