The Notebook Book Review

It is true. Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook should be in the list of books to read before you die, along with his A Walk to Remember and the others. I’m losing words in describing how amazing his books are because they are more than just a novel. That’s how Nicholas Sparks do his magic that’s why I can’t drop Nicholas Sparks as my favorite foreign author.

As for The Notebook, well, the story is just simple and common. Some scenes are actually cliche. We’ve already seen couple stranded because of storms and such, right? Other scenes, on the other hand, are predictable. When the narrator mentioned that Noah, the male lead, wasn’t receiving letters from his love, Allie, the female lead, I already sensed that the letters were blocked by an opposing parent. However, I realized these things only after I finished the book because as you flip through the pages and read each lines, you won’t have time noticing the cliches anymore. You’ll focus more on the things behind the words because it doesn’t just tell a story. It shares perspective about more senseful stuff.

One outlook I got here speaks a lot about YOLO. We only live once so we have to enjoy life. Therefore, we shoud choose to be happy than to be rich. We should choose to create contentment than to create more money. We choose to appreciate beauty than to appreciate wealth. We choose to treasure nature than to treasure material things. In The Notebook, it’s like choosing between Noah and Lon.

Actually, there so much more that the book wants to convey but it is true love that exemplified. Noah and Allie have been apart for a long time without communication yet they were still haunted by each other’s ghost. Allie’s engaged to another man yet in two-day meeting with Noah, she chose him. They lived together as husband and wife for so long yet their love never faded. Despite of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, Allie still tried her best to remember Noah and Noah, on the other hand, tried his best to take care of her even if it causes him pain. I can’t help but smile as I feel their love within me. Although simple and common, as Noah describes it, this is the most beautiful love story I’ve ever read.

If the first section of the book is foreseeable, I’m glad that the last section isn’t. When Allie was in the situation where she has to choose between Noah and Lon, I already suspected that she’ll leave Noah because Sparks’ way of writing confuses his readers. Sometimes, he is the kind of author who is not afraid of giving unhappy endings. Sometimes, he is not. But in The Notebook, I can’t determine what is his mood. And to keep us wondering, the author left us hanging as the flashback stopped on the part where Allie went with Lon. I really thought that the story finished there leaving a sad ending until I found out that Noah and Allie were already together during the present time of the book because she came back for him. And Noah was reading their love story, which is in the notebook, to her Allie, who is suffering an Alzheimer’s disease. Puzzling, right? But if your finished the book, it’s worth wondering.

Reading The Notebook felt like Nicholas Sparks put me into a maze full of turns, which I define as sadness, and few straight paths, which I see as happiness. I don’t know where this maze will lead me or what will happen in the story. I don’t know the identity of one talking or the one being described by the paragraphs because Sparks hid them in corners and the only way to find who it is is to keep on walking in the maze or keep on reading the book. And I must say that my encounter with this maze is such a wonderful experience. I want to pass through it again if I had the time.