This book by Nicholas Sparks left me so wanting... I guess if you want mindless boy-meets-girl-who-has-hang-ups-and-then-life-works-out-like-a-fucking-fairytale that reads like most of his other books then go ahead and pick it up. However, if you want a book that was written thoughtfully with some actual research (or maybe thought?!?) put into it then I don't recommend it. The book is supposed to be about the choice of a husband to take his wife off life support or not and yet it gets sort of thrown in at the end. The bulk of the book is about the one weekend when they met and how they fell in love and ended up together - which actually sucked because the female lead character was really a little harlot who cheated on her long-time boyfriend and ends up sleeping with the male lead character after only a couple of days? Come on, Sparks, what do you take us for? The second part of the book, which starts about 2/3 of the way in and is supposedly what it is about, is so jumbled and confusing that you don't even know what has happened or what the struggle is supposed to be; almost like it was thrown in as an afterthought so he could have a new title and a new book to market. And let's not forget the blatant evidence of not having done a bit of research for this book that can be summed up by the little "Aztec ruins in Cancun" reference. Hello! They are Mayan ruins, not Aztec! The ending is so unrealistic from both a medical and a personal perspective that I found it insulting. Definitely not something I would bother with unless you are a super duper Sparks fan. Personally, I like my fantasy to be labeled as such.
(OMG, could becoming a writer actually make one a hateful reader? I am a bit worried....)
With all that said, it was still a very lively discussion at book club last week where we talked about all the relevant stuff that the book SHOULD have brought up and actually made a statement about. Why does one bother writing a book with such a political and social topic and then not even bother to make a statement about what you think? Self, repeat after me... When I become a NY Times Bestselling Author I will NOT sell myself short just to write another book on someone's damn deadline."
2 comments:
I couldn't agree with you more!!The Choice should have been called "The Date" and then we wouldn't have had to pick it apart. And, I'm not a writer by any means... it was THIS BOOK that made ME a hateful reader.
I promise to be a very loving reader when you give me your book... I totally will. ;)
P.S. Welcome back to the world of the internet living.
Writing does make you much more critical of the books you read. The more you learn and understand how a book is "supposed" to be written, the more critical you become. It takes a lot of joy out of reading books you thought you liked; only to find out that the author has no clue about point-of-view, passive vs. active voice, etc...
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