Saxton Reads! & Reviews

*bas bleu

 Many years ago, our book group met to discuss Robert James Waller's best seller, The Bridges of Madison County. I loathed everything about that book and couldn't wait to share my views during our meeting. Nights in Rodanthe is the first book since then to arouse such a negative response from me. It is eerily similar to Waller's book in its unrealistic, predictable plot, bad prose, and one-dimensional characters: a middle-aged woman, unhappy and unfulfilled, has a chance meeting with a stranger, who is a cold, unemotional loner. In the space of a few days, they fall passionately in love and our hero is miraculously transformed into a caring, sensitive human being due to our heroine's influence. Although they never meet again, she keeps all of his letters and eventually shares details with one of her children. Hello...does anybody recognize the plot? Yup, straight from Bridges of Madison County!