Book Reviews | Group 198 | MCU discussion

“The best and the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with heart” (Helen Keller)

Living in the era of the so-called emotional capitalism means that many people want to be deeply touched by everything they smell, hear and see. And reading experience in this respect is not an exception: the more intensive feelings it evokes, the better.
Written in 1996 by Nicholas Sparks, “The Notebook” is a story of genuine love and uphill struggle which will definitely keep you on the verge of tears and leave you with a melancholy aftertaste. Thoroughly developed storylines let the reader stay engaged watching the chemistry between the heroes. Not only can you find some poignant and nail-biting moments in the book, but you may also find a plenty of food for thought in it.
The plot of the novel is as follows: one summer the teenagers Allie Nelson and Noah Calhoun fell in love and when sitting beneath the majestic oak tree promised to stay together forever. However, at the end of this summer the heroine was forced to leave Noah and go away with her family. Her parents were against their engagement since they considered the hero to be an unworthy man, they “did not think he deserved her”. Allie wished the future were not dictated by what a person was, as opposed to what they wanted. Nevertheless, the girl made up her mind to write letters to Noah, but eventually, all of them were intercepted by her mother. Fourteen years later Allie paid Noah a visit and told him that she was engaged to a young and handsome attorney whose name was Lon Hammond. As a result, Allie and Noah could not help falling in love again because of their strong, intense and warm feelings towards each other. And it was Allie’s mother visit that interfered with their enjoyable pastime. She managed to figure out that her daughter went in the direction of New Bern as long as she was aware of Allie’s attitude towards Noah. Afterwards, the main heroine rose to a tough challenge: it was up to her to decide who to stay with – Lon or Noah. That was the point where this written romantic story ended and the novel returned to the present day where the heroes were in their eighties already. In the final chapter of the book Noah revealed the heroine’s illness and gave a brief summary of her life. It became clear that Allie decided to come back to New Bern to be with Noah. The end of the book brings up sad and even complex emotions. Allie had some attacks of Alzheimer’s while Noah had a stroke which paralyzed the right side of his body. At the end of the novel while lying on the Allie’s bed the hero said that they were going “to slip towards heaven itself” together.
The novel can be regarded as a vivid example of insatiable desire for love. “The romantics would call this a love story: the cynics would call it a tragedy”. Seldom do we realize how deep and genuine intimate feelings might be. The characters “fell in love despite their differences, and once they did, something rare and beautiful was created”. We cannot but appreciate realistic twists of the plot as well as a true-to-life portrayal of Noah and Allie. We come to understand that our life is full of stark choices, but “you can’t live your life for other people and you’ve got to do what is right for you, even if it hurts some people you love”. Finally, we admit that but for love, there would be almost no meaning in our life.
I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone seeking for inspiration and thought-provoking ideas. This moving, sad and depressing drama story dealing with unconditional love and total dedication is certainly worth reading. “Every great love begins with a great story”, just as the one in the novel does.

Nicholas Charles Sparks is an American novelist, screenwriter, and philanthropist. He has published twenty-one novels and eleven of them have been adapted to film, including The Notebook.
This is Nicholas Sparks' first published novel. He wrote it over a period of six months in 1994. It was on The New York Times Best Seller list in its first week of release. The Notebook was a hardcover bestseller for more than a year. In interviews, Sparks said that he had been inspired by the story of his wife's grandparents, who had been married for more than sixty years when he met them. In “The Notebook”, he tried to describe the long romantic love of that couple.
The romantic story of the novel focuses on two main characters Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson. The story that is introduced to the reader is the same one that elderly Noah reads to Allie in a nursing home in their eighties. Allie does not know who Noah is, only that daily he visits her and reads to her. Each night, she forgets who he is and what he has read, and each night Noah hopes that the story will restore her memories and bring her back to him.
The young Allie and Noah meet one summer in the 1930s, in the small town of New Bern, North Carolina. They fall in love and promise that they will never be apart. But at the end of the summer, Allie leaves with her family for fourteen years. He writes to her every month but gets no response. Later she discovers that Noah wrote to her but that her mother hid the letters. Allie’s family is part of the southern aristocracy, and her parents do not believe that the lower-class Noah deserves their daughter.
After fourteen years, Allie returns to New Bern to tell Noah that she is engaged to a charming, handsome attorney named Lon Hammond. But Allie and Noah quickly fall in love again. Allie’s mother figures out why her daughter is in New Bern and visits them at Noah’s house. She gives Allie the letters she hid and tells her to make whatever decision is best for her. That is where Noah ends the story, and the novel returns to the present day.
The most essential motive of the novel is: love overcomes everything. Although this concept is as old as Adam, in this piece of literature, it is the most prevalent theme. In the world of The Notebook, love overcomes all: class, logic, and even disease. No matter how many obstacles Allie and Noah faced, their love always brought them together again. Firstly, they must face the pressures of her parents and their social position. “Most of the summer, she had to make excuses to her parents whenever they wanted to see each other. It wasn't that they didn't like him — it was that he was from a different class, too poor, and they would never approve if their daughter became serious with someone like him. “I don't care what my parents think, I love you and always will,” she would say. “We'll find a way to be together.”
Her mother hid Noah’s letters and even pressured her to give up painting, a talent that Noah had encouraged. Then, they face a fourteen-year-old separation and the Second World War. Also, the engagement to Lon Hamilton, a member of an influential and noble family, distances the lovers. Moreover, their four-year-old son dies. Alzheimer’s disease is the final difficulty. However, nothing can separate them. Allie’s promise that she will return to him always comes true. By showing how love comes to define Noah and Allie’s lives, Sparks suggests that love is a force which can steer one’s destiny.
Another motive is the true wealth. Allie and Noah belong to very different social backgrounds: while Noah’s modest working-class background and love of nature have developed in him a disregard of money, Allie’s wealthy parents have taught her that money and social positions are the most crucial things in the world.
One of the main obstacles they face is that Allie is about to marry a wealthy and powerful man. As the narration continues, Sparks shows how irrelevant money, status and social positions are. He eventually argues that while wealth and status are seen as traditional indicators of success, society should instead measure a person’s true wealth by how meaningful and fulfilled their life is: the relationships they have, the valuable work they accomplish, their connections to nature and their inner selves. “You and I were different. We came from different worlds, and yet you were the one who taught me the value of love. You showed me what it was like to care for another and I am a better man because of it.”
And despite the pressure, Allie finally considers love, passion, and spiritual and artistic fulfilment to be more important to her than money or status.
Throughout “The Notebook”, Sparks uses the central conflict of Allie’s need to choose between Noah and Lon, to illustrate the painful choice between a safe, logical option and a passionate, instinctual decision. When Allie returns to New Bern to visit Noa and revisit her past, she finds herself overwhelmed by the passion of her careless teenage years: "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.”
Reminded of the intense, overpowering, almost instinctual love she had for Noah years ago, Allie now had to decide between the comfort and rationality of her engagement to the wealthy Lon Hammond and the passion directly related to Noah. Through Allie’s profound struggle, the author explores the wide abyss between the safety of the status and wealth and the terrifying but thrilling attraction of the passion. Sparks shows that the right choice is not always the easiest one and that sometimes, one must leave comfort and logic behind to experience the fullness of life.
This book has certainly found a spot on my bookshelf. Reading it was a touching and emotional experience that has left an impression on me. It was an inspiring, thought-provoking, powerful and passionate love story that was absolutely unforgettable.

"The Notebook is an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love, a story of miracles that will stay with you forever", as it is said in the summary of the book. This was Nicholas Sparks' first published novel. The author says that the book is based on real events and that he was inspired by the love story of his wife’s grandparents. This book is about love and life. The action takes place in America, but the novel shows events at different periods of the lives of the main characters - from 1937 to the year two thousand. We can name two characters around whom the whole plot of the story revolves. They are Noah and Allie – the couple whose relationship is described in the notebook. There are also some more characters like, for example, the old man who reads the story from that exact notebook to one old lady but their significance for this novel will be revealed closer to its end.
And now, let’s talk about the plot which is a frame composition – a story within a story. If we’re looking at it from the angle of its unusualness and unexpected twists, then there you’ll find none of this. The plot itself is simple as ABC. The old man who lives in the hospital reads one and the same story to the old lady who is also one of the patients there. The story from the man’s notebook revolves around Ellie and Noah – two people who fall in love with each other while teenagers, and who, after a happy summer together, separate for many years. Fourteen years later Allie, who is already engaged with a successful and wealthy man, sees the article about Noah in the newspaper and decides to go and see him. After that we observe several days the two spend together. Their feelings flare up again, and Ellie now faces a choice between two men. And that is, practically, the whole plot, and her choice appears the main and only conflict of the whole book.
The plot is really predictable. I don’t think that anyone can be surprised by anything in their love story. The only thing I find impressive is the ending, and not because of its unusualness or unexpectedness but because of its realism. I mean that it makes you think about life, and you start drawing a parallel with your life and imagine such situations in your future. And that was the only thing that made me cry while reading.
The characters are plastic, they seem to have no emotions at all. Even when they cry, I don’t believe, I can't and don't want to sympathize with them. The characters’ love story begins for the reader somewhere in the middle of it. We learn very few details about their happy summer together and it becomes very difficult to experience any emotions from their love because we do not really know anything about it.
The text is poorly-written, it is weak as it doesn’t allow to immerse in the story. The author pours out monotonous actions of the heroes and meager descriptions of their inner world. It is very difficult to form a picture of the events and characters. We face a listing of the actions of the main characters like "sat down, got up, swam", which were diluted with very short thoughts, brief descriptions of their interests and memories. The only thing I find interesting here is that we can see the situations from the angles of both Allie and Noah.
The whole plot focuses on those three days they spent with each other and it is diluted with a small amount of present events and a few flashbacks. I thought that they would help to describe them and their traits of characters, their chemistry and the realness of the power of their feelings. But no. Almost all these flashbacks convey one dry fact that they spent one summer together, fell in love with each other, parted, but still remained true love to each other. Other flashbacks show the tree under which they stood many years ago, and the way he or she moved legs and arms fourteen years ago. I’m sorry, but such information can’t make me believe neither in their feelings while teenagers nor in their feelings fourteen years later while adults.
The last part of the novel appeared the most tolerable but it made me think about the lack of need of the whole story from the notebook. Probably, for the book’s present, it is made to show us the idealness of the characters’ love but for me it’s too sweet as, at least, the author doesn’t mention any conflicts between Allie and Noah.
Nevertheless, I liked the ending of the book. It was rather expected, but pleasant, and, in general, not disappointing.
After I had read the book, I watched the screen version of “The Notebook”, and, to tell the truth, I liked it more than the original novel. The characters have a character, they are emotional, their love story is revealed more fully, and you want to believe in it and to believe them.
On the whole, I wouldn’t recommend “The Notebook” to those who want to spend their time on something that has intellectual value, a strong plot with good character motivation and well-written text as you won’t find it there. Probably, this book will appeal to those who want to relax and read something that won’t require special mental activity and will be a good way to spend a few hours reading a simple story.

Have you ever got a temptation to spend all the money on the things of little worth? There is no doubt, everyone run into such a situation, when wishes do not coincide with financial possibilities. And it is not the worst part! There are some people who can’t imagine their world without spending money on designer labels, trendy shoes and cosmetics. These people are called “Shopaholics”. “The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic” written by Sophie Kinsella is dedicated to this vital issue.
Becky Bloomwood, the main character of the book, is a nice young girl who has almost everything that a woman could ever dream: an amazing apartment in London’s coolest neighborhood, a great number of glamorous friends, and a wardrobe with the latest fashions. The only trouble is that, she can’t actually afford it—not any of it. For a while Becky works as a financial journalist for the magazine “Successful Savings”, that doesn’t bring a great deal of pleasure, in addition, it doesn’t pay much. Becky admits to knowing very little about personal finance, and has thousands of pounds in debt due to her uncontrollable spending on fancy clothes, shoes and beauty products.
If my memory serves me right, on the way to a press conference held by Brandon Communications, Becky notices a sale sign with a discount of 50%. She sees the brilliant scarf. Becky thinks it’s a great opportunity but then realizes that she has left her Visa card at the office and asks the shop assistant to reserve the scarf. The seller agrees to hold it until the end of the day.
Afterwards, at the press conference, she meets a member of Brandon Communications, who highlights that there's been some surprising news in the banking field and asks Becky her opinion on the news. Becky has no idea on that topic, that’s why she has to feign knowledge. Then, Luke Brandon, head of Brandon Communications, realizing that she was feigning knowledge, tells her that one financial group recently bought another, and there were some hearsay that Flagstaff Life was going the same way. Later Becky understands that she will not have time to return to the office for her credit card, but only needs twenty pounds to buy her desired scarf. She asks her friend if she can borrow some money, but she has nothing. At this very moment, Luke stops the whole Press Conference to hand a twenty-pound note to Becky. She is so grateful that there’s nothing left than to make up a story of needing the money to buy a present for her aunt who is in hospital. It seems very credible to Luke who haven’t been aware of Becky’s numerous debts.
Throughout the story, a man named Derek Smeath, who is the manager of Becky's bank, is trying to get hold of her so he can set up a repayment schedule. Becky always has some excuse as to why she can’t send a cheque or meet with Mr. Smeath. The excuses range from a broken leg, a dead aunt, until it becomes obvious to Mr. Smeath that Becky is unable to repay the overdraft. To avoid meeting the bank manager, Becky goes back home to hide at her parents' house. There Becky learns that her neighbors have made a financial decision based on the advice that Becky had absentmindedly given them. Becky is horrified by being dishonest and decides to make things right by writing an article that exposes the bank's duplicity. Consequently, the article is a success, and leads to Becky appearing on a TV show. Unfortunately, Becky isn’t aware that the bank is a client of Luke Brandon's firm. Then Luke learns the whole truth about Becky. After arguing with Becky, Luke concedes that she is right, and announces that Brandon Communications will no longer be representing that bank. Finally Becky talks to Mr. Smeath. After apologizing for her behavior, she and Smeath agree to set up a meeting to work out her financial debt.
To sum up, I will definitely recommend this book for those people who have some difficulties with saving money or keeping from things of no importance. In fact, there are a lot of meaningful and relevant ideas that can be useful for anyone in the modern world.