Relook in a Book #7: A Walk To Remember by Nicholas Sparks

"When I told you that I prayed for you," she finally said to me, "what did you think I was talking about?"

   -Nicholas Sparks

Set in a small town during the 1950s, A Walk to Remember is the story of an only son of a wealthy family that finds true love with the most unexpected person. The daughter of a minister, Jamie,  meets the only son, Landon, and the story takes us through hard times, love and bitter sweet passion.

 

I first heard about this book and Nicholas Sparks when I was ten years old as that's when A Walk To Remember went to theaters in 2002 just a few short years after Nicholas Sparks wrote it in 1999. Seeing as I was ten, I don't believe I read the book until a couple years later. If I had to guess, I believe I borrow a copy of this book from the library when I was about 14 years old. The movie had always stuck with me, probably in most part due to the great soundtrack, which I had a copy of as I loved Mandy Moore's music and this started my love for Switchfoot as well as a few other bands on the album. If you asked, I could most likely sing every line of every song in that movie. 

However, this isn't about the movie, that will be a whole other post later. This is about the book A Walk To Remember. I read this around the same time I read The Notebook, though thinking back at one scene in particular in The Notebook, I probably shouldn't have been reading it at the age I was. These two books, thanks to their movie adaptions, lead to my love for Nicholas Sparks' books.  I'm starting this post before I start my reread to document what I remember about the book. My sister asked me about this book recently if I had read it. My reply was, "Yes, years ago. All I remember is that it was set in a different time than the movie, Landon was a greaser and the teacher says 'Marvelous' all the time." As I think more of it, though, I remember the feeling I got when I first understood the meaning of the book's title, the walk to remember was the walk down the aisle, and yes, I know it took me a while, but I was young, don't blame me. Right at this moment, it's only an inkling of the feeling that I remember. 

Here's my honest review of A Walk to Remember.

Okay, I just had to jump in here real fast. I'm only a few chapters in at this point. But I feel like I forgot almost everything about this book. I had thought Landon was the greaser, but that description is better for Landon's ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend, Lew. It really has been a long time since I read this book. So far, I'm not a huge fan of the writing style in this one. I had completely forgotten the storyline about the dance and Landon "resorting" to Jaime. This is probably because I read this once a long time ago and I've watched the movie countless times. Some memories blur and fade over time after all. 

I'm going back to reading. I'll have the complete review soon. 

Okay, it's now 1:28am on a Saturday morning, and I just finished my reread. It took me a while to get into this one again, I absolutely HATED Landon whenever he wasn't with Jamie in this book. That's why it took me so long to dive into this novel. I get it, this is a story about how he changes, finally growing up into a better person but it seemed so sudden when I think about it. I was actually curious wondering if this was Nicholas Sparks' first book. It was the third published after The Notebook and Message in a Bottle. I only questioned this as it felt juvenile compared to his other books. This book was short, it spent way too much time on Boiled peanuts. Seriously, it was emphasized three times in one scene as if that was the bad thing they were doing in the graveyard while Landon's best friend, Eric casually drinks a beer, but no, let's just mention the nuts to the point, I thought it was a 1950's euphemism about drinking. Even googled it and also wanted to throw up with the images of the boiled nuts. After that, Jamie also brought up the boiled nuts when asking what they do out there. It seemed a little weird to focus on that detail. 58-year-old Landon must still be obsessed with boiled peanuts. 

This book, like most Nicholas Sparks books, gets points for making me cry. However, I felt the story overfocused on the wrong details and glossed over parts I wished were expanded on. Like, I really, really want to know what Landon ended up doing with his life. Did he become a Reverend like Jamie's dad and how she suggested? What happened with the orphan? Did Landon continue helping them out and visiting them once Jamie was gone? I just would have liked an idea about everything that happened, at least. To see how the change affected his whole life after everything that happened. Though, we do end with knowing that he does believe in God now, thanks to Jamie. 

I didn't really enjoy the framing of the story. It starts and ends with a 58-year-old Landon thinking about the past, remembering when he was seventeen and changed forever because of Jamie. It didn't feel like it was in use anywhere but the beginning and end as I could picture a 58-year-old man telling this story. It actually pulls you out of the story towards the end in some of the parts that were the most important scene of the book. We were kept at arm's length in those scenes, with the person 40 years removed from the events telling us what happened instead of showing us. 

I would suggest this book to fans of Nicholas Sparks or people wanting to feel sad because sometimes that's what people want to do. It's a quick, clean read. I will be giving it 3.5 O's. I honestly couldn't remember much about it the first time I read it. I don't think I'll want to reread it in the future. Once--twice (15+ years apart) was enough for me. 

Oh, before I go...

Now you can suffer with the image of boiled peanuts with me!

Wanna Read A Walk To Remember?