A Walk to Remember
by Nicholas Sparks
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Warner Books (New York): 1999. Paperback: 240 pages. ISBN-10: 0-446-60895-5 Suggested retail price: $9.99 (US) Tags: high schools; Inspiration; leukemia; love; made into movie; Mainstream; North Carolina Tactical strength: [5/10] |
Some stories tug at your heartstrings. Others, like Nicholas Sparks's A Walk to Remember try so hard to tug at your heart that you can't help but grow annoyed at the attempt. Take the last paragraph of the Prologue:
First you will smile, and then you will cry -- don't say you haven't been warned. (xiii)
How kind of Mr. Sparks to warn us of his prowess at heart-wrenching stories. But his story didn't leave me in tears. Instead, I considered groaning at the cliched story line. Landon, a typical high school senior, looses his first love to cancer. First you get to know Landon and his impression of Jamie, the nerdy, do-good daughter of a Southern Baptist minister. Landon and Jamie have drama class together. As one of only two boys in the class, Landon gets the leading roll in the town's annual Christmas play. Of course, Landon plays opposite Jamie, and Landon falls in love over time, puts on a great performance, learns of Jamie's illness, and tries to find the one special thing that would demonstrate his love before Jamie dies.
Sparks tries to show Landon's naivete by having Landon miss clues of Jamie's illness, but you end up feeling beat about the head and shoulders with the foreshadowing stick of impending doom. Early in the story Landon asks Jamie to the Homecoming dance -- his last resort for a date. Jamie replies, "'I'd love to . . . on one condition. . . . You have to promise that you won't fall in love with me.'"
To Sparks credit, his narrative reads easily and convincingly. He presents Landon's story as the memoir of a 57-year-old man looking back on the pivotal moment in his life. Often you think of Landon as the author and forget about Sparks altogether, but because Sparks so clearly telegraphs his intent, nothing in A Walk to Remember comes as a surprise. Since you can easily predict every major event before it occurs, nothing in the text has the opportunity to delight or dazzle.
One thing did surprise me. The cover shows a digitally enhanced photograph of a country road through an autumn-colored wood made to look like an impressionist painting. Taking the title A Walk to Remember and the cover together, I kept expecting Jamie to take Landon on a long walk in the woods where she reveals her secret illness. Instead, Jamie reveals her secret in early January as Landon walks her through town on the way home from the local diner.
Obviously, if you read cover blurbs or other reviews, you know that many people find A Walk to Remember "riveting," "touching," or even "bittersweet." For me, I want to forget A Walk to Remember as quickly as possible.
