The Notebook

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

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

I believe in love that can withstand all, and this book has so poetically captured what most dream of finding. It is so well written that even though I watched the movie long before I read this book, I was astounded. The characters are well developed and the plot is easy to follow. You find yourself immersed in a world of older, simpler times and wishing you were there. The description of the surrounding area where he has rebuilt the house is awesome and truly captures some of the North Carolina coast. I have firsthand views of it as well as the toil that having a loved one with Alzheimer���s can do. The direction that this took can bring hope to anyone to make them not only want a love like this but be able to love this way too. show more At first I wasn���t so certain about the manner of reading a book of someone who wrote a book of their own story down, but its delivery was flawless. 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

This book proves two things. 1) Not all sappy, badly written love stories are to be found on the romance aisle. 2) Whatever V.S. Naipaul may think, a man can write like a teenage girl posting to Fan Fiction Net. Sparks actually says of his heroine Allie that she has "eyes like ocean waves" and she and Noah have the "perfect love." I have actually read worse written bestsellers, but I can't think of one so empty, so routine in its use of romantic cliches. I can't help but feel that anyone moved by this book is filling out the blanks with their own experiences or dreams, because nothing in the writing itself feels fresh or authentic. It's framed by a chapter of Noah speaking in first person present, which I'm beginning to think of as the show more hack's way of encasing prose in literary gauze. The bulk of the tale is in third person from both Noah and Allie's point of view after they meet again after more than a decade apart in North Carolina's coastal country in 1946. The best thing I can say about the book is given the spare style, simple vocabulary and short length, you can breeze past this in a few hours, so not much of your life will be wasted in consuming it. Be sure to floss and brush afterwards. show less

I first listened to Nicholas Spark's "The Notebook," audiobook downloaded from iTunes. Yes, I actually paid for the audiobook. If I paid for it than download the pirated version from the internet, I was interested in listening to the whole story. I listened to the story told by Noah on his relationship with Allie while working at a dreaded law firm when they moved its location. The audiobook was a pleasant distraction from the office work environment. I must have listened to this story from my iPod for hours at length at work while still working. I did not know a man can write such a story of a relationship that female readers, audiences can relate to. I have seen the movie version of the book at theaters, and all the girls in the show more theater was crying at the end of the film. This story is so poignant and written with beautiful description. I must have listened to the audiobook around 2003, 2004 and I can still recall the words the author used to paint the scene when Allie and Noah meet again after years of being apart. The scene is depicted in the movie where Noah rows the boat in the water where flock of birds float around them. It is a beautiful scene. The reader/listener is engaged and wants to keep turning the page when there are scenes of Allie and Noah together. The story of their relationship can make a young girl hopeful. This is a nice escape to read and listen to. The ending is sad but not tragic. The book is written by a Virgo author and I have met Virgos that are sweet. The only author that can match this sad ending but overall nice story of a relationship is a Gemini writer, Erich Segal's "Love Story." The reader can tell that the male character loved his female character in the book. show less