Dear John

Dear John

Nicholas Sparks

Paperback,  335 pages

Published on:  December 01, 2009

Publisher:  Little Brown Book Group  

ISBN:  9780446567336   

             

Blurb:  When John met Savannah, he knew he was ready to turn over a new leaf. Always the angry rebel, he had dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, not knowing what else to do with his life. Then he meets Savannah. The attraction is mutual and quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah vowing to wait for John while he finishes his tour of duty.

What neither realizes is that 9/11 will change everything; prompting John to re-enlist and fulfill what he feels is his duty to his country and fellow soldiers. And, sadly, as so often happens when lovers are young and separations are long, Savannah falls in love with someone else. 'Dear John . . . ' the letter reads, and both their lives are changed forever.

Years later, when John returns to North Carolina, he must come to grips with the fact that Savannah, now married, is still the only one for him. Now John must make the hardest decision of his life.

I had come across Nicholas Sparks accidentally after getting my hands on his marvelously written book, A Bend in the Road. After I was mesmerized by the tale telling capabilities of Sparks, I immediately added him to the list of my most favourite authors.

There is one more thing that Nicholas Sparks owes the credit for in my life – my affinity to the Romance genre of Fiction. I won’t have been a lover of Contemporary Romance novels had it not been Dear John, A Bend in the Road, The Last song and of course, The Notebook.

Dear John, is undoubtedly my most favourite Sparks novel. The story of a cop of the US Army- John Tyree, and the love of his life- Savannah.

John has come on a leave from his army camp, when he meets Savannah at a beach. Savannah is in North Carolina on her vacations, volunteering in building houses for the poor. Though he sees her a couple of times, he doesn’t get enough dime from Savannah until he fetches her bag that falls in the water.

This book is filled with emotions. You will feel love, hatred, envy, longing, desperation, heart ache and everything you can think of getting from a perfectly emotion packed novel. This book gave me one of the best emotional experiences I have ever had reading a book. And THAT is what makes it one of my most favourite books.

The characters of John, Savannah, Tim, John’s father - Mr. Tyree are all extremely well drawn. While I was absolutely empathetic towards John, I developed a love-hate relationship with Savannah.

Many people say that they totally detested Savannah, but I don’t think she’s that detestable. The novel was very, very realistic. If we see it from John’s point of view, Savannah might be a bitch. But see it from Savannah’s perspective. I think it is only in idealistic situation that Savannah won’t leave John. But whatever she does, was quite natural for any other girl to do. Had I been in her place, I would have done the same. Savannah, I totally understand your situation.

The dialogues in the book are very realistic as well. Some of them will take your breath away. Even though it has been two years, I still remember many of the dialogues and monologues of the book by heart. They’ll remain etched in it for eternity.

The only think that made this book lose a star is that Nicholas Spark has downed his writing style a great deal. It was as if a teenager has written the book. Or a naïve man in his twenties. Although it was in first person’s voice, the voice of John Tyree, but I still didn’t like the difference I noticed between Sparks’ writing style in A Bend in the road or The Notebook and Dear John. It seems as if a completely different person has been hired to pen down this one.

But, people, if you want to read a marvelous piece of Contemporary Romance,, I recommend Dear John. You will love it!