David Robbins© 2014
Want to get into a heated discussion at a party or most anywhere else? Ask this: ‘Is there such a thing as true love’? Some will say that’s a no-brainer,  of course there is. Others will say it’s a delusion, that ‘true love’ is nothing more than ‘romantic love’. You will even find some who say love itself is a fiction, all those Romance novels notwithstanding.
For those who do believe there’s such a thing as love, and especially for those who exalt the ideal of a ‘one true love’, then THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY is for you.
You might have seen the movie starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep and be unaware that the film is based on a terrific novel by Robert James Waller.

[A tender scene from the movie version. It was a box office hit, which shouldn't have surprised anyone since the novel has sold over 50 million copies.]
The story in a nutshell is about a photographer by the name of Robert Kincaid who meets a married lady by the name of Francesca Johnson and each turns out to be the other’s one true love.
But wait, you say. She’s married? Ay, and there’s the rub, as Shakespeare would have it.
In a perfect reality, all of us would meet and marry our true love and live happily ever after. But reality, as anyone who has ever stubbed a toe will attest, is far from perfect. In the world in which we live, people join in unions with others for a variety of reasons, many of which have nothing to do with true love, and, in some instances, nothing to do with any kind of love at all.
BRIDGES is about the true kind. About a love that pierces the heart. About a love so profound, it resonates in the core of our being. And, alas, about the tragedy of finding that love too late. About what happens when you meet your soul mate, and life denies you the union you so longingly crave.
Those who think romance is nothing more than ‘make believe’ will scoff at the notion. Those who have experienced it will delight in this wonderful story told in exquisite prose that perfectly captures the minds and personalities of a latter-day Romeo and Juliet.
To show you I’m not making it up about the prose, consider this excerpt tendered to whet your interest: ‘With her face buried in his neck and her skin against his, she could smell rivers and wood-smoke, could hear steaming trains chuffing out of winter stations in long-ago nighttimes, could see travelers in black robes moving steadily along frozen rivers and through summer meadows, beating their way toward the end of things.'
 THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY. Take a drink from the bittersweet nectar called life. 
[In case the book and the movie aren't enough MADISON for you, check out the musical.]