Dear John
by Nicholas Sparks
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Book Summary Information
Author: Nicholas SparksEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-12-01
ISBN: 0446567337
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Book Reviews of Dear John
Book Review: *yawn*
Summary: 1 Stars
Dear John,
You sucked.
I'm sorry to pain you, but that is the unhappy truth. Granted, I first began reading the book already prejudiced against it, but I was secretly hoping it would turn out to be spectacularly brilliant, or at least be one of those guilty pleasure-type books. I was miserably disappointed.
The story gets rolling with John, a troubled young man who joined the army because he was bored with his life and couldn't think of anything else to do. On a two week leave, he goes home to visit his father, and during his stay he meets a young woman named Savannah. They have their little intrigue, and by the time the two weeks are up, they're madly in love. John leaves her with the promise that he'll come back to her in a year. But the events of 9/11 end up changing his plans drastically. I'm sorely tempted to go ahead and spoil the rest of the plot for you, but I'm in a charitable mood tonight.
After hearing from everyone what an amazingly powerful love story Dear John was, I was hoping for a really deep, substantive romance. What I got, however, was a namby-pamby romance in which the deepest feelings fail to rival those involved in a middle school crush. Maybe nowadays, that's what passes for a romance, but after reading Jane Eyre, it just didn't make the cut for me. Comparing Nicholas Sparks' mediocre work with Charlotte Bronte's masterpiece probably isn't entirely fair, though. John's 'love' for Savannah doesn't seem to extend beyond how cute and nice she is, and how good she looks in a bikini. Which is pretty much all there is to her anyway. And if Savannah had really loved John, she would not have done what she does towards the end of the book. At the end of the novel, John sells his dead father's coin collection and uses the money to do something really big and magnanimous for Savannah. This is portrayed as some kind of 'sacrifice' on John's part, which is hogwash, because John didn't care two straws about his dad's coins, and was probably glad to get rid of them.
Savannah. Okay, so she's really really pretty, and really really nice, believes in God and does charity work and all that. Which is great. But there's just something wanting. She lacks depth. She's just not an interesting character. If she had had a little dry wit, or if her faith was emphasized more than it was, that would be at least a step in the right direction. Throughout the book, Savannah reminded me of frosting--so sweet it makes you sick. She doesn't have any other flavors to her, no spice, no sourness, no salt, nothing savory. Just sweet. Blech.
John himself could have been a complex character. Emphasis on the could have been. A troubled youth who has a rocky relationship with his father, and suffers from problems with drinking and committing to women--now THAT should have made for an interesting character. But he wasn't. John was a very boring narrator. If he had had a sense of humor, the whole book would have been improved significantly. As it is, John plods along through the story as if the events he is describing are the most boring and unexciting things he's ever done. I tried reading it out loud at one point--I could scarcely keep myself from reading in a monotone.
Dear John has its good points. It's nice that one of the main characters has a strong belief in God, for one thing, although that fact isn't emphasized as much as I would have liked it to be. It's a pretty clean story, too, except for one particular scene, where John and Savannah decide to have sex for the first time. It's painted by the author to be this beautiful and touching moment between the two of them, despite the fact that they're not married. But then, these days we do everything backwards anyway--move in together, have kids, and THEN: "Oh, gee, honey, maybe we should get married!" Novel thought indeed.
That being said, overall, Dear John was a pretty boring read. I most definitely would NOT read it again, which is saying a lot coming from me, because when I really like a book, I always make sure to pay it the compliment of reading it again. And again, and again and again... Don't get me wrong here, I'm all for a light, easy to digest book that doesn't really have a lot of substance to it, but this one is just not my kind of junk food, I guess. So, if you think you'll like it, go for it. But if you end up utterly despising it, just remember...I told you so. ;)
-Carissa Wintheiser
08/18/10
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