by Monnie

Created on: October 02, 2010

Nicholas Sparks is a writer who has found success writing bittersweet love stories which explore the concepts of loss, redemption and relationships.  Books like The Notebook, A Walk To Remember and The Choice have inspired readers to explore these concepts reaching into their own experiences of love lost and love found.  Sparks explores themes touching most people in life and this probably explains his overwhelming popularity.  Many of his books have been adapted to the silver screen with varying degrees of success and he has created characters which loved by readers.  In his best moments Sparks is all his fans claim.  He depicts the nuances of love; both the endless joy which stems from it as well as the bottomless hurt with stunning accuracy.  In his worst moments though he is manipulative and stale.  The Notebook was an amazing story where you really felt the passion, love and ultimate loss the characters feel.  When the tears run down the reader’s face its because the book truly earned it.  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for his novel Dear John.

Dear John chronicles the life of Wilmington native John Tyree and his life over the period of several years.  The story begins as he is watching the love of his life standing outside of her stables feeding the horses.  The reader quickly learns they are no longer together. The reason for reading the book to find out why and to see if fate changes for the protagonist.  He takes us back in time and tells us about his life.   John grows up with his faithful, loyal but emotionally absent father who has an odd love for coins and a limited ability to have conversations and express emotions.  He gathers comfort from his rigid routines.  This is an emotional struggle for John who loves his father but is endlessly frustrated by his inability to be normal.  John flounders for a few years after high school spending his days surfing and his nights drinking until he finally decides to join the Army. 

Then on leave from the military he meets Savannah and his life changes forever.

When John meets Savannah he finds himself comfortable and at ease for the first time.  Savannah is perfect and completely opposite from John in every way.  She has led a sheltered life and spends her free time building houses for the poor, going to church on Sunday and majoring in special education.  Her dream

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