Author: Robert James Waller
Summary: The novel is the story of two people who meet and fall in love but take a sensitively honest decision not to spend the rest of their lives together. It is celebrating the concept of an ideal love which transcends the unimaginative and attains a spiritual quality.
To move forward, Francesca Johnson is an ordinary house wife, at the first glance, whose life revolves around her husband and two children.
When she meets Robert Kincaid, the National Geographic photographer, she finds herself talking about things which she hasn’t in all her years of marriage to Richard. Robert Kincaid is gentle, sensitive and very masculine. Francesca is a woman who believes in romance and loves Yeats but still holds on to her strong familial ties. The attraction between the two of them becomes inevitable and the eroticism is characterized in a classy and subtle manner. The climax of the novel happens when they decide not to be together, this puts the book high up on a pedestal and sets it a class apart from the others in the same category. Waller has a genuine win over his contemporaries with this best seller.
Social/Historical background: The story is set in the 1960s and the place is a farm land in Iowa. The free spirited Kincaid meets the farmer woman Francesca over here and the struggle of the times in which the story was set is clearly portrayed. A romantic at heart Francesca is a woman who holds on to her values of keeping her family together. A deep affair of the heart is very overpowering to give in to but she fights the struggle within her and curbs the urge to run out of the car where she was with Richard and join Kincaid in his truck at the intersection.
Unique Writing Style: The book is lyrical and the words lead to images ever so smooth. In a universe of doubtfulness, this kind of certainty comes only once, no matter how many lifetimes one live. The picturesque setting with the beautiful bridges in Iowa and the conversation between Robert and Francesca along with the exotic description of their love affair of four glorious days is sheer poetry.
My Thoughts about the book: As a genuine fact, I have found myself recommending this book to all I come across. It is not just to be called as another love story. The Bridges of Madison County is strong in mental appeal in sentiments and the language is sheer magic. This along with the message that it leaves behind almost lift it up to the stature of a classic. At some point of time, I even felt it relates to many of our lives.
About Robert James Waller
Robert James Waller who was born in August 1, 1939, RocWaller is an American author, also known for his work as a photographer and musician has also received his B.A. ('62) and M.A. ('64) from University of Northern Iowa (then known as Iowa State Teachers College). Furthermore, he received his Ph.D. in business from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Bloomington in 1968.
Later that year he returned to UNI and began teaching management and economics, and in 1977 became a full time professor. In fact, he became dean of the College of Business in 1980 and retired from that position in 1986. He was known to have made a "seven figure" donation to Indiana University.
As the matter of fact remain, several of his books have been on the New York Times bestseller list including 1992's "The Bridges of Madison County" which was the top best-seller in 1993. Both that novel and his 1995 novel, Puerto Vallarta Squeeze, have been made into motion pictures. Waller currently resides in Texas.
It's truly a magical experience, and one must read through each lines with an ease and lonely ambience and it would genuinely leave you intoxicated.
Read through the novel and feel it's magic!
Image source: The Bridges of Madison County.
An inspiration from Robert James Waller's - "The Bridges of Madison County"
(AW:Samrat Biswas)
