A Walk to Remember
by Nicholas Sparks
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Book Summary Information
Author: Nicholas SparksEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-09-01
ISBN: 0446693804
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Book Reviews of A Walk to Remember
Book Review: A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
Summary: 4 Stars
I never knew who Nicholas Sparks was before, never read his books. Maybe I have seen them on bookshelves but they looked to me as part of a literary land of sobs and love I have never cared about much in my life. It was horror thrillers, psychological thrillers for me. Nicholas Sparks never fell under those categories.
But one thing I did do was watch the movies that his books were the basis for. Not surprisingly, since I had a close friend who took in such movies like they were collectibles. The first movie I came in contact with, watched in earnest one stuffy, humid evening, was A Walk to Remember, which touched me with the innocence and tenderness of teenage love and the sadness and tragedy of unrealized life. It broke something within me and made me realize the potential of romance fiction, if done in a way that made the goals of the characters seemingly unattainable. Broken relationships, tight family circumstances that would hinder lovers, you name it. Such has been done before, but never in the way have I seen in A Walk to Remember.
So I started to hunt down the book. Got it finally on a day in town and I tore into it. Took no more than a couple of days and, yes, it does have its differences from the movie (or vice versa, rather). After finishing it and many times when I was knee deep in the story, I had tinges of regret, having already watched the movie. The movie spoiled many of the heart tugging moments I would have had if I never watched it. It does have much of the same tenderness the film had but this book feels like it has its own soul and life.
What can be said about Nicholas' descriptions, both about the characters and the locales, other than that they are surprisingly sparse for descriptions, allowing for much of the miscellaneous details to happen instead in our vivid imaginations. Perhaps that could be a technique he employs to allow for better resonance, but one could argue how this could simply be Nicholas' style of writing. He prefers to let the story be about heart matters. Emotional factors are far more important to Nicholas than the details of a character's clothing. However, whatever detail he put in there about the characters only serves the purpose of driving the story to an emotional level that Nicholas wants the readers to be. One perfect example would be the descriptions of Jamie Sullivan, the normal and yet immensely beautiful main character who manages to find true love (and it could be true, if you leave a little bit of room for disbelief). She turns from a perfectly normal looking girl to someone almost painful to imagine as a skinny, bony girl. This only brings the reader to tears, as it did for me.
Dozen of moments in the book can make your heart yearn to turn the pages, tender moments like Jamie and Scott falling in love, the degrees of love they go through, from bring friends to being co-actors in a play to being eventually together forever. Poignant love and special friendship are the important undertones for the book as it goes along at pages at a time. But one can't help to realize that the special relationship between Scott and Jamie isn't all that unlikely. Uncommon would be a better description.
Nicholas could have added a little more flavor in the dialogue too and that would have pushed A Walk to Remember to being a five star book. Instances when Scott could've articulate something more likely than a mere "I'm afraid, too" or "How can you say that?" What's worse is that this lack of depth in dialogue runs all through the book.
One thing: never watch the movie before reading A Walk to Remember. It made me cry and I'm not afraid to say that as a male reader. If there is a perfect introduction to the heartbreak and sobby genre (haha) or to Nicholas' work in general, this must be it. The premise seems interesting enough and it has the ability to gobble up chunks of your time while giving you an escape of unbridled romance. If it won over a hardened reader such as me, I guarantee it doesn't sound as corny as my review lets on.
Summary of A Walk to Remember
There was a time when the world was sweeter....when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats.... Every April, when the wind smells of both the sea and lilacs, Landon Carter remembers 1958, his last year at Beaufort High. Landon had dated a girl or two, and even once sworn that he'd been in love. Certainly the last person he thought he'd fall for was Jamie, the shy, almost ethereal daughter of the town's Baptist minister....Jamie, who was destined to show him the depths of the human heart-and the joy and pain of living. The inspiration for this novel came from Nicholas Sparks's sister: her life and her courage. From the internationally bestselling author Nicholas Sparks, comes his most moving story yet....In the prologue to his latest novel, Nicholas Sparks makes the rather presumptuous pledge "first you will smile, and then you will cry," but sure enough, he delivers the goods. With his calculated ability to throw your heart around like a yo-yo (try out his earlier Message in the Bottle or The Notebook if you really want to stick it to yourself), Sparks pulls us back to the perfect innocence of a first love.
In 1958 Landon Carter is a shallow but well-meaning teenager who spends most of his time hanging out with his friends and trying hard to ignore the impending responsibilities of adulthood. Then Landon gets roped into acting the lead in the Christmas play opposite the most renowned goody two-shoes in town: Jamie Sullivan. Against his best intentions and the taunts of his buddies, Landon finds himself falling for Jamie and learning some central lessons in life.
Like John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, Sparks maintains a delicate and rarely seen balance of humor and sentiment. While the plot may not be the most original, this boy-makes-good tearjerker will certainly reel in the fans. Look for a movie starring beautiful people or, better yet, snuggle under the covers with your tissues nearby and let your inner sap run wild. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien
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