A Thousand Country Roads

Rating:
Summary: Worth reading
Review: A Thousand Country Roads makes delightful summer reading. At 175 pages or less it is an easy read in a weekend or even a long rainy day. Fun and enjoyable, it takes us back to the Bridges of Madison County and a trip through California and other states. But most of all it takes us forward as an epilogue to the famous book that became a wonderful movie. Robert Kincaid goes back in search of his Francesca Johnson with his truck named Harry. The characters he meets make the story seem real and warm. The language ranges from downright romantic to possibly pedantic in some areas. Pass quickly through the passages that don't please you to find some that will sing with your beliefs. Summer is always a good time to look back and to begin again in some way no matter what our ages. On the road-- he discovers more about life, himself and of course love. And the author gives us another 'bridge' to a future we could not even imagine Kincaid the solo photographer having. It may inspire you to take a second look at your surroundings as you vacation into your future.

Rating:
Summary: Worth reading
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. Of course nothing can compare to the Bridges of Madison County, but it was interesting to see what happened to Robert and Francesca. A few parts were somewhat slow, but the writing is beautiful and the ending is touching. If you don't mind going beyond the love story to look at the rest of their lives, go ahead and read it. If you are so smitten by the romance of Bridges that you can't bear to let "real" life endings tamper w/ it, then skip this book b/c it shows how life is just life and things just turn out the way they do - often not the way we want them to.

Rating:
Summary: A disastrous epilogue to an excellent story
Review: It would have been much better if this book had never been written. The story in this volume takes place in the time period after the wandering photographer (Robert Kincaid) left Madison County, Iowa, following his short love affair with the conventional wife of an Iowa farmer (Francesca Johnson), until his death. Actually there is not much discussion about Francesca; rather the story is focused on Robert's new discovery of his forgotten son produced from a one-night sexual encounter with a free-spirited girl in Northern California when Robert was much younger. This epilogue dilutes the beautiful love story between Robert and Francesca described in The Bridges of Madison County, which I have always defended against pretentious friends who regarded it as a trashy romance novel. It appears to me that Robert James Waller was forced to write this terrible "A Thousand Country Roads" for some reason which I don't understand.

Rating:
Summary: A disastrous epilogue to an excellent story
Review: It would have been much better if this book had never been written. The story in this volume takes place in the time period after the wandering photographer (Robert Kincaid) left Madison County, Iowa, following his short love affair with the conventional wife of an Iowa farmer (Francesca Johnson), until his death. Actually there is not much discussion about Francesca; rather the story is focused on Robert's new discovery of his forgotten son produced from a one-night sexual encounter with a free-spirited girl in Northern California when Robert was much younger. This epilogue dilutes the beautiful love story between Robert and Francesca described in The Bridges of Madison County, which I have always defended against pretentious friends who regarded it as a trashy romance novel. It appears to me that Robert James Waller was forced to write this terrible "A Thousand Country Roads" for some reason which I don't understand.

Rating:
Summary: yeah right
Review: This is, what you call, a quest for money... Considering the planetary success of "Bridges..." it became obvious that any day now, one should expect a sequel... Which is not entirely bad, when you come down to the bottom... what makes it bad is how that sequel was written...
Without any kind of emotion, or as once were said for Kerouac "that is not writing, it is typing", with cheap philosophy, small minded attacks on academic world or any kind of higher education, presenting life in a way that never existed, with narrative that every house wife can tell you in five to six minutes, it is a sad thing that someone actually printed this.
Well, what can you say, if you have any taste, you will skip this one, you can think of a better ending of "Bridges..." for yourself...

Rating:
Summary: yeah right
Review: This is, what you call, a quest for money... Considering the planetary success of "Bridges..." it became obvious that any day now, one should expect a sequel... Which is not entirely bad, when you come down to the bottom... what makes it bad is how that sequel was written...
Without any kind of emotion, or as once were said for Kerouac "that is not writing, it is typing", with cheap philosophy, small minded attacks on academic world or any kind of higher education, presenting life in a way that never existed, with narrative that every house wife can tell you in five to six minutes, it is a sad thing that someone actually printed this.
Well, what can you say, if you have any taste, you will skip this one, you can think of a better ending of "Bridges..." for yourself...