On the run up to Valentine’s Day, we’re taking a look at one of the most romantic books of all time – Nicholas Sparks’ novel The Notebook.
I don’t care what anyone tires to say, The Notebook is one of the most incredible and touching love stories published to date. It’s beautiful and utterly heartbreaking, but the story of Noah and Allie’s lives will fill you with so much hope and will make you believe in something true. It is a story of miracles that it will stay with you forever.
Once again, just as I do every day, I begin to read the notebook aloud…
Noah Calhoun has returned from war and, in an attempt to escape the ghosts of battle, he sets his mind and his body to restoring an old plantation home to its former beauty.
But he is haunted by memories of the beautiful girl he met there years before. A girl who stole his heart at the funfair, whose parents didn’t approve, a girl he wrote to every day for a year.
When Allie Hamilton shows up on his doorstep, exactly as he has held her in his memory for all these years, Noah has one last chance to win her back. Only this time, it’s not just her parents in the way – Allie is engaged and she’s not a woman to go back on her promises.
The Notebook is the love story to end all love stories – it will break your heart, heal it back up and break it all over again.
There are not enough words to describe how much I absolutely adore this book. And the movie as well – the film adaption of this book captures the essence of the story perfectly and is casted perfectly, too.
One thing I will say is that The Notebook is so much more than a simple love story. It shows the love of a guarded parent – which at the beginning is thought to be malice and selfishness, but later proves itself to be love and protection.
It also shows the effect that money can have on relationships, how Alzheimer’s disease affects people and their loved ones, and how the ‘good guy’ doesn’t always get the girl, but they can use that to look forward and move on.
Sparks has also managed to weave in incredibly powerful themes whilst telling this powerful love story, including wealth and fulfilment; memory, pain and mortality; comfort and logic vs. passion and instinct; and, of course, love and destiny.
But probably the most powerful thing about The Notebook, is the message that Sparks was trying to get across to his readers.
The Notebook is an achingly tender novel about the enduring power of love, and it makes you believe that if a love is meant to be yours, then it will be yours no matter what happens.
In The Notebook, love overcomes all – class, logic, time, distance, and even disease. Sparks portrays love as this magical and unstoppable power which manages to adapt to change and bring purpose to a person’s life.
After finding each other again after separation, they discover that their love is stronger than ever. And by showing how love comes to define both Noah and Allie’s lives, Sparks suggests that love isa force which can steer and alter someone’s destiny.
He also goes on to show how love has the power to guide a couple through the most difficult situations and decisions. After the pair reconnect, Noah and Allie go through a troubled and disruptive series of events – I won’t ruin it for anyone who hasn’t reads the book or seen the film – but no matter what happens, the two of them love each other. And because of that, they can make their way back from anything.
In a letter to Allie, Noah writes:
“I love you. 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 yours.”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
Even after an unpredictable turn of events, Noah never gives up on the idea that it is the love he shares with Allie – nothing else – which is, and always has been, the defining force of their lives, and believes I’s strong enough to always bring the two of them back to each other, no matter what.
And as Sparks tells their love story, he is suggesting that just as love is powerful enough to transform Noah and Allie’s lives; it can alter the life of anyone who is willing to risk it all to find it.
Page By Paige 