Robert Waller's subsequent two novels did not repeat the phenomenal success of his first even though both books, Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend (1993) and Border Music (1995) also made the New York Times' best seller list for briefer periods. Given the extraordinary sales record of The Bridges of Madison County, it would be unrealistic to assume that they would. Both his later books, however, follow similar patterns to his first: A loner meets and falls in love with a good woman (in both cases a woman with a child), and the novel follows their often tumultuous lives together. In Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend, the hero is an academic who teaches business related courses in a Midwestern university and the woman is the wife of one of his colleagues. The novel ranges back and forth from middle America to exotic locales in India. In this novel, however...