From Library Journal
Here is a first novel that many people are banking on: the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club are featuring it as a main selection and film, foreign, and serial rights are already sold. At 80, Noah Calhoun reads daily from a notebook containing the love story of Noah and Allie. We learn of the teenaged lovers, their 14-year separation and reunion in New Bern, North Carolina, just weeks before Allie is to marry another man. Back in the present, we learn that Noah and Allie did marry and were happy for more than 40 years. Now, they are residents of a nursing home, separated both by rooms and, more profoundly, by Allie's Alzheimer's. Noah's daily reading from the notebook is not to himself; he reads aloud to Allie, hoping that the power of their love story will reach her. Noah's coping mechanisms as an old man are exceptional, and the novel's format, focusing just on the dual beginnings of their love story and its denouement, is intriguing. This is a more romantic testament to love's enduring miracle than Robert James Waller's The Bridges of Madison County (LJ 3/1/92) because the Calhouns chose the rigors of daily domestic life over a dream of four days. For all popular collections.
-?Rebecca S. Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
With a huge first printing and a major advertising campaign, Warner is clearly hoping that Sparks' first novel will duplicate the success of Robert James Waller's Bridges of Madison County. Written in the opaque language of a fable, the novel opens in a nursing home as 80-year-old Noah Calhoun, "a common man with common thoughts," reads a love story from a notebook; it is his own story. In 1946, Noah, newly returned from the war, is trying to forget a long-ago summer romance with Allie Nelson, the daughter of a powerful businessman. Allie, soon to be married, feels compelled to track Noah down. One steamed-crab dinner and a canoe ride later, they fall madly in love again. We then learn that Noah, now aged and infirm, is reading his notebook to Allie in an attempt to jog her memory, severely impaired by Alzheimer's disease, and, miraculously, he succeeds, much to the amazement of the hospital staff. There is something suspect about a romantic relationship that reaches its acme when one of the partners is in the throes of dementia, but then, this is well within the confines of the romance genre--love conquers all, even Alzheimer's, leaving the medical experts (and this reviewer) confounded. If you want to read a novel in which the romance is grounded in something real, and the magic is truly magical, read the work of Alice Hoffman. If you want to read an upscale Harlequin romance with great crossover appeal, then read The Notebook. Joanne Wilkinson
From Kirkus Reviews
Sparks's debut is a contender in the Robert Waller book-sweeps for most shamelessly sentimental love story, with honorable mention for highest octane schmaltz throughout an extended narrative. New Bern is the Carolina town where local boy Noah Calhoun and visitor Allison Nelson fall in love, in 1932, when Noah is 17 and Allie 15 (``as he . . . met those striking emerald eyes, he knew . . . she was the one he could spend the rest of his life looking for but never find again''). Allie's socially prominent mom, however, sees their Romeo-and-Juliet affair differently, intercepting Noah's heartrendingly poetic love-letters, while Allie, sure he doesn't love her, never even sends hers. Love is forever, though, and in 1946 Allie sees a piece in the paper about Noah (he's back home after WW II, still alone, living in a 200-year-old house in the country) and drives down to see him, telling the socially prominent lawyer she's engaged to that she's gone looking for antiques (`` `And here it will end, one way or the other,' she whispered''). And together again the lovers come indeed, during a thunderstorm, before a crackling fire, leaving the poetic Noah to reflect that ``to him, the evening would be remembered as one of the most special times he had ever had.'' So, will Allie marry her lawyer? Will Noah live out his life alone, rocking on his porch, paddling up the creek, ``playing his guitar for beavers and geese and wild blue herons''? Suffice it to say that love will go on, somehow, for 140 more pages, readers will find out what the title means and may or may not agree with Allie, of Noah: ``You are the most forgiving and peaceful man I know. God is with you, He must be, for you are the closest thing to an angel that I've ever met.'' An epic of treacle, an ocean of tears, made possible by a perfect, ideal, unalloyed absence of humor. Destined, positively, for success. (First serial to Good Housekeeping; film rights to New Line Cinema; Literary Guild selection) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
A one-night read . . . If you are in need of a good cry, The Notebook is absolutely the right book.-- "USA Today"
A classic tale of love.-- "Christian Science Monitor"
"Destined, positively, for success."
-- "Kirkus Reviews"
"A one-night read...Sparks generates authentic emotional power...If you are in need of a good cry, The Notebook is absolutely the right book."
-- "USA Today"
"Intriguing. This is a more romantic testament to love's enduring miracle than Robert James Waller's The Bridges of Madison County."
-- "Library Journal"
"Nicholas Sparks...will not let you go. His novel shines."
-- "Dallas Morning News"
"Proves that good things come in small packages...A classic story of love found, lost, and regained...Sparks has a winning combination of style and story...A classic tale of love."
-- "Christian Science Monitor"
The lyrical beauty of this touching love story . . . will captivate the heart of every reader.-- "Denver Rocky Mountain News "
A more romantic testament to love's enduring miracle than Robert James Waller's TheBridges of Madison County.-- "Library Journal"
"The Notebook is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments and the fundamental changes that affect us all. Shining with a beauty that is rarely found in current literature, this book establishes Nicholas Sparks as a classic storyteller with a unique insight into the only emotion that really matters."
-- "Barnes & Noble, editorial review" About the Author
Barry Bostwick has appeared in movies, television, and in musical theater. He played Brad Majors in the cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and on television he appeared in the comedy Spin City with Michael J. Fox. In 1972 he received a Tony Award nomination for originating the role of Danny Zuko in the Broadway musical Grease. He then won a Tony Award in 1977 for his role in the musical The Robber Bridegroom. Bostwick continues to work in television.
With over 100 million copies of his books sold, Nicholas Sparks is one of the world's most beloved storytellers. His novels include sixteen #1 New York Times bestsellers, and all of his books, including Three Weeks with My Brother, the memoir he wrote with his brother, Micah, have been New York Times and international bestsellers, and were translated into more than fifty languages. Eleven of Nicholas Sparks's novels -- The Choice, The Longest Ride, The Best of Me, Safe Haven, The Lucky One, The Last Song, Dear John, Nights in Rodanthe, The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Message in a Bottle -- have been adapted into major motion pictures. Two ordinary people are rendered extraordinary by the strength, power and beauty of true love; each brings out the best in the other, and their pure love endures. The dual performance of Kate Nelligan and Campbell Scott enhances this smooth abridgment of Sparks's lyrical novel. With the perspectives of both characters presented, one has a sense of hearing the whole story. Nelligan's genteel, Southern tones blend perfectly with Scott's straightforward, gentle, often sensuous baritone. The readers deliver strong characterizations of both the younger, passionate lovers and the matured, easily fatigued, nursing home residents they become. Allie and Noah's heartrending story will touch the heart and soul of any listener who has ever loved a kindred spirit. J.H.B.An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
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.Highlighted by 4,234 Kindle readers
