The Bridges of Madison County
Robert James Waller · 1992
A love story that sold 50 million copies because it articulated something real: the love we don't choose, that arrives too late, that we sacrifice for the life we've already built. Francesca and Robert's four days together, and the decades they both live with the decision she made, is a meditation on love and duty that resonated globally.
The case against
Waller's prose runs purple at every opportunity: Kincaid styles himself one of the last cowboys, and the novel takes his roadside mysticism at exactly his own valuation. Strip away the soft focus and you have four days of dialogue nobody would say aloud, reproduced with a straight face. You cry, then resent being worked over for it.
Romance · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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