Title : The Bridges of Madison county
Author : Robert Waller
Narrators : Kelli O’Hara, Steven Pasquale
Genre : Romance
Publisher : Hachette Audio
Listening Length : 3 hours 50 minutes
Rating : 2.5/5
Narrator Rating : 4/5

Francesca Jones is a housewife living in Madison County, Iowa. She meets Robert Kincaid, a freelance photographer who has come to the county to photograph its bridges. Francesca and Robert are attracted to each other, and in a whirlwind romance of 4 days (husband and kids out of town) realize that they are soulmates. Robert wants her to come away with him, but can Francesca leave her family?

So I haven’t seen the movie, but I’d heard so much about it that I decided to listen to the book first. I’m not very impressed.

I couldn’t get a sense of the book’s characters. Kincaid is painted in as a rather swashbuckling cowboy of sorts with sensitivity, intelligence, good taste and a decent sense of humor; the ultimate fantasy! Francesca, a farmer’s wife is apparently way more than that; she is worldly, with far more sophisticated sensibilities than her farming neighbors. I think of this as Francesca’s story but I can’t fathom what she feels. What makes her tick? Why is this the love of a lifetime? She gets him and he gets her. I don’t get either one.

I take this book at face value. While I get the enormity of the romance, I have rather flat characters to tie it to. I can’t root for either one. Yes I feel for them but in a rather distant way. The book doesn’t evoke any feelings – good or bad – in me. The ending makes me roll my eyes. Enough said.