The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks

I have really mixed feelings about The Notebook. When I think about the story I really enjoyed it but when I think about reading it less so. That probably sounds a little bizarre but I'll try to explain.

Despite the book being quite short (my edition is 195 pages of the Notebook and then 20ish pages of the first chapter of A Walk To Remember) I found it quite slow going and in places rather plodding. As much as I had to say it I was almost glad when I realised that extra 20 pages weren't more of the Notebook – which I would have had to read – but rather the first chapter of a different book – which I didn't have to read. From reading the Notebook I think it's fairly obvious that it's one of his early books (possibly even his first published) because the style wasn't quite up to the standard I'd enjoyed with Dear John and The Last Song. It wasn't absolutely terrible but it wasn't overly good either.

And yet the story was quite good. The idea of the old Noah reading the story of his romance to his wife who has Alzheimers disease and how he hopes that by reading the story he will get to have a good day with her – a day when it is only her memories that are gone and she becomes the woman she used to be rather than a woman tormented by her mind. I think I almost enjoyed the present stuff more than the past. I liked the voice that Noah had and felt that it flowed more easily than the third person narrative of the past. The present time stuff was emotional. I cried but then I expected too.

I think the past stuff was maybe a little too perfect. Allie and Noah's relationship seemed so absolutely perfect and steady and maybe it would be been better to have seen something more. Something that made them seem more real rather than just perfection. I suppose I just wanted a bit more character development than what the book gave.

I've not seen the film adaptation but I have read the plot of it and I feel that the ending on the film would have been a better way to end the book as well. A rare example of when I feel a change made for a film was actually better than the source material.

I don't think this is a bad book. It's a good book for a hopeless romantic who wants a quick love story which will tug at your heartstrings and send your tear ducts in to overdrive. Maybe not the best written book ever. But it has a promising story idea.

I don't think I'd be in any hurry to read it again but I'm glad I've read it.