The Notebook
Description
A man with a faded, well-worn notebook open in his lap. A woman experiencing a morning ritual she doesn't understand. Until he begins to read to her. The Notebook is an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love, a story of miracles that will stay with you forever. Set amid the austere beauty of coastal North Carolina in 1946, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner returned home from World War II. Noah, thirty-one, is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories. . . until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again. Allie Nelson, twenty-nine, is now engaged to another man, but realizes that the original passion she felt for Noah has not dimmed with the passage of time. Still, the obstacles that once ended their previous relationship remain, and the gulf between their worlds is too vast to ignore. With her impending marriage only weeks away, Allie is forced to confront her hopes and dreams for the future, a future that only she can shape. Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments, and fundamental changes that affect us all. Shining with a beauty that is rarely found in current literature, The Notebook establishes Nicholas Sparks as a classic storyteller with a unique insight into the only emotion that really matters.
Did You Know
The Notebook was only the third novel in recent history to spend over a year as a hardcover best-seller?
One of the poems by Walt Whitman quoted in the novel is entitled "To a Common Prostitute?"
The title for the novel was chosen by Theresa Park, Nicholas's agent?
Description
A man with a faded, well-worn notebook open in his lap. A woman experiencing a morning ritual she doesn't understand. Until he begins to read to her. The Notebook is an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love, a story of miracles that will stay with you forever. Set amid the austere beauty of coastal North Carolina in 1946, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner returned home from World War II. Noah, thirty-one, is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories. . . until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again. Allie Nelson, twenty-nine, is now engaged to another man, but realizes that the original passion she felt for Noah has not dimmed with the passage of time. Still, the obstacles that once ended their previous relationship remain, and the gulf between their worlds is too vast to ignore. With her impending marriage only weeks away, Allie is forced to confront her hopes and dreams for the future, a future that only she can shape. Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments, and fundamental changes that affect us all. Shining with a beauty that is rarely found in current literature, The Notebook establishes Nicholas Sparks as a classic storyteller with a unique insight into the only emotion that really matters.
Film/TV Sales
A major motion picture, starring Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, Gena Rowland, and James Garner and directed by Nick Cassavetes, was released in 2004. It is widely available on DVD.
Background Info
It wasn't easy to come up with the plot for my first (published) novel, but in the end, I decided to go with something that I knew I could do.
The Notebook was inspired by my wife's grandparents, two wonderful people who spent over 60 years together. My wife was very fond of these two people -- the other set of grandparents had died when she was young -- and she was one of those people who loved to visit on the weekends, growing up. When she turned sixteen, as soon as she got her license, she would drive up to visit them on the weekends and even when she went off to college (about two hours away) she still went to visit them a couple of times a month just to check on them, to make sure they had groceries, and all those things a nice granddaughter would do.
Since they were so special to her, my wife was, of course, looking forward to having these two people involved in her wedding. But, unfortunately, the day before the wedding, we got a call and were told that the grandparents wouldn't be able to attend. Even though they were only forty minutes away by car and someone else could drive them, they were in such ill health that their doctor recommended they stay at home. My wife was very sad about that, but the day was so hectic, she did her best to put it out of her mind. I guess it finally struck home for her when she was standing in the back of the church and getting ready to walk down the aisle. In the back of the church was a small table and on the table was a box that had been brought by the florist. It contained the corsages and boutonnieres for the wedding party and our parents, but as she was standing there, she couldn't help but notice there were two flowers left untouched -- those that had been meant for the grandparents.
We went through the ceremony and reception, we talked to family and danced, did all those typical things, and went back to the hotel. When I woke the next morning, my wife rolled over and met my eyes, looking just about as beautiful as I'd ever seen a woman look.
"Do you love me?" she asked.
"Of course I do," I whispered, wondering why she asked.
"Well good," she said, clapping her hands and speaking in an authoritarian tone. "Then you're going do something for me."
"Yes ma'am," I said.
Anyway, what she had me do was put on my tuxedo again. She slipped into her wedding dress, grabbed those two flowers (she'd brought them to the hotel), a piece of wedding cake, and a video that my brother-in-law had shot the day before, and we brought a little wedding up to the grandparents.
They had no idea we'd be coming and were excited to see us. My grandfather-in-law slipped into his jacket and put on the boutonniere and we took photographs with them; we went inside and watched the video as we ate a slice of cake, and it was then they told us the story of how they met and fell in love, parts of which eventually made their way into The Notebook.
But though their story was wonderful, what I most remember from that day is the way they were treating each other. The way his eyes shined when he looked at her, the way he held her hand, the way he got her tea and took care of her. I remember watching them together and thinking to myself that after sixty years of marriage, these two people were treating each other exactly the same as my wife and I were treating each other after twelve hours. What a wonderful gift they'd given us, I thought, to show us on our first day of marriage that true love can last forever.
Notes on Writing the Book
I began the novel in July 1994, working in the evenings and one day on the weekends, and the first, rough draft was completed in December. The first draft was approximately 80,000 words, and I began cutting the story down, doing my best to make it as efficient as possible. That took another couple of months. The final version was approximately 47,000 words.
Why did I cut so much? The story itself was a simple one: only two main characters, two principle settings, and the story only covered a few days in their lives. To have kept the book at 80,000 words would have slowed the story to a crawl without making it any more interesting, and I wanted a story where the pages turned quickly.
I'll give you one example of the cutting, since many people ask about that. Toward the beginning of the novel, Noah mentions a book of poetry he'd carried with him in the war. In the first draft, I'd described an exciting "war" scene, complete with Noah getting caught behind enemy lines, disobeying orders, and heading back to find the book, only to get caught in a fire-fight, etc. It ran four pages, but after reading through the draft, I knew the scene was too long, since it was tangential to the primary story. I first cut the scene to three pages, then two, and finally got it down to a page. Yet, after additional readings, I still thought it was too long. It went from four paragraphs to three, then to two, and I finally got the scene down to a single paragraph. Pretty good cutting, right? After re-reading again, I still thought it was too long. It went from four sentences to three, three to two, then two to one.
The final sentence read, "It (meaning the book of poetry) had once taken a bullet for him."
Another interesting thing about the novel was the order in which I wrote it. I wrote the final chapter, "Winter for Two" first; I wrote the middle section after that. The last pages I wrote were the first five pages of the novel, the chapter entitled "Miracles."
I wrote in this way for a couple of reasons: First, I knew I wanted the ending of the story to be poignant and heartfelt, and second, because I didn't know if I would be able to do that, since my previous novels hadn't been good enough to publish. If I couldn't do it, I didn't want to waste my time writing the rest of the novel, knowing it would collapse at the end. Once I was satisfied with the end, I went back and wrote the bulk of the story. I wrote the first five pages last because I knew those would take a lot of time and had to be perfect to get the attention of an agent right away.
The major challenge in the novel took place toward the end of the novel. At that point, Allie didn't remember Noah and Noah wouldn't tell her who he was, because that usually upset her. Because of these two facts, they could talk about neither the past, nor the future, yet their conversations had to lead them to fall in love. And the reader had to feel them falling in love, as it was happening, and it had to be a legitimate feeling, not forced, since evoking genuine empathy is necessary in a love story. It wasn't easy and required a great deal of thought and effort to get it just right.
On a more trivial note: the names Noah and Allie were chosen because poetry played a large role in the story, and I wanted names that rolled off the tongue.
Reviews
This poignant tale of love lost and found ... resonates with an emotional vibrancy that will enchant readers.
--Bookshelf
A one-night read. . . Sparks generates authentic emotional power. . . If you are in need of a good cry, The Notebook is absolutely the right book.
-- USA Today
Proves that good things come in small packages. . . A classic story of love found, lost and regained. . . Sparks has a winning combination of style and story. . . A classic tale of love.
-- Christian Science Monitor
"Nicholas Sparks. . . will not let you go. His novel shines."
-- Dallas Morning News
FAQ
What is the inspiration for this book? Is it based to any extent on your own experiences or the experiences of those you know?
The Notebook was originally inspired by the story of my wife's grandparents. They had a rare and beautiful relationship, one that withstood the test of time and circumstance. When I first met them, they had been married over sixty years, and I remember marveling at how much they st ...
How do you account for the success of the novel? What do you think its overriding appeal is?
It's never easy to pinpoint the reasons for a book's success. In the case of The Notebook, I think the most obvious reason is that the story touched people in a deeply personal way. It seems that nearly everyone I spoke with about the novel knew a "Noah and Allie" in thei ...
The book details the lives of very old, as well as very young, people. How did someone as young as you when you wrote the book acquire the insight to write about the experience of being old in such a moving way?
That's what writers strive to do. Though I can't describe the process of writing and how I do it (I don't really understand where my ideas come from), I do keep a few general rules in mind, no matter what type of character I'm writing. First, I tend to assume that most people -- male or fe ...
Letter writing plays such a big part in The Notebook. Is there something about letter writing that intrigues you?
The epistolary form has been around for centuries, of course. I'm neither the first nor finest to use it. But letters are a wonderful vehicle for emotions, if used effectively and sparingly. In the case of a novel written in third person, for instance, a letter might allow the reader deeper ...
The Notebook is an intensely romantic book -- a novel about the everlasting power of "true love." Do you believe that this kind of love exists in real life?
Yes, absolutely. True love exists and there's evidence of it every day. I think people's perceptions about romantic love, however, are similar to people's perceptions about schools for children. It seems that most people feel that the school their child goes to is wonderful, but elsewhere, ...
The Notebook takes place in a small southern town. Why did you choose that setting rather than, say, a big city like New York?
I live in a small southern town, and life there is different than in a big city. For example, a friend of mine got hurt recently. Instead of bringing him to the hospital or an urgent care clinic, I took him to the doctor's house. The doctor took care of him, drove to the office to pick up a ...
How has the success of The Notebook affected your life? Do you find your family lifestyle has changed much? Or your values?
The success has been wonderful. It's enabled me to concentrate on writing full-time, but more than that, it's allowed me to spend more time with my family. We've benefited financially, of course, and it would be dishonest for me to pretend otherwise. But other than that, our lifestyle is l ...
Book Club/Discussion Questions
1. At one point in the novel Gus says to Noah, "My daddy used to tell me '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." Do you think this is true? Can you remember your first love?
2. The restored house Noah lives in plays an integral role in the novel. In fact, an article about the restoration is what draws Allie back to New Bern. What do you think the house represents? What does this say about the importance of place? Does Noah restore anything else in the novel?
3. When Allie decides to come down to see Noah "one last time," do you think she wanted to see him just to say good-bye, or was she secretly hoping to fall in love with him again? Was it right for Allie, who had already agreed to marry Lon, to make this visit? Would your answer be different if she were already married?
4. When asked by her mother, Allie claims to be in love with both Noah and Lon. Do you think this is true? While it is possible to love more than one person equally, is it possible to be in love with two people at the same time?
5. Allie's mother regrets having hid Noah's letters to Allie for so many years. Why does Allie's mother change her mind, especially when Allie's wedding is less than three weeks away? Can you understand Allie's mother's motivation for hiding the letters in the first place? As a parent, wasn't she responsible for watching out for her daughter?
6. Were you at all surprised when it is revealed that Allie had decided to marry Noah, or was there never any question in your mind?
7. Noah and Allie's love for each other at the end of the novel seems as pure and as powerful as it was in the beginning. Is it possible for the intensity of first love to last that long? Is it unrealistic to expect it to?
8. Although he's not in the best shape himself, Noah goes to Allie's bedside and reads "The Notebook" to her every day. As a result, Allie is in much better shape than the other Alzheimer's patients. Do you think this is plausible? Is her stable health a result of her hearing the story of her life every day, or are greater forces at work? What does Noah's devotion suggest about marriage? About the nature of love itself?
9. The letters Noah and Allie write to each other, the poems they share, "The Notebook" Noah reads to Allie every day are all integral parts of this novel. And during World War II, a book of poetry actually saves Noah's life. What does this suggest about the power of the written word? Why is this power such an important part of The Notebook?
10. The Notebook has been a best-seller not only in America, but also around the world. Why do you think this is? What is it about the book that speaks to such a broad range of people?
Resource
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/The-Notebook.id-201.html
Foreign Sales
- Arabic / Jarir Books
- China / Bertelsmann Asia
- Croatia / Algoritam
- Finland / WSOY
- Germany / Heyne
- Greece / Modern Times
- Hungary / General Press
- Italy / Sperling & Kupfer
- Japan / Artist House
- Netherlands / House of Books
- Norway / Damm
- Portugal / Presenca
- Romania / RAO
- Russia / AST
- Serbia / Narodna
- Spain / Salamandra
- Spain (Catalan) / Ediciones 62
- Thailand / Matichon
- UK / Little Brown UK
- US (Spanish) / Planeta Miami
Published: 1996