The Notebook

Audiobook read by Barry Bostwick.

An elderly man recalls how he met his wife, writing the couple’s story in a notebook and reading sections to his wife, who is in a nursing home with dementia.

Maudlin. Simplistic. Wooden dialogue. Cardboard characters. On the plus side, I did like the depiction of how devoted Noah was to Allie as she is basically lost to him via dementia. All in all, however, I was bored and found myself rolling my eyes frequently. Just not my cup of tea. Thank heavens it’s a fast read (or listen).

Barry Bostwick does a good job of voicing the audio in that he sets a good pace, enunciates clearly, and gives credible voices to the characters.

Like eating maple syrup with a spoon. I like maple syrup, but without some pancakes to dilute the sweetness, it's more than one can take.

This is the sappiest book I have read in years, maybe ever.

Why are these two in love? They had one summer together as teens where they were inseparable, spent long summer days together, and were each others first. Then they spend seven years apart, with no contact at all, he goes to war she does whatever it is she does (the book glosses over those intervening years) and when they meet again they are just as in love as they were that summer. How does that yield lifelong fidelity and harmony?

This is bullshit. Its a 'love' sparked between teens, rekindled by twenty-somethings, and then fast forwarded show more to the palsied, wrinkled edge of death. It's a hallmark channel movie in novel form.

I think in a romance written about the intervening years, Allie would run off with a pirate or a roguish count with a mysterious past. Noah isn't very exciting. He doesn't say much and he doesn't do much. I think the idea is that he dotes on here, but even being doted on is tedious if your partner isn't interesting. show less

After reading Stephen King's colossal 11/22/63, The Notebook was like a decadent, rich, and smooth midnight snack. I read the whole thing in about three hours.

The setting is coastal North Carolina, 1940's and Noah Calhoun is haunted by the ghost of a girl he once loved. Everywhere he looks and everywhere he goes he is reminded of the love they once shared. But she has been out of his life for more than a decade.

Allie Nelson is also haunted by the past and passions lost. She is engaged to be married to another but she cannot go through with it until she is sure that is what she really wants. So makes a trip back to New Bern, North Carolina to flirt with the past and see where her heart takes her.

She finds Noah sitting on the porch of show more his family home, alone and over the next few days, the two try to rekindle the flame that never went out. Will Allie follow her heart and stay with the man she never stopped loving or will she return to the socialite lifestyle she is expected to live?

"I would love to tell you that everything will work out for us, and I promise to do all I can to make sure it does. But if we never meet again and this is truly good-bye, I know we will see each other again in another life. We will find each other again, and maybe the stars will have changed, and we will not only love each other in that time, but for all the times we've had before."

I usually don't go in for romance novels but I knew that this book was a bestseller for over a year, all over the world and that it had been made into a movie and I found it at a thrift shop so I thought, why not? I'm glad I did. Every girl wishes for such a passionate romance and soul partner that Allie has found in Noah. This is one of the greatest love stories ever told. show less

It’s probably fair to say that most of us in our middle age and older have seen The Notebook in movie form. Today, however, I read the book, and while it has the same concept, the book is so beautifully written with such lovely visuals, it should be required reading before marriage licenses are given.

Noah and Allie found each other as teenagers, separated by circumstances and parents for fourteen years; Allie finds Noah three weeks before she is to marry Lon, a nice attorney in North Carolina.

As the story goes, Allie ditches Lon and she and Noah live happily ever after until Alzheimer’s steals Allie’s memories. Noah spends the last of his days reading, daily, a notebook that contains the story of Allie and Noah’s life before show more the mind-stealing disease takes Allie.

The Notebook is the ultimate pull at your heartstrings story and a reminder that the line is ‘until death do us part,’ not ‘until I’m bored and ready to move on.’ show less

Considered a great weepy romance, the surprising thing for me in reading The Notebook was how undercooked and underwhelming it was. The romance between Noah and Allie does not convince at all, particularly in the first half of the book, and they never once say anything interesting or original to one another. It repeats every clichéd romantic line going and recycles every tired trope, each of which is bolted on to a clunky, workmanlike narrative. The central (iconic?) scene (with the rainstorm and the fire) is quite well done but, that aside, you get a sense of the author laying it on triple-thick, trying to make you cry with a persistence that would be insulting if it wasn't for his apparent earnestness.

Corny and trite, and less often show more cute, the only reason I rate The Notebook with two stars rather than one is because it is fundamentally inoffensive. It has no pretensions, seeking nothing more than to make American housewives cry. I'm surprised there wasn't a dead puppy. show less

Rating [book: The Notebook] this low is probably an unforgivable act for some. I know the following this book, and the film, have. I know it's meant to be a classic touching tearjerker, that it's meant to evoke all sorts of feelings. For me, from start to finish, it only evoked annoyance and anger. This is just... not a book I can get behind for a myriad of reasons.

[book: The Notebook] is two stories in one. One story is that of Noah as he reads the eponymous notebook to his wife in the hospice they are now living in. The other is the story within the notebook - that of their lives together, fraught with the drama one normally expects from a romance. The first of my problems with this book was the fact that throughout it all Allie was show more always the cheater, the one to blame. Allie was the one who dated him even though she had a boyfriend, who cheated on her fiance later to be with him. Allie was the one who never mailed the letters, etc. etc. Not to mention Allie never slept with any other man, but didn't ask and said it was fine if Noah slept with other women. That just.. rubbed me the wrong way.

My other trouble with the book is that Alzheimer's doesn't work the way it is presented as working. Alzheimer's isn't like an amnesia, it is far more like it was described during the sundowning episodes. In early days, yes, there can be moments of clarity. As advanced as it was described as being in the book, however... That clarity is gone. She wouldn't remember the story the whole day, she wouldn't necessarily remember it even as it was being told. The unrealistic depiction, her ability to even handle cutlery - these are a lie that is frankly insulting to people who have family members going through the illness. Many of us would trade anything for the moments of clarity shown in the book, but it just isn't there, regardless of the strength of the relationship.

That just isn't right. show less

Well, it's a love story... intense, long-lasting, and true - the kind of love that is rare and hard to find. That being said, I found it a bit mushy, and overly romantic for my taste. I enjoy a good love story but this went above and beyond and I felt like I was wading around in someones relationship - not exactly comfortable. Further, there wasn't much story. It was mostly a dialogue of how the narrator felt, then, and now. It was a nice story but nothing spectacular.