I have always been a fan of love stories,you know, the love that never dies kind of fairy tales, the unforeseen love of a fashionable man and a genteel woman,or an uncultured moore and an arrogant girl,or a low-caste girl and a polished boy. But recently, I've stumbled upon a book that neither coincides with any of the scenarios, nor the tale ends in a happy note. It's a 57 years old man's recollection of his 17 years young self as a high school senior and the most important person in his life that he has left behind with time.
Yes, you've got it right. I am talking about Nicholas Sparks' the best written 'A Walk To Remember'.
Honestly, I haven't read Nicholas Sparks before and I had no idea that a love story can be written in only 240 pages with such simple characters and an engaging plot. Sparks' language felt like an uninterrupted flow of waves in the ocean as I started reading it. I couldn't put the book down until I finished it.
It is of no dispute that Sparks' protagonists, Landon and Jamie are one of a kind. While the outgoing but not-so-popular, warm-spirited Landon Carter keeps himself occupied in hanging out with friends,dating,bullying others,Jamie Sullivan leads life what her Bible asks to do-visiting orphanage,helping people in need and keeping her widowed father company whenever she gets time.They are classmates but they've barely talked to each other until they get tangled by some unexpected turn of events. Later, the writer has incorporated few friendly incidents for his characters to brew their love.
After reading first few chapters, I was certain that this is going to be those happy-go-lucky stories where the girl falls in love with the boy and they live happily ever after. Well, it's not like that. It is more of a boy's thoughtful journey than a teen girl's story of her first crush.
Sparks' hero walks us through his emotional thoughts, dilemmas, his inner conflict between head and heart and how his life changed eventually when the right person stepped in his life. This inner fight has never been easy for Landon. Going against his will, he has to make Jamie his homecoming dance partner and bear all the teasing about him and Jamie from his friends. He shows an example of possessing a good heart when he couldn't turn down Jamie's request of helping her with carrying staff to orphanage. Though he was reluctant, he didn't have a heart to say no to Jamie's proposal of playing Tom Thornton in the play,The Christmas Angel. Every time he makes a decision, he has preferred to listen to his heart first and he was right when he realized Jamie is the girl for him.
Obviously, it is incredibly romantic to visualize two persons completely into each other.Their afternoon walk, endless chatting, first dinner date, first gift exchange spending time in seclusion by the Neuse river- all seem just perfect and right at its place. What seems more romantic to me is the decision that Landon made after knowing that the one and only important person in his life is dying. Landon made her wish come true by marrying Jamie in the presence of everyone and proved his love immortal. As he recalls his bygone days at the age of 57, it provides him perpetual happiness:
"It was, I remembered thinking, the most difficult walk anyone ever had to make. In every way, a walk to remember."
With Landon's emotional journey, Sparks walks us through an unforgettable, melancholic story without involving any grandeur of lofty castles,ladies with fancy dresses,handsome princes with endless wealth and hyperbolic invocations. Its the simplicity and lucidity that attracts our attention and makes his work 'the best love story ever written'.
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