The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks

I have a brother. When we were growing up, we were very close, but then life led us to different coasts, three thousand miles apart. Our lives became quite different, and we gradually became less close. When I saw the Nicholas Sparks book, Three Weeks With My Brother, I thought it would be interesting and bought it. I did find it interesting, but even more interesting to me was Sparks' description of the start of his writing career, which was included in the book. He said that he was in a job that he did not like, and was complaining about it one day to his mother, and she said, "Stop complaining and write a book." Over the next several years, he wrote a book that became The Notebook. He told the story of how he struggled with the book, and how he struggled in finding an agent and then in selling the book to a publisher. I found that story very interesting.

I had never read a book by Nicholas Sparks, although he has written 11 novels. I had heard that he wrote romance novels, but I didn't really know much about him. Then this summer, I was given a copy of The Notebook, but still I was not interested enough to read it until now. It is a book that was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year, and a successful movie was made of the book.

So what did I think of the book? It is a very short book. It is the story of the beginning of a love, and the end. As I began to read the book, I found that the writing style was elementary, and I was quite put off by it. Feelings were badly expressed, sentences curt, words elementary. I found it difficult to read the book because of the elementary nature of the writing. However, it is a short book, and I continued to read it, and I found the second part of the book about the end of life very moving. I understand the popularity of the book, not because of the first part, but the second. It is not a great book, but it is a moving brief description of a couple dealing with Alzheimer's disease.