Background
Released in 1996, The Notebook was a hit in the first week of release. Nicholas Sparks had written two other novels previously which were not and still not published. This book was pulled out of a “slush” pile and literary agent Theresa Park offered to represent Sparks.
Since then, it has been made into a major motion picture in 2004 and has even been adapted to a Bollywood film, “Zindagi Tere Naam”.
My Thoughts
The Notebook is the quintessential chick flick. Maybe that’s the case for the book as well. I didn’t care for it. There was a number of times I stopped reading and asked myself, “What?” It makes little to no sense to me. Romance has it’s place and I like the idea of an elderly couple still in love. However, there were a few too many tropes and ridiculous notions for me to enjoy the book.
Recommendation
I didn’t enjoy the book. However, I did enjoy the movie. Perhaps it was because I was holding hands with someone through it. If forced to read the book again, perhaps holding hands with my wife would be the way to do it.