Sunday, April 25, 2010
Dear Ms. Monaco,
I recently read the book The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. This is the third book of his that I have read (The Notebook and A Walk to Remember). On a scale of one to ten, I would give this book ten. Nicholas Sparks is my favorite author and he’s excellent at manipulating readers’ emotions. I would classify this book in the realistic fiction genre.
The Last Song was very unique in the way it was told. The story was written from third person limited perspective. The catch is that with each chapter, Sparks switches the character whose thoughts the narrator tells us about. The chapter names are the number followed by the name of the person whose thoughts you are told. There are four characters whose thoughts you can
“see”. These are Ronnie, Will, Steve, and Marcus. Sparks made an interesting choice when he chose to tell some of the story from Marcus’s perspective (well, third-person-limited-Marcus-Narrator-perspective). Marcus was definitely the antagonist throughout the book. He is a creepy, controlling, abusive, sick arsonist. I truly think he deserves to be locked up for fifty years. His perspective showed the main story, with a little bit of subplot that has to do with him. The author retold a lot of stuff that the reader has already found out, but from a unique, twisted perspective. Although I really hate that guy, I think Spark’s decision really enhanced the story as a whole.
One of the subtle things Sparks did throughout the story was really make small, slow changes in Ronnie’s personality. It was one of those things that you didn’t really notice until you look back on the book as a whole. *must throw in the wisdom of my favorite quote* “Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon everything’s different.” I actually read this on Facebook the other day (thanks Erma!) and it really made me think of Ronnie. In the beginning of the book, she was the stereotypical rebellious teen who wants nothing to do with her parents, but at the same time the author included many small, good-hearted things Ronnie did so it wouldn’t make Ronnie’s change seem so out of no where. You could look back later and say, “I so saw that coming.” By the end of the story, Ronnie had been forced to rethink priorities, and she became a totally different person.
There were many beautiful moments in The Last Song, but I chose this one to lift from the book.
"Sometimes you have to be apart from the people you love, but that doesn't make you love them any less. Sometimes it makes you love them more. "
Ronnie’s Dad said this to her. I thought this was a very important moment, because their relationship had a rough start. There is a lot of truth to that statement, and it’s something we all experience as a part of growing up.
Will and Ronnie’s relationship was awesome! They were not each other’s type at all, but they had so much chemistry that it conquered stereotypes. I don’t know if I’ve ever said this, but I want to be a romance novelist when I grow up (for teens, of course), and this relationship is exactly what I would try to create. It was very different from your average summer fling. Although I think it is rare, I believe that this type of relationship does exist for some people. I think that is the real appeal of Nicholas Sparks’ books, is that everyone secretly dreams of that for themselves.
Before I read this book, I also saw the movie at the theatre. Sparks actually wrote the movie before the book. He didn’t make many changes, except for some of the characters in the book were less developed in the movie. I definitely liked the book better, I felt like it was more emotionally gripping. However, I really enjoyed the movie, and I thought Miley Cyrus did an
excellent job portraying Ronnie.
One character that didn’t have a very big role in the movie but was an important part of the book was the priest. He was Steve’s best friend. I liked him because he broke the stereotype of a priest. Priests often seem to be the closest to perfect that people can get, but the priest in this book understands that is not always true. He makes mistakes, he messes around and jokes with people, he sometimes struggles with issues of faith, and he doesn’t act like he knows all the answers—all things that we associate with priests.
This book was incredible and I would highly recommend it as a summer read! It is a bit lengthy (400 pages), but is well worth it. The movie is amazing too, but I would recommend reading the book first. I should warn that this book is not happy-go-lucky all the way through, but it’s not completely tragic. In the grand tradition of Nicholas Sparks, this book is bittersweet and I would suggest it to only those that can handle it.
Sincerely,
Ayla G.
