The Bridges of Madison County (Hardcover)

by Robert James Waller (Author) "On the morning of August 8, 1965, Robert Kincaid locked the door to his small two-room apartment on the third floor of a rambling house..." (more)
Key Phrases: orange suspenders, Robert Kincaid, Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
When Robert Kincaid drives through the heat and dust of an Iowa summer and turns into Francesca Johnson's farm lane looking for directions, the world-class photographer and the Iowa farm wife are joined in an experience of uncommon truth and stunning beauty that will haunt them forever. The romantic classic of the 1990's.

From Publishers Weekly
Quietly powerful and thoroughly credible, Waller's first novel (he previously wrote two books of essays) describes the profound love between a photographer and an Iowa farmer's wife who, together for only four days, never lose their feelings for each other. In August 1965, 52-year-old divorce Robert Kincaid packs his pickup truck and travels to Iowa's Madison County, the location of seven covered bridges he is to photograph for National Geographic . There, he asks directions of Francesca Johnson, alone at home while her husband and two children visit the Illinois State Fair. Initially, neither Robert nor Francesca expects their random encounter to lead to seduction, yet their mutual desire is undeniable. Waller tells their story as though it were nonfiction, claiming to have heard about Francesca from her children after her death, read her journals, seen Robert's relics of those four days and interviewed a jazz musician who knew the photographer. Scenes between the lovers are movingly evoked and moments with Francesca, who celebrates her birthday 22 years later by reflecting on her brief time with Robert, are particularly poignant. An erotic, bittersweet tale of lingering memories and forsaken possibilities. Photos of covered bridges serve as illustrations. 35,000 first printing.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books, Inc.; 1st, 2nd Prtg. edition (April 13, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044651652X
• ISBN-13: 978-0446516525
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (382 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #372,674 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunate waste of potential (and paper....and your time), January 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bridges of Madison County (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is essentially worthless drivel. "He moves like a gazelle.." ?!? Is the author serious? To say the book is cliche ridden is an understatement. The writing is sophomoric and the characters are developed not in action, but in ridiculous cliched descriptions like the gazelle simile. The saddest thing is that this could have been a great story. The plot has potential. A long lost forbidden and passionate love affair, discovered after the two main players are deceased. The woman's children having to figure out what happened years ago based on their dead mother's diary. This book could have been brilliant and instead its like a bad passage from the Song of Soloman. Don't waste your time reading this rubbish.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible, I can't rate it low enough..., November 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bridges of Madison County (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is manipulative, predictable, sacharine, wildly overwrought emotional porn. Waller knows how to pull the heartstrings-to a point he's a genius at it, but hasn't the decency to use a feather's touch and let things happen gently.

For the reader, "the Bridges" is a masochistic exercise of turning the other cheek to blow after blow from a blunt literary instrument. Waller is not content to let the reader slowly fall into the sadness of love cut short of its full tragectory.

In the first few pages he completely delivers his bittersweet emotional package in prose as big as a billboard, then for the remainder of the book relentlessly sledgehammers the message in.

Don't read it. Don't buy it. Don't waste your time.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Exemplar of bad prose, May 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Bridges of Madison County (Mass Market Paperback)

This exemplar of bad prose is about a Marlboro Man photographer and the woman he beautifies through his great art. He's sensitive, she's needy, and he is a demon in her cold bed.

As for the prose, how's this for awful: "If you took me in your arms and carried me to your truck and forced me to go with you, I wouldn't murmur a complaint. You could do the same thing just by talking to me. But I don't think you will. You're too sensitive, too aware of my feelings, for that. . . . My life . . . lacks romance, eroticism, dancing in the kitchen to candlelight, and the wonderful feel of a man who knows how to love a woman. . . ."

The wonderful feel of a man who knows how to love a woman? Is it not already obvious why this is bad? The entire phenomena of this book and its enormous popularity tells us that we, as a reading populace, are in love with what's bad. Apparently, what we love is talk that doesn't sound like people but that does sound like speeches made by persons on the page, written by someone who doesn't listen to the rest of the world or know how to make a plausible imitation of it.

The appeal of this book is to the language of television, of bodice-rippers, of the Harlequin Romance. It is incapable and irresponsible writing, unmediated by thought or the gift of artifice, or by the author's belief in a character sufficient enough to move him.