The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks
The Notebook is a touching story about Noah and Allie, two teenage sweethearts who are torn apart by circumstance. A narrator starts telling the story of Noah and Allie out of a notebook to a woman in an assisted living center, claiming that he reads to several other patients as well to keep them company.
The story takes place just before WWII during the summer months in New Bern, NC. Allie, 15, is visiting with her family. Noah, 17, lives there and meets her at a festival. After they meet, they become inseparable. They fall in love almost instantly, but Allie's upper-crust parents don't approve of Noah as a reasonable match for her. It comes time for Allie's family to head back home to Winston-Salem. Allie loses her virginity to Noah before she leaves.
Fourteen years pass, and much has changed. Noah went to war, but returned and restored his father's old house in New Bern. Allie is now engaged to a wealthy lawyer named Lon. Three weeks before the big day, Allie sees a newspaper article about Noah restoring the house. Remembering him and now knowing he's still alive and where he lives, she goes to visit him. Once they are reunited, their feelings return tenfold, and they spend two days together, eating dinner in his house and spending time together on the water where Noah often spends his time. Noah confesses to Allie that he's still in love with her, because he never stopped being in love with her. He also admits that he wrote her several letters, over the course of nearly two years. She says that she never got them, and because she never received letters like he promised, she thought they were over. They get rained out of the water, and go inside where they make love by the fire and spend the night together.
Lon becomes suspicious as to Allie's reasons for visiting New Bern and decided to drive there himself and see what's going on. Allie's mother drops by unexpectedly to warn Allie that Lon is on his way and that the time has now come to make her decision. She tells Noah that she must leave. She goes back to the inn where she had been staying, and finds Lon in the lobby.
Warning: spoilers follow here.
At this point, the narrator says that is the end of the notebook. It is revealed that the narrator is Noah. The woman he has been reading to is Allie, and she has advanced stages of Alzheimer's. When Allie first started showing signs of memory loss, she asked Noah, who had a rampant interest in poetry and literature, to write their story for her. She promised him that when she heard their story, she'd be able to remember. Sometimes when he reads the notebook to her, Allie remembers who she is and remembers Noah and their love. Noah reads the notebook to her everyday. The book ends with Noah sneaking out of his room at the center down the hall to Allie's room last at night on their forty ninth wedding anniversary. He goes into her room, sits on her bed and touches her face. She wakes up, immediately recognizing him, calling him by his name, and it is implied that they make love in her room.
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I think this is one of the most touching love stories I've ever read. I had seen the movie before, during my aforementioned hate-to-read period. The movie and the book are not the same thing. They don't even use the character's same last names, nor do they keep true to the book. They add quotes and events that didn't happen. I get angry when this happens. Although, if I am being honest, I like the ending to the movie rather than the ending to the book. I'd like it better if they were switched, or if the book's ending matched the movie's ending. The only reason this book doesn't have 5 stars is because of the ending. I felt like Allie recognizing him, and him laying down with her while they talk about their love story would have been a better ending in keeping with the book. I remember finishing the book a couple of hours ago, and saying to myself, "It ends with sex?!" I was so surprised. Sex was never a big part of their relationship, just their love was. The connection they felt, and part of the book that talks about the connection night and day have, was what I thought the focal point of the book was. I loved the rest of the book. I found my husband when I was 16, and we stayed together for the last 8 years. I related to a lot things Allie and Noah go through, and how they felt about each other, even at such an early age. It really touched my heart in a lot of ways. Bella and Edward have nothing on Allie and Noah. 4/5.
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For Next Time
The Wedding, by Nicholas Sparks
Sparks's 1996 debut novel, The Notebook, was a fast and easy read that sold millions upon millions of copies. Other bestselling love stories followed (Message in a Bottle; A Walk to Remember; The Guardian), but Sparks's fans have from the very beginning eagerly anticipated a sequel to the romantic tale of Allie and Noah Calhoun. The wait is now over. Attorney Wilson Lewis has been married to Noah and Allie's daughter, Jane, for 30 years. Wilson and Jane have raised three children and lived a satisfying and prosperous life in the bucolic town of New Bern, N.C. After forgetting his anniversary, Wilson realizes that the passion and romance have gone out of his marriage and fears his wife no longer loves him. Being a methodical man, he decides to embark on a yearlong program to renew his romantic ties to his wife, seeking out the advice of Noah, who now spends his days in a retirement home feeding a swan he is sure is the reincarnation of his beloved Allie. In the midst of Wilson's machinations, his daughter Anna announces she is getting married. The upcoming wedding provides Wilson with the opportunity to bring his elaborate plan to fruition. Sparks tells his sweet story competently, without sinking too deeply into the mire of sentiment; a gasp-inducing twist comes at the very end.
-Publisher's Weekly
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