Rating: ****
Tags: Romance, Nicholas Sparks, Contemporary, General, Literary, Fiction, Lang:en
Summary
"Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was
possible. She'd believed in it once, too, back when she was
eighteen."
In the spring of 1984, high school students Amanda Collier
and Dawson Cole fell deeply, irrevocably in love. Though they
were from opposite sides of the tracks, their love for one
another seemed to defy the realities of life in the small town
of Oriental, North Carolina. But as the summer of their senior
year came to a close, unforeseen events would tear the young
couple apart, setting them on radically divergent paths.
Now, twenty-five years later, Amanda and Dawson are summoned
back to Oriental for the funeral of Tuck Hostetler, the mentor
who once gave shelter to their high school romance. Neither has
lived the life they imagined . . . and neither can forget the
passionate first love that forever changed their lives. As
Amanda and Dawson carry out the instructions Tuck left behind
for them, they realize that everything they thought they knew
-- about Tuck, about themselves, and about the dreams they held
dear -- was not as it seemed. Forced to confront painful
memories, the two former lovers will discover undeniable truths
about the choices they have made. And in the course of a
single, searing weekend, they will ask of the living, and the
dead:
Can love truly rewrite the past?
A Q&A with Author Nicholas Sparks
Q: What was your inspiration for writing
The Best of Me?
A: I suppose the inspiration was two-fold. It
had been a long time since I’d done a
“reunion” story (like
The Notebook) so it was time to do another. At the
same time, I wanted it to be different than The Notebook in
almost every way. At the same time, I wanted to write a novel
about characters in their forties. At that age, people are
coming to terms with the decisions and choices they’ve
made in the past.
The Best of Me was essentially a combination of those
two ideas.
Q: This book deals with falling in love for
the first time and how sometimes that love is so strong it can
cross the span of time and space no matter what happens. Is
that something you believe in?
A: Yes, I believe it’s possible. First
love is always powerful, and for some people, that love really
does last forever. The problem with that, however, is that over
time, the love often becomes romanticized. I wanted to write a
novel that explored that concept as well. Neither Dawson nor
Amanda are the same people they’d been when they were
younger, and little by little, that romanticism diminishes over
the course of the story. For them, however, the new reality
nonetheless left them feeling the same way about each other as
they once had. And yet, they fell in love once more. Or maybe,
phrasing it differently, they never fell out of love in the
first place.
Q: Former high school sweethearts Amanda
Collier and Dawson Cole reconnect after 25 years when their
mentor, Tuck Hostetler, dies and they are summoned back to
Oriental, North Carolina for his funeral. One of things that
drove Amanda and Dawson apart was that they were from the
opposite side of the tracks. Are class differences still a part
of everyday life in a town like Oriental, North Carolina?
A: Class differences aren’t as powerful
as they once were, but they’re still prevalent. I
don’t know, however, if it’s limited to places like
Oriental, and nor do I see it as entirely and without question
a terrible thing. People who intend to spend their lives
together should have things in common, and like it or not,
class is, and always has been, part of that, because it shapes
the people that we are. With Amanda and Dawson--and many others in the real world,
of course--the class differences were less important than their
similarities. Neither one of them got along with their parents,
both were intelligent, both had dreams, and over the years,
both of them had disappointments.
Q: Today, we can easily reconnect with people
from our past via Facebook and other social networking sites.
How often do you think people try to find their first love on
these sites?
A: It’s very common. I know people
who’ve reconnected with someone from their past then
later married them, but that’s probably less common than
simply reaching out via social media to an old boyfriend or
girlfriend simply to find out what’s been going on in
their lives. I can understand the draw: First love is powerful
because it’s a first, and it’s almost impossible to
forget.
Q: At the point when Amanda and Dawson
reconnect, Amanda has been married almost twenty years and
it’s clear she is having problems in her marriage. Having
been married for 22 years yourself, what would you say is the
key to a successful marriage?
A: For every couple, it’s different,
because every couple faces different challenges, and every
person has differing abilities when it comes to meeting those
challenges. The key to any successful marriage is to realize
that the commitment you once made to each other is the most
important aspect to keep in mind. That simple truth, if truly
felt, should be enough to make you realize that you can’t
put that commitment at risk. If your partner feels the same
way, he or she wouldn’t put that commitment at risk
either. At the same time, it’s important to understand that
all marriages have challenging periods. No one is perfect,
after all. But if the commitment to each other--which sometimes
requires a commitment to change--is truly felt, then most
likely, that marriage will be successful.
Q: This book has a large, spiritual component
to it. Tuck sees Clara, his dead wife, and Dawson sees a man in
a blue windbreaker, although he is not sure who he is and the
reader does not find out until the end. Do you believe in
ghosts?
A: I think I do. I had an experience much like
the one Dawson described: at times, I could see unexplainable
movement from the corners of my eyes. Quick, instantaneous
movements that vanished before I could turn my head. If you
talk to the owners of the house where those events occurred,
they will swear it was a ghost. Other events occurred in that
house as well before the “ghost”--or whatever it
was--was finally exorcised from the premises. But that’s
a longer story for another time.
Q: There is an absolutely stunning scene that
unfolds when Amanda and Dawson go to Tuck’s country
cottage for the first time. It’s very reminiscent of a
scene that happens in
The Notebook. Would you say this book, which examines
young love versus middle age love, is the book closest in
sentiment to
The Notebook?
A: Without question, this is closest in
sentiment--at least through the majority of the story –
when compared to The Notebook. I wanted to do exactly that. At
the same time, I wanted to make everything else about the story
completely different as well, and I’m hopeful I did that
as well.
Q: Tuck writes letters to Amanda and Dawson to
be read after he is dead. They are wise and beautifully
written. In this day and age of constant, electronic overload,
do you lament the lost art of letter writing?
A: I do. I love letters as opposed to e-mail.
But I’m old-fashioned that way.
Q: Warner Bros. has already bought the film
rights to
The Best of Me. You will be a producer on this film
along with Denise DiNovi. How often is an author also a
producer for the movie version of a book he/she has written? Is
this unprecedented?
A: I’m sure other authors have served as
a producer of their work; some have even directed. But it was
somewhat unprecedented for Warner to agree to that – and
purchase the novel--before I’d written a single page.
Q: Of all the movies based on your novels,
which is your favorite?
A: I’ve been fortunate in that all the
movies have been well-done and all have been successful, so I
don’t have a personal favorite. I can say, however, is
that, at the current time, The Notebook seems most likely to
become a classic.
Photo by Nina Subin
Pulls at the heartstrings Sunday Times It goes without
saying that the 16th novel from this master of love stories
will capture hearts once again... This story will tug at the
heartstrings of Nicholas Sparks fans like never before OK! When
you pick up a book by the author of teary heartbreakers such as
The Notebook and The Last Song, you know you're in for an
A-grade romantic read Cosmopolitan
Amazon.com Review
Review