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Summary: The Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach
Review: This is the most romantic book I've ever read. It made me believe that happy endings are possible, even in this crazy world. It made me certain that at some point in my life, I will find a soulmate. This is a story of a man's search for his soulmate. Along the way he gives up hope, loses faith and makes many missteps. But on the way to finding her (this does not ruin the ending of the book) he finds more than he ever bargained for. I would suggest this book to everyone as mandatory reading. I discovered things about myself I would otherwise never have known
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Summary: An inspiring Lovestory that has something in it for everyone
Review: This story is the journey of a man who learns what it truly means to love someone and be willing to share your life with
them. It is the search of Richard Bach for his one true love.
His soulmate. The one woman who has the answers to his questions, and the questions for his answers. This book helped me to understand
what it was I was looking for in a woman, and helped me to recognize her when she came along.
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Summary: Bach's underlying philosophy makes you think about life
Review: Light reading with a heavy message....brilliant book!
The underlying philosophies: the love you are "searching for" may be right next to you; in love and life value a true friend as there are so few; be yourself in life and the happiness will follow; are all life's messages worth internalizing and using in life.
I recommend it highly for those confident enough to look in the mirror at themselves, their lives and truly evaluate all facets of their lives.
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Summary: Philosphy is found here!
Review: It doesnt matter that one is broken or whole, this book, The Bridge Across Forever, is something that everyone can learn from in their lives. It is hard to put into words for me, but I will try- Richard Bach's books had been one reason I don't belive in God or the bible. I think that religion and the such are for some people, but R.B. really helps you reflect on your own mind, causing you to use it effectively in your everyday life! You can look inside and find who you are, and then help others do the same after reading Bach's books! This is a must have for your personal library! I also recommend "Eternal Undying Love" by Brett Keane
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Summary: Disappointing: 'Do as I say, not as I do?'
Review: I used to love Richard Bach's books -- 'Illusions' and 'JLS' were both wonderful and had a huge impact on me as a child. I even enjoyed this book when it first came out in hardcover -- I was an idealistic teenager (and much more forgiving). But now as a 30something woman, in repurchasing the paperback again recently, I was really surprised at how terribly Richard Bach comes off as a character in his own book -- he's simply awful. Narcissistic, rude, smug, complacent, womanizing, and frankly just a ginormous jerk who's way too proud of his own 'humility' and 'growth.' I could barely get through the book this time out, I was so appalled at his behavior.
As others have commented, I was however equally reminded of what an amazing person Leslie Parrish seems to be. What's sad to me in re-reading it this past year, with all my own illusions a bit more dented by adulthood (and with the knowledge that Bach left his beautiful and intelligent 'soulmate' after twenty years of marriage because she wanted to live a grownup life and he didn't), is how obvious it is that Bach didn't learn from his own story, his own lessons -- even while congratulating himself nonstop on his 'evolution'.
While I once bought a lot more of his books (and ideas) than I do now, with their pretty words and ideas and metaphors, the fact is that Bach is writing books on how to live when he has no idea how to do it himself. This is a man who left his first wife and six children without a backward glance, and womanizes his way through the next decade or two, finally (and undeservedly) ends up with a fantastic person in Leslie Parrish -- only to leave her as well and move along to the next young cutie.
So it's kind of creepy to know this, then to read 'Bridge' -- his big epiphany, his big learning experience -- and realize that the man barely mentions his kids at all. They just don't seem to exist to him. So in this book, for YEARS, he's flying planes, bedding women, spending money, yet he seems to have no ties at all to people, friends, family, children, loved ones, etc. beyond the often anonymous sex -- and using cutesy poetic Yoda-isms and smarmy New Age language to do so ('So beautiful, you are' etc), as if that will make the situations any less skeevy or manipulative.
I know many fans are angry at Bach for his seeming betrayal of the very 'soulmate' values he preached, and frankly I don't blame them. Not because I'm personally invested in celebrity relationships (LOL), but because I really do feel that if he is putting himself out there as a character, saying, 'Learn from me, live like me,' that he should be willing to put his money where his mouth is. In other words, if as he later admitted in an interview that 'everything in [Bridge Across Forever] might be wrong,' then maybe we shouldn't buy it at all. (Note: Ironically, it's evident from Parrish's very moving and poignant early goodbye letter to Bach, mid-book, that she herself had already learned all those lessons. So skip this drivel on soulmates and save your dollars for when Leslie finally writes a book. At least it would be written by someone who did what they said, and practiced what they preached.)
Sorry to rant. But even a cursory review of this man's life reveals that Bach's love of flight begins to look a lot less like a metaphor than fact, and is nothing people should learn from: He seems to leave everything he loves eventually, even while constantly preaching treacly 'soulmate' and 'eternal love' concepts at us to get our cash. It's very sad to me. I once took this book very literally -- now I realize the one person who needed to learn from its lessons was the author himself. Sad to hear he didn't.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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