A Walk to Remember Book Review

Jessica Kern

10/18/13

Period 1

Nicholas Spark’s “A Walk to Remember:” One You Won’t Forget

Reviewed by Jessica Kern

In A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks, 17-year old Landon Carter seemingly has it all: looks, popularity, and money; but with an unexpected turn of events, Landon takes Jamie Sullivan to prom. Jamie was raised by her single minister father because her mother died when she young. She is often alone, carrying a bible with her and has always been a social outcast.  Despite their differences, Landon and Jamie form a friendship and eventually a relationship and each learn something about life from the other. However Jamie has a secret and Landon must learn to accept her fate.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Even though I had known the ending before I starting reading, I couldn’t put this book down. It is a book that makes you feel all emotions from happy to sad. Since this book’s major theme is love, it is easy to interpret it as only that. However while on the surface love is a major theme, growing up and faith are also major themes. For example, Spark writes, “I don’t think that we're meant to understand it all the time. I think that sometimes we just have to have faith.” (Sparks 199)

Stylistically, A Walk to Remember is very sophisticatedly written book. It was a book I couldn’t stop reading not only because I was interested in the plot, but also because it has beautiful descriptive scenes. At the beginning of the book describing how Landon remembers his past, Sparks writes, “I close my eyes and the years begin to move in reverse, slowly ticking backward, like the hands of a clock rotating in the wrong direction. As if through someone else’s eyes, I watch myself grow younger; I see my hair changing from gray to brown, I feel the wrinkles around my eyes begin to smooth, my arms and legs grow sinewy. Lessons I’ve learned with age grow dimmer and my innocence returns as that eventful year approaches. Then, like me the world begins to change: roads narrow and some become gravel, suburban sprawl has been replaced with farmland…” (Sparks Prologue xiii) Nicholas Sparks is easily able to convey a picture in the readers mind in his writing as well as make them feel emotion.

Nonetheless, A Walk to Remember is not a perfectly written book. One common complaint is Nicholas Sparks uses the same “formula” for each of his books; a love story with a tragic ending which can be predictable. A Walk to Remember is a well known book and was made into a movie; so it is hard not to know the book’s ending even if you haven’t read the book or seen the movie. Despite knowing how the books ends and being familiar with how Nicholas Sparks writes, I still enjoyed reading the book and was not bored. Even if you know the ending of a book, it is not ruined for you because you are still able to read the book in between the lines for symbolism and the character’s thoughts behind their actions.

One thing that surprised me about this book is that even though it is set in the 1950’s the characters were very relatable. Jamie and Landon are faced with the everyday challenges of life of teenagers like trying to get into college, dealing with peer pressure from friends, and learning how to grow up. Landon also must learn to accept things you have no control over and learn to have faith, two things he learns from Jamie. This book reminds us to live everyday to the fullest and have faith that everything that happens happens for a reason.  

Sparks, Nicholas. A Walk to Remember. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1999. Print.