Rating: Summary: Kinkaid's story Review: I had no intention of reading the book, but my best friend absolutely hated it and convinced me to read it to see if I shared her opinion. I didn't hate it at all...it's a wonderful tale about growing old, and Kinkaid's wandering life drawing to a close. But it really isn't the epilogue to the love story in Bridges. I think a lot of the bad feeling about this book would have been alleviated if it had been touted as Kinkaid's epilogue. For me at least, I would have been able to appreciate the other characters a bit more, instead of rushing through their chapters trying to find out if Kinkaid and Francesca would somehow,someway,reunite on the bridge (I will admit, I wanted to throw the book through the window after what doesn't happen when Kinkaid finally makes it back to Roseman Bridge. Call me a romantic, but I wouldn't drive half way across the country to be at the spot where I met the love of my life, knowing that person was possibly a couple of miles away, and not try to see them one last time.) This book simply elaborates on the loneliness of their separate lives, teases us with the hope of reunion and a chance at happiness, and in the end leaves us pretty much where we were at the end of Bridges. Bridges was such a wonderful, lovely, heartwrenching tale...I don't think it should have been revisited.
Rating: Summary: Excellent companion to "Bridges" Review: Geez, people who reviewed this book on here are so fickle! I applaud Waller for not taking the easy road and having our 2 characters meeting after all those years. Very well written and not predictable at all. I judge a book by many things but the most telling is..."Can I put it down or do I need to see what happens?" I had to read it all in one sitting and thought it was excellent. If you loved "Bridges" and wished that Francesca would have gotten in Robert's truck then you will have the same love and anguish for this book. A great book makes you think and evokes emotion and this does both. Read it with an open mind and you will enjoy it in the same way you did "Bridges."
Rating: Summary: Disappointing, to say the least. Review: After reading such a romantic, "can't put it down" novel like The Bridges of Madison County, I expected that the epilogue would be the same. What a disappointment! It just wasn't close to the same calibre. Robert Kincaid did not epitomize the romantic sensitive character who told his secrets in TBOMC. If one was to write a book to manufacture the next sequel, this is the model. The characters were so predictable and much to my chagrin, the story ended as I expected...not good.
Rating: Summary: what a disappointment! Review: I saw this book at a store and immediately felt I had to buy it. I had already read the Bridges of Madison County and absolutely loved it. When I saw an opportunity to find out more about the beloved couple, I didn't hesitate for a moment, I should have though! Throughout the story I kept thinking that maybe on the next page will be the reuniting of this wonderful couple. I kept turning page after page after page, still waiting for the reunion. Instead, I was introduced to characters I had never heard of nor did I care to meet. By the end of the book, I felt robbed of the chance to have closure for this couple. All I could think was poor Francesca...all her life she spent waiting and hoping...what a disappointment. After I finished the book, I closed it and then proceeded to toss it across the room, I was so disappointed and angry at the end result or lack there of. Save your money...or atleast don't get your hope up!
Rating: Summary: Sequels are never as good and this book is no exception! Review: My curiosity was piqued so I borrowed the book from the library looking forward to experience more of the same desire, love and passion that Bridges of Madison County had evoked so beautifully. (I also loved the movie!) I found this story very disappointing though; it is more about him than about her and I found the parts about Francesca the most interesting so pretty much skipped through the book toward the culmination of the story which took me less than an hour. I believe this book, this sequel should never have been written and advice those who are thinking about reading this book to not do it and to instead keep cherishing the feeling they came away with after reading The Bridges of Madison County, which to me was a masterpiece, ....and masterpieces can never be reproduced!
Rating: Summary: Wonderful finish to Robert & Francesca Review: I thought this book was a great finish to Bridges of Madison County. You could feel the pull between these two people in the book. Why couldn't they have met on the bridge? Why couldn't Robert have driven into her driveway and knocked on the door? I get goosebumps from just thinking about these two and the love they felt for each other. I think the movie was really good too.
Rating: Summary: A Thousand Worthless Words Review: I was very disappointed in this book. It was boring. The "plot" twists were obvious. The ending was bad. Don't buy it - borrow it from your library if you must read it. I feel like Waller churned out some garbage just to capitalize on the popularity of Bridges. bad bad bad
Rating: Summary: If only I could talk to the author Review: Robert James Waller, I just finished reading the latest edition of Robert and Francesca in A Thousand Country Roads. It was one of those novels that you dont want to put down or stop for a break. The book was something that I would have loved to chat with the author about his insight into Robert and Francesca's love. Of course, the only thing that was disapointing to me was, they would never meet again. So, near, but yet so far. Cant remember who said that, but it applies here. But I wasnt far behind their thoughts and hopes for the future. Robert at his end and Francesca still believing in a young womens future, it was a beautiful look on life in the whole sense of things.
Rating: Summary: Don't waste your time or money Review: This was one of the all time worst books I have ever read. I almost didn't even finish it but kept going, waiting for anything to happen. It was utterly DISAPPOINTING.
Rating: Summary: I DEVOURED IT IN ONE SITTING Review: Before writing this I first read the ten reviews presented here. Perhaps I've become too long in the tooth to relate to the lack of heart in these spiritless opinions. For example, "I didn't look at the book for a week," wrote one. By contrast, I couldn't wait to tear the Amazon package apart and start reading. It's the first book in recent memory that I've read in one sitting. I'll not embellish those hackneyed expressions: riveting and page turner but I couldn't leave my chair.I don't believe I yawned once; my wife returned from opera at midnight to find me just as I was closing the book. I told her, "it was one of the most fascinating books I've read in the past five years [I very much liked "James Adams" but I used two weeks to read it. Not so with Thousand Country Roads. No mention of other reviewers is made of the inclusion of Carlisle McMillan or his mother. Of the electricity generated when Kincaid peered through the window of her Mendicino shop, when Francesca discovered Highway's dog tag. And I suppose the others have no great interest in geography and the routes Kincaid covered because none of this, the trip to Big Sur, was ever mentioned. This is not made in the deprecatory sense toward other reviewers but somehow I don't believe that any of them have lived long enough to feel the innate essence of what traveled through Kincaid's thoughts. For example, they found nothing remarkable re Blackhawk when Waller wrote: "Old men worry about each other..." When Waller wrote: "At one time, Robert Kincaid would have jumped down from the truck box, but now he sat on the tailgate and gently slid off." Those were very perspicacious observations but it takes someone over 45 with the experience to even notice they had been written. I thought it was a helluva fine story. Very tasteful, even better than "Bridges" and I salute Waller for having written it. Unfortunately,there were possibly too many of the reviewers who didn't fully feel or understand the brisance of its many impelling nuances.
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