Mar 06, 2003 02:39 PM
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(Updated Mar 09, 2003 06:03 PM)
DON’T READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN IN LOVE.
Do you know the difference between the first and the last love? Well, you think that the first is the last and the last is the first. That doesn’t always happen……….
‘The Bridges of Madison county’is the story of four days that change forever the lives of two lonely people. Surprising but true! I feel that even a life time is less to know a person let alone love him/her. Robert Kincaid is a roving photographer for National Geographic and Francesca Johnson is a housewife whose marriage suffers from a lack of romance. Francesca's family is out of town when Kincaid arrives on the scene, and they are instantly attracted. They soon become lovers, and Kincaid asks Francesca to run away with him, but she refuses. Francesca stays loyal to her family and refrains from pursuing her dreams for her family’s sake.(PERFECT WOMAN, isn’t she?) and what she is left with eventually are memories of Kincaid.
Initially, neither Robert nor Francesca expects their random encounter to lead to seduction, but the attraction between them is obvious.Part of this novel is written in an epistolary technique. Waller tells their story pretending as if he has 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. It is an erotic, bittersweet tale of lingering memories and forsaken possibilities.A lot is left to the reader to imagine……. How you wish Kincaid and Francesca to live happily ever after, but destiny had other plans charted out for them.
After Robert leaves Francesca, she keeps track of him through his pictures in National Geographic. After he dies, his ashes are scattered near the bridge they photographed together, and she receives a box of his personal effects. When she dies, she leaves them to her children, along with three volumes of writing which contain her story of their love.
MY TAKE ON THIS:-
This story may sound pedestrian to the intellectual mind but if there is any romantic piece of work that can be compared to Romeo and Juliet it’s this book.Some people feel that this book romanticizes infidelity. Its portrayal of Francesca's 4 days of 'true love' with Robert is unrealistic and irresponsible. If she was unhappy in her marriage, she should have done something to save it or divorced…….
A question that I want to ask (not to Chaucer) but readers the connotation and the implications of the term infidelity and adultery. I am not nuts…. . Had the same love story between Francesca and Kincaid bloomed before marriage then people wouldn’t be nit picking about this masterpiece. Does matrimony change a persons feelings, emotions and mindset. People’s perception changes, nothing else.....
This book is not far from reality and is a must read .This is one of my favourite books. Just read it and I assure you that you will not be disappointed. Just keep one thing in mind and you will fall in love with the book :-“ Read it just as the author has written it and not the way you want it to be”. If you bring in your pre conceived notions about marriage, love and relationships you will not be able to enjoy one of the most exquisite and wonderfully written book.
This book leaves a lot of room for thought. Readers keep pondering over the decision Francesca makes and its repercussions. I have connected with the book in a way that doesn’t appeal to all and is imponderable. (don’t stretch your imagination)
THIS IS DEDICATED TO ALL THOSE WHO HARP ABOUT THE CHASTITY OF LOVE BEFORE MARRIAGE AND EQUATE IT WITH LUST THEREAFTER.
