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| Literary critic Alan Jacobs reviews Robert James Waller's The Bridges of Madison County. This rendition of Erich Segal's Love Story is predicated on the assumption that one should not think, only feel. Such excessive sentimentality encourages the reader to suspend judgment and reflection in order to indulge deliberately in emotion for its own sake. Jacobs contends that reflection reinforces and strengthens true emotions while exposing those feelings that are shallow and disingenuous. Sentimentalists such as Waller try to avoid this truth by keeping people from asking questions and by calling those who do insist on reflection "cynics." Jacobs counters that Waller's shameless manipulation of his readers' emotions is the ultimate act of cynicism. |
The Bridges of Madison County (Warner Books, 1992) |
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Alan Jacobs has contributed to multiple editions of the Journal; click here for his record.
 Alan Jacobs has also been featured on the MARS HILL AUDIO Conversations "Decadent Immortals: Alan Jacobs on Anne Rice" and "The Public Poetry of W. H. Auden." Short descriptions of these Conversations are listed here. In addition, MARS HILL AUDIO has recorded Jacobs's A Visit to Vanity Fair: Moral Essays on the Present Age. A description of the book is available here. A chapter about C. S. Lewis from Jacobs's A Visit to Vanity Fair is published on the MARS HILL AUDIO Anthology, The Christian Mind of C. S. Lewis. For more information about it, click here. |
Literature--Fiction
Romance Novels
Waller, Robert James
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