A Review of Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook

I'm enough of a man to admit that I saw The Notebook in theaters when it came out. And I saw it with my mother and grandmother. Just getting that out of the way. Anyway, I liked the movie a lot, and a while later, I purchased the book. However, it was not until a couple days ago that I got around to reading Nicholas Sparks' work. What did I think? Read on.

Well, the book has its successes and its failures. I'd be dishonest if I were to say that the first three-quarters of The Notebook are well-written. Sparks occasionally treads into the realm of good writing, but this is rare. The last quarter of the book is much more moving because it focuses on the thoughts of protagonist Noah Calhoun, rather than much narration of action, where Sparks falters.

This is a book about love, of course. With this in mind, I feel that Sparks did not succeed at explicating the beginning of Noah and Allie's relationship. I didn't understand how or why they fell in love. Maybe it's difficult for people to understand the workings of others' relationships, but it still didn't feel genuine.

I'll assume that anyone reading this probably has probably seen the movie. If you haven't, then I'd suggest that you stop reading this review or see the movie, then continue reading. You could also read the book. There are lots of things to do - just be warned.

There are some significant differences from the movie version of The Notebook and the book itself. For example, Noah and Allie are somewhat younger (17 and 15, respectively) than they seem to be in the movie. Likewise, they have sex during the summer that they spend together, whereas in the movie I don't believe they do. This left a bad taste in my mouth. Regardless, that's my personal opinion.

The thing that I really liked about the book was the last quarter of it. In this portion of the book, old Noah's thoughts are given the stage as he reflects on his and Allie's life together and the life he leads in the nursing home. This part of the book was quite moving and somewhat hard to get through. I'll admit I cried quite a bit. There are a number of letters that are written with passion. If I had to hire someone to write a love letter for me, I'd certainly consider Sparks.

The Notebook isn't hard reading. I read it in a total of maybe four hours. The language isn't difficult. I'd recommend it as maybe a vacation book. The only thing to consider is if you'll get worked up emotionally. If you do easily, you should maybe reserve this book for an afternoon alone. All in all, if you're a fan of the movie version of The Notebook, I'd recommend this book. If you haven't seen the movie, then you might consider the greater part of this book to be like a cheap romance novel with less sex and less graphic sex.

Have you read The Notebook? What did you think? Feel free to share your thoughts in the form of a comment. Thank you for reading!