OF BRIDGES AND LOVE. A closer look at The Bridges of Madison County (novel). By Love Esios

Before Nicholas Sparks made his way onto being a best-seller author of romantic novels, there was this classic book that I will never ever replace on top of my romance/fiction list. Published a few years after another classic Love In The Time of Cholera, Robert James Waller's narration of a true-to-life love story The Bridges of Madison County captured something in my heart. Set in the 1960's, it is a story about an affair between Robert Kincaid and Francesca Johnson that started on

Cover of the book pulled from wikipedia.org

e humid afternoon in the gravel roads of Madison County, Iowa.

Okay, I know that an affair is quite a sensitive topic for some of you, but the intention of Waller when he wrote this love story is clear: whatever the circumstances are, love has a way of finding you in the most unfamiliar places and with the most unlikely person. The two main characters in the novel truly found love not in a hopeless place, but in the most hopeless of all situations. Robert considers himself as a nomad, a born artist, a person with a unique perspective of the world. Francesca seems to be content on how steady her life is; a marriage to a man who was kind to her and who gave her two kids. But she didn't realize how much she was missing until she met him. I see these two characters as lost souls, wandering around, accepting what life offers them, not wanting for more... until they found each other, like they have found their safe haven.

Waller is truly a gifted storyteller. He has a way with words, carefully laying out every detail until all the pieces have fallen into its place. The way he narrated it was kind of intimate for me, like he's telling me the story in person. There were some parts in the story that had slow pacing, though. Other parts like the love scene were narrated in a not so intimate way, not really focusing on the details but rather capturing how the two characters felt while making love. Nevertheless, this is one classic story you wouldn't like to miss!

Call me a hopeless romantic (I know I am) for falling in-love with this book or perhaps an immoral (I think I'm not) for encouraging such affair that might affect other people's perspective about the book. If you think like the latter after reading the book, it simply means you weren't able to grasp the real essence of this story.

So if you feel like you are lost in love, or think that you might not find love at all, then this book is for you. For this genre, I'd give this book 7 out of 10 cups of latte! :)

"Words have physical feeling, not just meaning, he remembered thinking when he was young."
- Bridges of Madison County