Rating: 
Summary: Rich, warm, and compelling
Review: Richard Bach may be one of those authors which one either loves dearly, or loathes unconditionally; he can occasionally come across as overly-hokey and melodramatic, but his stories are well-crafted and deeply personal. _The Bridge Across Forever_ may be the best book he's written yet, and is an excellent way to expose oneself to his style of writing; it was the first book of his which I read, and it caused me to run right out and snatch up all the others I could find. I haven't yet found one that surpasses this one, but almost all of them contain wonderful gems and insights. _Bridge_ is a rich, warm story about slightly metaphysical connections in life, through time, space, and personal growth. As he writes of his future wife, Leslie, the absolute love he feels for her is crystal-clear, and may at times bring tears to the reader's eyes. His love of flying is beautifully-portrayed as well, and he does a wonderful job of introducing the reader to the absolute joy and freedom of being airborne. In fact, Bach's descriptions of nearly everything are alive and vibrant, putting the reader Right There in that moment with him. It's easy to recognize Truth when we see it - this book is full of truths that we perhaps always knew, but didn't quite *know* that we knew - it's that kind of book. I really recommend this to anyone who doesn't absolutely detest probing books with a real soul.
Rating:
Summary: The Chance to Redeem Yourself
Review: My only chance to really read a book and become engulfed in it is when I'm on a break from my everyday work. As a medical student, you spend so much time learning and and communicating with others you simply do not have the time to look back into yourself and think about those deepest intimate moments you might share with the one you love. Finding the the time to read becomees a holy task that should not be wasted by frolicking into books that may not have meaning or will not become a part of you in the future. That's why I had mixed expectatations when I first started with Bach's The Bridge Across Forever. I have previously read Illusions and though it captured me in a sense, I did not feel the magic that a number of people who have read the book felt. I hoped against all odds that this book would be different. I was wrong... This books reads the same as the former and though it's a bit less intimate and self-inspecting, it still deals with a numer of thoughts that people just don't know that they exist. You just never know that a person in this world would be so candid with his feelings that he would speak it out with such ease and let things flow into words. I started this book and felt it drag me down. I did not know where Bach was going, when he'll go there, how he'll get there and what is it that he will do when he finally does get there. I just wanted the book to finish. With ease, the book just flowed and I could feel the soft shift fromonme scene to another and knew that the book was just an easy read and that the end was nigh. I kept on thinking about bach's failures and nonesense in this book. On how a person with such a heightened sense of sensitivity could be so blind to let go of something everyone wish they could have let alone fathom. His inundities made me quite angry at him and really wanted me to stop reading all these follies, but I persevered. I felt the book twist and the chapters move from one theme to another. New Age. Flying. Evangelism. Everything seemed to flow from one page to another until one paragraph near the end of the book summed up its meaning, its essence. It was that simple short sum of words that entrapped what the book was all about and it was only then that this book made me truly realize Bach's reason to distract us until we reach at that point. That paragraph captured my heart and made me truly think if a soulmate does truly exist and if the person I'm currently in love with and inspired by is truly mine. For all my aspirations and expectations, I do hope so. And it was only at the end did I finally realize what the bridge across forever truly means.
Rating: 
Summary: Sacchirine, Self-absorbed and Trite
Review: Like several other reviewers in this forum, I found this to be one of the most annoying, inspid, flakey books I've ever read. I too picked it up as it came much too highly recommended by a good friend. I loved Jonathon Livingston Seagull when I was just a kid but alas, it seems as though Richard Bach still hasn't grown up while the rest of us have. The character of Leslie Parrish nailed it with the long letter she wrote him and he would have done well to heed her words of warning. He has to be one of the most self-absorbed, confused, cloying lotharios in literature. I too found myself skimming through entire sections combing for the meat of the story, which is simply about the relationship he was constantly threatening to undermine with the much more enlightened Ms. Parrish. Underneath it all I kept thinking that while on the surface Mr. Bach was talking about silly astral projection and such, he must have been going to sleep at night thinking what a real ladies man he was. There was this sense of him feeling very sanctimonious and superior about himself and his views. Awful stuff. The story doesn't actually begin until Chapter 30 with Leslie's poignant letter to him, skip all the pseudo-spirituality and overly-long airplane tangents at the beginning of the book if you can. All along the way, Mr. Bach consistantly breaks one of the cardinal rules of writing over and over again: "show, don't tell". In any case, Richard Bach never got out of playing house and make-believe with the much more realistic, giving and pragmatic Leslie, what a loss. I've never in my life not finished a book but with three more chapters to go I finally had to pitch the book in the trash lest it somehow jump off on me like an unwanted strain of intellectual bacteria. I want to believe that soulmates are out there but Bach's book didn't do it for me. Is it any wonder his marriage to the woman ended in divorce? This is not the kind of destiny I welcome. I hope this man will someday mature and write another book that will convince us. Eventually I found my solace in the love story of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, which was like spending time with a dear, old friend.
Rating: 
Summary: Love: New Age style
Review: If you loved Jonathan Livingston Seagull and are looking for more of the same, you may be a bit disappointed by "The Bridge Across Forever." The story chronicles the steps (and missteps) Bach made in his personal and financial relationships. And this makes for a wonderful and sometimes tragic, love story. Unfortunately, the story is wrapped up in a new-age wrapping of time travel and out of body experiences. Bach's mistake is that he describes these experiences, and, in fact, the entire book as a "true story." So, even though very well written and interesting, it will probably not appeal to those skeptics who deplore real-life spiritual encounters in their pleasure reading. Overall, a decent read, but be prepared for spiritual overtones. And, if you believe in soulmates, this book may be right up your alley. I give this 1 star for the spiritual overtones and 3 or 4 stars for the story.
Rating:
Summary: Bargain-Basement Romanticism: A Love Story
Review: This is the sort of novel Richard Rorty might write if he weren't so bright; for Bach adumbrates, in popular form, some of the same romantic polytheism, trendy Prometheanism, egoism, etc., that has been developing in Rorty (and in our culture) for decades. The novel is bad for divers reasons: its ideas are adolescent, the plot is visibly idealized; indeed Bach's folly in the first half of the book is a "straw man" to be knocked down all too easily in the second half. Bach's self-absorption, his selfishness: who can take them seriously? Probably too many. Withal, Bach, in the end, is a self-rightous purveyor of cultish nonsense. Astral projection, immortality. Indeed. Bach's only saving grace is that for a while he listens to the sane voice of Leslie; and we may take a modicum of comfort in this temporary--he's always GROWING, you know!--rapprochement. Very convenient, too, that children are never mentioned in all this soul-mate blather!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Really My Kind of Book
Review: I'm not going to make this a long review because the fact of the matter is that this isn't my kind of book. I'm also not going to say it was good or it was bad or it was anything other than what I just said, for the most part, which is that this is not my kind of book. Overall, it made me laugh a few times. And you have to be somewhat heartened that the guy was able to find his soul mate, or what he thought to be his soul mate at the time. In real life, I found out that Bach and his soul mate got divorced. I felt that it was inevitable, because the author doesn't espouse one of my beliefs in life, which is that you need to be happy with yourself before you can be happy with someone else. Admittedly, it begs the question of that even being possible. I'm not going to offer an answer either way, but this author didn't even try. A good friend of mine lent me this book, which is the reason I read it. Not for nothing, I think it's good to read outside your usual "pattern" of reading because it opens your eyes to other authors and styles out there. For that reason, I'm glad to have read it. But beyond that, this was a bit of a failed excursion into a new realm of writing and authors that I had hoped would pay off. The book was easy enough to read, though towards the end it got very dry and difficult to get through. I don't think I would read a book by this author again, even though a lot of people swear by him. In the end, I guess it's best to say, to each his own. This one really didn't do much for me because it never really shed any light on anything new. And I'm not a fan of his personal life, so it didn't appeal to me in that regard. As for the actual story, well if it sounds too good to be true...
Rating:
Summary: A Journey of Love
Review: If ever there was a book that I wish I'd have written, it would have to be "The bridge across forever". Richard Bach is a very gifted writer, who can take his readers on a ride through love and other emotions. I read this book for the first time in New Delhi after borrowing it from a hostel-mate. After completing it, i went out and bought my own copy and have since read it two more times! Love is a very difficult emotion to put into words, but richard bach makes a very good attempt at trying to do so. The journey he takes us through while in search of his soul-mate is the story of everyone of us in one way or the other. Every person on this earth is in search of his/her soul-mate. The bridge across forever is a book about each one of us, whether we be in search of our soul-mate or have already found them. The words with which Richard Bach describes his love are very meaningful and worth reading over and over. I suggest this book as a definite read for all.
Rating:
Summary: A great starter for new Bach readers
Review: This is my first experience with Bach excepting a ran-at-and-bounced-off attempt at Jonathan Livingston Seagull a quarter-century ago. The book convinced me I shouldn't have been so thorough in my rejection of this author. The storyline spans the time when Bach was still barnstorming in his biplane, through his discovery that his books were selling well, the subsequent difficulties with the IRS and a few years into his marriage. It's a carefully woven tale of human growth, values, relationships, goals and metaphysical experience. Bach's unblushing descriptions of the role of metaphysics in his life served as a source of surprise and respect for me throughout the book. His OBEs will appeal to those who've had them, as well as those interested in pursuing that facet of the human psyche/soul. Readers will probably forgive the author his attempts to draw meaning from it all and state his conclusions as fact. Bach isn't alone in this tendency. Robert Monroe, scientist and granddaddy-long-legs of 20th Century OBE writings made a second career of the same occupation. Pilots will love this tale for a different reason. We're always hungry to hear someone else describe the magic of being airborne. I'd place Bach on the bookshelf alongside Ernest Gann in that respect. For most people the most important aspect of The Bridge Across Forever probably involves relationships. The last half of the 20th Century uprooted 10,000 years of traditional roles between men and women and offered no replacement. The self-searching and growth Bach experienced during the years spanned by this book will find a resonance with a vast readership of both sexes. I'll be reading a lot more of Richard Bach. I have no pangs of conscience in recommending The Bridge Across Forever to anyone looking for a good read with surprising substance.
Rating:
Summary: Soul mates and true love combined
Review: Another deliciously uplifting Richard Bach creation about soul mates, the meaning of life and the ultimate search for true love. Thought provoking about how our destiny unfolds at the appropriate place and time. A must read.
Arlene Millman
author of BOOMERANG - A MIRACLE TRILOGY
Rating:
Summary: Utter trite
Review: This is the tale of two soulmates finding each other against the odds. In parts it does make an enjoyable read. At best it has some thought provoking insights on life and love and has a "feel-good factor" about it.At worse it is cringe-worthy, vomit inducing pap. It is neither a masterpiece nor is it particularly well written. This "love Story" - although written as an autobiography - reads like a work of fiction. It all sounds a bit too good to be true - like sacharine it is too artificially sugary-sweet. Leslie (one half of the soul-mates) does not appear to have a single flaw. Richard on the other hand is an egotistical womaniser who eventually sees the light and decides to give up his philandering ways "for the love of a good woman". The author irritatingly drivels on in a smug, self-righteous way and tries to convince the reader that this is the true path to happiness. The book frequently sounds as though it has been written by a shallow,pompous, besotted schoolboy. The subsequent divorce of Richard and Leslie years later should not have come as the shock that it evidently did to so many people. How long could any man or woman remain so unfeasibly perfect in such an improbably perfect relationship? The bubble had to burst. And could any half-way intelligent woman really consider spending a lifetime with such a twit like the author? If you take the sacharine out of this book it might be verging on absorbing.Unfortunately the sickly-sweet parts get in the way of the few so called insights. This drivel should not be taken seriously and Richard Bach should stick to flying.
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