The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

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The Notebook, written in 1994 and published in 1996, I enjoyed. I had not read any of his novels prior to this one, and this was his first widely successful effort. He did have two prior unpublished novels he had written, and one published, with modest success, he notes, that are stored in an attic, but the concept of a romance story, based loosely on the 60-year relationship of his wife's grandparents, formed the plot of the love story with Alzheimer's creating the tragedy of the same per Sparks.

Noah and Allie spend a memorable, romantic summer together in 1932 after being introduced by common friends, Finn and Sarah, but part ways as she relocates with her parents and he goes to work, first at a shipyard sorting scrap metal, and then to serve in World War II. Upon his return, he is awarded a sum of money from his former employer for his eight-year work valor that allows Noah to afford to purchase and renovate a plantation house in New Bern, North Carolina. He and Allie eventually reunite when she reads of the newsworthy renovation in a Raleigh local newspaper where she lives and at the time she is engaged to Lon to be married.

Allie drives to New Bern to visit her former romantic interest after 14 years apart, Noah, and the few days they spend together write the end of them both really as they fall in love yet again and she eventually is ultimately at a crossroads to choose between spending her life with Lon, whom she claims treated her fine, but had less deep feelings for, than those she had for Noah.

During the conflict of interest scenes where Allie struggles choosing with whom to spend her life, Lon or Noah, I liked Noah's admonition to Allie that she "not live her life for others, but to do what was best for her, even if it meant hurting those she loved," as Allie dealt with pressure from her parents, both of whom favored her marriage to Lon, yet Noah was the one she cared for the most.

The story fast forwards 49 years later as Noah narrates describing himself in a healthcare facility for Alzheimer's patients as he tells his story from his notebook to a patient relating to her that he went on to marry, have four children, and achieve nearly a 50-year anniversary milestone with her, now at 49 years. The question looms in the reader's mind (and the patient) whether that long marriage was with Allie or if she chose to be with Lon?

It soon becomes revealed that Allie did end up choosing to marry Noah and break her engagement to Lon and the patient, in fact, is Allie herself. Allie has developed Alzheimer's and is soon to lose all recollection of their marriage, the years spent together, and the memories of the four children they raised.

Noah shares letters with Allie, those written to one another in past years, that serve to document, remind, and solidify the feelings they had for one another. To complicate the situation further, Noah suffers a stroke and it is evident that the enchanted relationship is now quickly approaching its twilight and together their health declines and they both succumb to a collective demise.

Earlier in the novel, Noah describes his newly renovated plantation home and quotes his father who would describe the "sounds of crickets and the rustling of leaves" as "God's music," which attests to the peaceful setting of the novel. Too, the beautiful epistemology sparsely used throughout the novel between Allie and Noah defined their love for one another, the kind of medicine desperately needed from which to benefit and spiritually heal where the poison of infighting might exist between some romantic couples.

The Notebook is a pleasant novel written in mild mannered prose with mild spoken characters, which read poetically (Noah the poet himself and Allie the artist) in a peaceful lakeside, New Bern, North Carolina, rural setting. The story is seemingly therapeutic given an often hectic, chaotic real world outside the fictional world and relationship Noah poetically wrote and Allie thoughtfully painted for themselves together. If you like romance, this is simply a great one!