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I hated this book as long as I looked at it as a beautiful all enchanting Love Story. But once I started looking at it as a perfect capturing of an important emotional era of a woman's life, I understood the book's importance. And then I'm a bit angry with myself for not getting it before. Or may be, it's better this way.

I've read stories about women who craved for a better life than what they can find in what life gave them. Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina. They destroyed themselves. Wo, wo, I stress here that I'm not against the liberation of women. I believe they can be liberated in a better way if they are thoughtful about how to be liberated. But this book is not about liberation or about any other idealism. This book is a representation, much like the Catcher in the Rye, of an age group of a particular gender. A perfect capture of those moments they generally go through. And that, this book accomplished very well. What this book failed to accomplish is something very sad to notice.

Bridges of Madison County is not a Love Story, but unfortunately it goes with that tag name. This is what exactly drew towards it a lot of single star reviews, including mine. Even more sadly, and strangely, even the Writer, Robert James Waller, didn't know what this book is about. Which is why he couldn't write another such masterpiece. This one just came by to him. You need great mastery and excellent idea about your Writing to repeat such master works. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Dickens have that mastery over their Works. Not James Waller. No disrespect meant to him, it's always tough to be compared to such great men, but still, this man didn't have a clear idea about what he wrote. He accomplished what Salinger accomplished through his Classic 'Catcher in the Rye' (I'm sure Salinger knew what he was doing, no doubts about it), but plain as simple he meant it to be a Love Story. Fortunately, this is not a Love Story. It's a portrait. Waller's Novel excellently captured what women generally are going through at a particular age in their married lives, whereas Salinger captured what teenagers go through at that particular age.

There are many married women who clearly aren't satisfied with what their marriage brought them to. And yet, most of them aren't leaving their families, but are repressing their desires and playing an important role in bringing a family to fruition. It's not an easy task, it takes years to accomplish, and they are displaying all the patience the tough task is demanding from them. And this 'Bridges' so perfectly captured it. It showed us, how much our wives, mothers and sisters are losing after they are married, and are still continuing what they are doing so that we can peacefully continue with our lives. It really takes patience and a lot of sacrifice.

There are many Stories praising Men leaving their comforts and fighting wars at the border so that we can live peacefully in our homes. Many have praised the great scientists who stayed nerds to make others's lives easier and beautiful. And it's really nice to see that this is a Novel that praised the sacrifice of women, that almost nobody is noticing. The sacrifice of women has always been unnoticed in the world history, not a new thing at all. How many of us have noticed what disappointments our women are going through. This book is an ode to them. But not completely so, rightfully. This is also a lesson to every woman about what she is missing just because she won't open up to her husband about what she exactly wants.

Well, not every woman from our families is going through an affair with other men, but still, I believe 'Bridges' couldn't have made the point clear without showing that illegal affair during which the woman was really happy. Without showing that, it's almost impossible to show how much the women are losing for us. I don't say the correct way to solve their problems is to let them have their affairs. If we do that, that beats the whole purpose. The right thing to do, 'Bridges' is so passionately suggesting to us, is to care for our women and make sure that they get enough care and love for us for what the love they are giving us daily.

The woman, in Bridges, was a martyr. She sacrificed her love for her husband and kids. She had sex once, but that's all. Or may be twice, but that's all. She's a martyr. Really, it's because of her that their family went well without troubles. Or may be she could've confronted her husband and asked him to be more lively with her at least, but she, in a martyr like fashion, like a dumb opposition party in the parliament, sat and wept, which is what is going on with many women. They can confront their men, but they won't. I guess they like whining in silence.

This is not a great Love Story, but just like Catcher in the Rye is the perfect representation of teenage angst, this Novel is the representation of what so many married women are going through all over the world, so that we can continue with our lives depending on them peacefully.

I agree with you (to some extent) about the idea that this book is a representation of what some (not many) women are going through, but I don't see why it can't be seen as a love story. I personally enjoyed reading the book as a love story and I think it's a touching book if read by someone who believes in love.

I believe in love and I find this book as pretentious crap when I see it as a Love Story. Right from the beginning the Writer tries to brainwash the Readers through this Character's speech or that Character's realization that what happens later is one of the greatest love stories to have happened. All that pretentiousness would've been fine with me if the love story matched to it. If a Writer has to elevate a particular thing, there are better ways than to constantly brainwash us with it.

the preface is somewhat exaggerating but regardless of that I think the content of the book does include a great love story (that's just my mere opinion). plus it certainly had been a great love for the characters (the real ones) and maybe the write didn't know how to out that into words in a way that seems real and unpretentious.
oh and about my last comment, I didn't mean you don't believe in love, sorry if that came out wrong.

got a question for you. what's you favorite love story book?

Aydin, Gone with the Wind and Wuthering Heights are my all time favorite Love Stories. I like Gone with the Wind even more. Excellent writing. Amazing absolutely.

Yes Aydin, the Writer didn't know how to narrate in a way that seems real and unpretentious. Now, after reading your comment, I come to think it's a decent love story (with some controversial elements of course). But the reason I and many other Readers hated this book as a Love Story is because the Writer was, right from the word go, forcing us to accept it as the world's greatest Love Story every written, and ever to be written. Now, thinking about it again, it's an ok decent love story.

Aditya wrote: "Right from the beginning the Writer tries to brainwash the Readers through this Character's speech or that Character's realization that what happens later is one of the greatest love stories to have happened."

Well, it's not the greatest love story to happen (if one at all, I prefer the movies viewpoint here), but yet it could still be held true by her that it was.

Aditya wrote: "I hated this book as long as I looked at it as a beautiful all enchanting Love Story. But once I started looking at it as a perfect capturing of an important emotional era of a woman's life, I unde..."

Excellent comment. The English is not my mother language
and I can`t replay to you everything I want and think, but I agree with you with every single point. I read this book maybe five years ago and I still remember it which can tell that this book really wort.

If by love story you mean, hot sex with a guy or gal, one hardly knows and sees visions of what could be given the right choices - then maybe it was a love story.
I really, really liked this book - here's why.
It (to me) was in fact a love story. It was a story about a woman, who although all the romantic nonsense about love did not seem to be happening in her marriage and she was a bit disappointed - she knew what real love was about; keeping one's commitments, caring for one's children, realizing that steadfastness, honor, companionship were the reality of love story. And she was right, if she'd run off with the photographer they would have grown to dislike if not dispise each other, because love is not about being loved so much as about loving the other - in the everyday world; not some romance. Who in the world imagines that life is going to look like those couple days they had on that farm while her family was away?
She was reminded that she was beautiful, desirable, that life had other possibilities - she could have gone, she decided to stay - I don't think that makes her anything but a woman of her own mind.
I think that was the appeal of the book to so many -