Friday

Book review: The Notebook


The Notebook- Nicholas Sparks
This book is so different from the kind of book I usually read! I am not even a little bit interested in chick lit or schmaltzy Nicholas Sparks romances. However, of course I've seen the film adaptation (who hasn't?) and I loved it so I thought I'd read the book in light of that. I actually bought this in 2011, started reading it just before moving and then, when we moved house, I was never bothered enough to finish it off when we unpacked.

However, this month I had the horrible crisis of finishing my "to read" stack and having nothing else to reach for. In desperation, I plucked this off the bookcase. I managed to get all the way through this time, so that's an achievement!
Let me start by saying, the film is quite a lot different. It turns out that the best parts of the film (I'm not talking about "I'm a bird"), and even the ending, were not imagined up by Nicholas Sparks. All he seems to have managed to do is tell a fairly bland story of a little rich girl who couldn't decide between the rich, eligible bachelor or the poor, kind-hearted manual worker. She does become ill in her old age but this didn't move me as much as I thought it would.

The problem is, Sparks didn't seem to put much into the book. The dialogue is stiff and unnatural. The characters are two-dimensional. I ended up feeling more or less indifferent to Noah and Allie, which I'm pretty sure was not his intention.
It was an easy read, at least. The book is short and the vocabulary is limited. It's like the literary equivalent of a Pot Noodle: It fills a hole but it's not exactly substantial. I wouldn't recommend it. Unless you're into schmaltz, of course! 

4 comments :

  1. I've never seen the film. Heard of it but never watched it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I read the book before I read the film and have to say I much preferred the film (bit of a rarity for me!)
    But then the film does have Ryan Gosling in it therefore the book never really stood a chance at winning really...
    x

    ReplyDelete

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