Bridges of Madison County

So to curb my appetite for strolling through the book store and buying a book (I'm embarrassed to go to the library and pay my late fee for a book that was like 2 months overdue-- I swear it wasn't my fault!), I perused my own book shelves for a read. I do have a number of books I have not read. One caught my eye-- Bridges of Madison County. I have heard this is such a great classic novel, blah blah blah, and it was a skinny book, so I knew I could read it in a sitting..... so I read it.

Totally disappointed. Don't read any further because I will spoil it for you if you had no idea what the book was about. Basically it's about this totally mysterious and attractive photographer that travels around the world. He finds himself in a small town to do a story on bridges and meets a woman, native to Italy, but since turned into an American farmer's wife who found herself living a life she never really wanted to accept-- void of passion, intellectual discovery, learning, poetry, etc. Her husband and two kids were out of town at a county fair to show off their steers (or something like that) and of course... the photographer and farmer's wife had a hot, steamy affair for 3 or 4 days. Francesca (the hot Italian woman) justifies herself in this affair because she felt like this man, Robert Kincaid, filled that void of her life that was so lacking in all the passion, intellect etc as she lived her simple life in a po-dunk town with a husband who just talked about cattle prices and watched TV. She felt like Kincaid was the most amazing man ever; the most powerful, intense, deep man she could ever dream up. She decided to stay home with her family instead of running off with Mr. Amazing and kindly, Mr. Amazing respects her decision and remained celibate the rest of his life, also feeling complete and fulfilled by this amazing woman he happened upon while doing a photo shoot on the Bridges of Madison county. Well if there were ever a good excuse for adultery, this book really tries to muster one up.