Bookish Mardi : Nicholas Spark's "The Notebook"

""A woman shaking in fear from demons in her own mind, and the old man who loves her more deeply than life itself, crying softly in the corner." - Nicholas Sparks

Book Summary 

Photo from Web

 A man with a faded, well-worn notebook open in his lap. A woman experiencing a morning ritual she doesn't understand. Until he begins to read to her. The Notebook is an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love, a story of miracles that will stay with you forever. Set amid the austere beauty of coastal North Carolina in 1946, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner returned home from World War II. Noah, thirty-one, is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories. . until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again. Allie Nelson, twenty-nine, is now engaged to another man, but realizes that the original passion she felt for Noah has not dimmed with the passage of time. Still, the obstacles that once ended their previous relationship remain, and the gulf between their worlds is too vast to ignore. With her impending marriage only weeks away, Allie is forced to confront her hopes and dreams for the future, a future that only she can shape. Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments, and fundamental changes that affect us all. Shining with a beauty that is rarely found in current literature, The Notebook establishes Nicholas Sparks as a classic storyteller with a unique insight into the only emotion that really matters.

 Remarkable Lines from the Book

Photo from Web

"I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul,and to me this has always been enough." - Noah

"Poets knew that isolation in nature, far from people and things man-made, was good for the soul."

". . .sometimes our future is dictated by what we are as opposed to what we want." - Allie

Photo from Web

"Only summer is over, Allie, not us. We'll never be over." - Noah

"Give a day's work for a day's pay. Anything less is stealing." - M. Goldman

"Poetry wasn't written to be analysed: it was meant to inspire without reason, to touch without understanding." - Allie

"Poets often describe love as emotion that we can't control, one that overwhelm logic and common sense.'' - Noah

"I didn't plan on falling in love with you, and I doubt if you plan falling in love with me. But  once we met, it was clear that neither of us could control  what was happening to us. We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did something rare and beautiful was created. For me, love like that has happened only once, and that's why every minute we spent together has been seared in my memory." - Noah

"My daddy used to tell me that the first time you fall in love, it changes your life forever, and no matter how hard you try, the feeling never goes away. This girl you been telling me about was your first love. And no matter what you'll do, she'll stay with you forever." - Gus

"Passion would fade in time and things like companionship and compatibility would take its place." - Allie

Photo from Web

"I know we've had our differences , Allie, and that we have not seen eye to eye on everything. But I'm your mother and that means I'll always love you." - Allie's Mom

"You can't live your life for other people. You've got to do what's right for you, even if it hurts some people you love." - Noah

Photo from Web

"We're adults now, we have the choice we didn't have before.'' - Noah 

"You and I are different. We came from different worlds, and yet you were the one who taught me the value of love. You showed me what it was like to care for another, and I am a better man because of it. I don't want you ever to forget that." - Noah

"You are a lover of life, a strength to those who shared in your friendship. You are a dreamer, a creator of happiness, an artist who has touched a thousand souls. You've led a full life and wanted for nothing, because your needs are spiritual and you only have to look inside you. You are kind and loyal, and you are able to see beauty where others do not. You are a teacher of wonderful lessons, a dreamer of better things." - Noah

"In times of grief and sorrow I will hold you and rock you, and take your grief and make it my own. When you cry, I cry, when you hurt, I hurt. And together we will try to hold back the floods of tears and despair and make it through." - Noah

Photo from Web

"I love you, Allie. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be your." - Noah

"I read once that women love mysterious strangers." - Noah

"It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is a great paradox." - Noah

". . .life is simply a collection of little lives, each day live one at a time. That each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers and poetry and talking to animals. That a day spent with dreaming and sunsets and refreshing breeezes cannot be battered. But most of all. I learned that life is sitting on benches next to ancient creeks with my hand on her knee and sometimes, on good days, FOR FALLING IN LOVE." - Noah

"I mean it. I don't want to forget you, again. You're very special to me. I don't know what would I have done without you today." - Allie

"I am still yours, Allie, my queen, my timeless beauty. You are, and always have been, the best thing in my life." - Noah

"I have a crush on your mind, I fell for your personality, and your looks are just a big bonus!" -  Noah



. . .Allie's letter which had made me cry

"I love you so deeply, so incredibly much, that I will find a way to come back to you despite my disease, I promise you that.And this is where the story comes in. When I am lost and lonely, read this story -  just as you told it to the children - and know that in some way I will realize it's about us. And perhaps, just perhaps, we will find a way to be together again." - Allie

"Noah, wherever you are and whenever you read this, I love you. I love you deeply, my husband. You are, and always have been, my dream." - Allie

"I don't know how you do it. Even though the doctors don't understand it, we nurses do. It's love- it's as simple as that. It's the most incredible thing I've ever seen." - Nurse

"I am foolish, an old man in love, a dreamer who dreams of nothing but reading to Allie and holding her whenever I can. I am a sinner with many faults and a man who believes in magic." - Noah

Book Review

I first encountered this story when one of my major subjects  way back in college had the film for us to be analyzed. Back then I found the movie  a thunderstrike one for it had been so emotion-filled from its very get-go to its mop-up. And as expected, I did cry a lot ( well, it's been so normal seeing me cry over sentimental movies to those who have known me much) when we watched it. Right after watching the movie, I had considered it as one of my personal favorites. And I told myself I will be reading its book since it's a novel. However, being a student left no time for me to do the reading.

It actually took me 5 long years before reading the book, but despite of prolonging such, I still congratulate myself for being able to read it. hahahaha

Symbolic. Romantic. Classical. Poetic. These are, I believe the best words which I strongly affirm with regard to the story. 

Symbolic  in the sense that plenty of objects from the story provided the readers/watchers things to associate, like:

*BIRDS - symbolize togetherness. No bird flies alone. Allie and Noah never mentally leave each other. They always have each other in the back of their minds even when they're away from each other for some time.

*SWANS - symbolize loyalty. Swans are also birds but the swans from the story tells us how Allie and Noah loved each other all throughout their live.  Swans mate for life and once they have a partner they will never leave their side. Noah and Allie are like this, they fell and love and both of them know that they never really stopped loving one another. When the swans were forced to move away, they are bothered, this is also like Noah and Allie's relationship because they were forced to move away from each other because of social status, but then they never lost their love and had found a way to be together again.

*LETTERS - symbolize their true love for each other in the past and the present. They will never forget how much they love each other because it's recorded on paper. They represent them who never throw their relationship away. The letters from Noah that were kept sealed represent him never opening himself up to anyone else.^^ 

*NOTEBOOK - the notebook itself is the most dominant symbolism from both movie and the book. It symbolizes eternity. It's a constant reminder of how unconditional the love of Noah to Allie was. Despite of their separation for fourteen long years, and despite of Allie's Alzhiemer's disease, both were still able to standstill the strong storm they were facing. The notebook is a great symbolism of their love having surpassed the test of time.

Romantic. Every single act Noah did in the story  had been made with love and effort. From the moment she introduced himself to Allie and asked her to go out with her, to reading Whitman's poem, writing her letters without getting any back, buying and reconstructing the house into Allie's dream house, and until reading their story to her. He'd successfully shown how much he loved and valued Allie a lot. A man who'll do everything just to please his lady, and to say a man like him is rarely to be found.

Classical and Poetic. The novel is written in a classical and poetic way which made the me admire the story and the author himself. The following had caught my attention and had me thinking:

- Noah metaphorically explains his life as a blue chip stock: fairly stable, more ups than downs, and gradually trending upward with time

- he goes on to describe his story as both a romance and a tragedy, which has involved a great deal of his life and the metaphorical path he chose to follow. He has no complaints about this path and believes that it has always been the right one. Time, unfortunately, hasn’t made it easy for him to stay on

-“He is a stranger now. He cannot be stopped . . . he is a midnight bandit, masked and fleeing on horseback from sleepy desert towns, charging into yellow moons with gold dust in his saddlebags.” He imagines he can lift Allie in his arms and ride off with her into paradise. This fantasy of Noah’s is a metaphor of how he would like to defend and protect his Allie

-“Noah becomes a mighty ship in churning waters, strong and fearless, and she is his sails.” This is his final metaphorical description of their love. 

It's usually common to have a novel being filmed to be a little disappointing. Since some part of the novel will not be reflected in the film. But then, I felt the other way around when I finished reading the story after watching the movie. The movie was undeniably done well, which made me expect much from the book. Sad to say that some scenes which were shown in the movie weren't found in the book. 

 e.g:

- the white house became the a.k.a Home for the Aged but it never was in the book,

- Allie fitted the wedding gown and collapsed after seeing Noah in the newspaper but didn't happen in the book

- Noah had another woman in her house when he did not brought any in it in the book,

- both cooked crab for dinner but was never shown in the movie,

- and the worst one, both died in the movie but never in the book.

Though it showed a little inconsistency , I still however love the story both Noah and Allie had. With that, I salute you Nicholas Sparks! :))