Book #27: “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks

 

The Notebook

Nicholas Sparks

 Released: January 1st, 1997

Book #27 complete for the year, “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks.  I have heard about the movie, and have had friends speak volumes of the book.  It’s a deep love story with complications but just the truest sense of love.  Plus it has mirrored similar events in my life.

Here are some things I learned:

———

Noah Calhoun is a common man who lives in North Carolina.

“I am a common man, with common thoughts, and I’ve led a common life.  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.”

Noah is a believer of God, and prays daily.

He reads his notebook aloud to his daughter.

Noah lives on a plantation-style home.

He spent 11 months repairing it.

He plays guitar.

He had used nearly his entire life savings on the house, and would soon need a job.

Noah enjoys the simple things in life.  A trait he picked up from his father.

He has a hound dog named Clem.  She is missing a leg due to a car accident.

New Bern is like many southern towns, the people who lived there never changed, they just grew a bit older.

Noah’s best friend is Gus, a 70-year old black man who lived down the road.

“They spent hours together talking about their dreams — his of seeing the world, hers of being an artist — and on a humid night in August, they both lost their virginity.”

“New Bern was haunted now.  Haunted by the ghost of her memory.”

"My daddy used to tell me that the first time you fall in love, it changes your life forever, and no matter how hard you try, the feelin' never goes away. This girl you been tellin' me about was your first love. And no matter what you do, she'll stay with you forever."

Allie volunteered at the hospital during WW2.

She is engaged to Lon, but the summer with Noah was a passionate affair.

Noah enjoys kayaking in Brices Creek.

Noah had a stutter as a child that was resolved by his father.  This was done by bring him to the lumberyard to spend time together talking and by reading poetry books.

Allie’s parents did not care for Noah due to his lower social class.

Noah helped turn a scrapyard into the largest scrap metal business on the East Coast.

As a thank-you for his hard work, his boss, Me. Goldman, gave him a certificate paying him a percentage of proceeds should the business ever be sold (a few years later, after Goldman passed away, the business was liquidated and Noah received $70,000).

He spent several years internationally serving in the military during the war.

Allie needed to tell Noah about her engagement in person

Noah has beer, tea, and coffee at his house

He had large windows installed on the one side of the house to light up the kitchen in the morning Sun.

Allie’s mom threw away all of Noah’s letters to keep her from hearing from him.

“She felt clumsy at first, worrying that he saw every mistake, but then she realized her own insecurity.  He didn’t care about things like that.  He never had.”

“For something had happened at dinner.  Quite simply, he had fallen in love again.  He knew that now as they sat next to one another.  Fallen in love with a new Allie, not just her memory.  But then, he had never really stopped, and this, he realized, was his destiny.”

Lon works long hours due to his job, but is also quite successful.

“Poets often describe love as an emotion that we can't control, one that overwhelms logic and common sense. That's what it was like for me.

I didn't plan on falling in love with you, and I doubt if you planned on falling in love with me.  But once we met, it was clear that neither of us could control what was happening to us. We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created. For me, love like that has happened only once, and that's why every minute we spent together has been seared in my memory. I'll never forget a single moment of it."

Allie has always like thunderstorms, even as a young girl

“He almost stopped there, knowing that if he kept the words inside him, he could somehow keep control, the same control he had kept the past fourteen years. But something else had overtaken him now, and he gave in to it, hoping somehow, in some way, it would take them back to what they'd had so long ago.  “I'm not saying it because I'm sweet. I'm saying it because I love you now and I always have.  More than you can imagine."”

Duke cannot remember his life.

Hannah’s memory begins to fail.

———

Amazing novel.  I truly enjoyed it.  I give it one of my highest recommendations.  It will pull at your heartstrings.  I can certainly see how it cause people to shed tears.  Part of it made me feel something deep down inside.  I feel anyone who reads it will appreciate it.

Highest recommendation.