travel

I started reading Nicholas Sparks' novels because I felt a personal connection with him. Like me, he has the same first name, is a middle child with an older brother and younger sister, was born on December 31st (though I was born on Dec 30th), and similarities in moving from place to place during childhood and personality. It was these similarities that drew me into reading his novels, but while his novels were entertaining, light reads with interesting characters, I never felt that he was a great writer. His novels present a world I'm not familiar with (gossipy friends and neighbors, women who want a house with a white picket fence, satisfaction with an average suburban/small town provincial lifestyle), but it seems to resonate with people if he continues to show up on the best seller lists.

This book is by far his best book because he offers fresh honesty about the flaws of his family and himself. When I started reading it, I expected more of a travelogue and was surprised to see how little he revealed about his trip in relation to his well detailed personal history. His description of places seemed little more than segues into reminisces about his personal biography, and that's what really kept me reading. I really enjoyed and appreciated his insights into his personal history and didn't realize how much tragedy seemed to befall him each time he had a bit of good news. I don't see how I could endure all that he has had to endure for the past 15 years or so, but it seems to have given him plenty of inspiration to create the novels he has written. His close relationship to his brother is touching and I wish that I had that kind of relationship with my own brother. But I thought he was a bit too hard on his brother's doubts about religion.

I would have liked to have read more details about his trip to some interesting places, but I guess his brief descriptions of places such as Easter Island, Cambodia, and Jaipul India sparked an interest in me to find out more about those places. Overall, I was impressed how he weaved his whole personal history from childhood through the present into this book and I found his personal history was actually more interesting than his travel narrative. After finishing his book, I agree with his wife and brother...he doesn't need to work so hard. Trying to write two novels a year is demanding enough, but to balance it the way he does with family responsibilities (he does have five young children to devote attention to after all) and time for self only adds unnecessary pressure. My personal advice to him would be...its okay to take time off from writing. I'll still buy your books when they are published. You are well enough established a writer to have two years between novels if you want to (after all, Michael Crichton is one of my favorite writers and its years between his novels). This book has given me a greater appreciation for Nicholas Sparks as a writer and a person. I only hope that he gave his wife an extraordinary gift for her willingness to sacrifice three weeks so he can travel the world with his brother. She is remarkable and maybe their courtship and relationship dynamic might make an interesting novel in the future if he dares to fictionalize it for public consumption. If not, this book certainly accomplishes that role. His wife should apply for sainthood, and he is lucky to have a woman like her to endure life's trials with.

If anyone advised Nicholas Sparks to abandon couching his memoir within a travelogue, he should have paid attention. Sparks's thoughts about the wondrous places he visits -- Machu Picchu, Easter Island, Agra, among others -- are silly and shallow. Plus he and his nominal co-author brother proudly portray themselves as buffoons and philistines. You want to slap them both on the back of the head and tell them to at least be quiet if they can't behave.

On the other hand, the bulk of the book, which details the series of tragedies that have overwhelmed the brothers' adult lives -- deaths of parents and a sibling, as well as the rearing of an autistic child -- is sad but compelling, and ultimately encouraging, because it is written from the heart.

I also think another book -- perhaps it will take the form of a novel -- needs to be written about the Sparks' mother. Nicholas professes unblemished love and respect and devotion to the woman, who died tragically at 47, just weeks after his marriage. However, she was a complicated character whose parenting of her three children was often questionable at best. Perhaps additional time is needed for him to examine her -- and his own feelings about her -- more honestly.

<br /> Just as moving as his bestselling books in fiction, Nicholas Sparks's, along with his brother,gives us this unique memoir. chronicling the journey of two brothers bound by memories, both humorous and tragic in detail. A profound read similar to that of A Paper Life and Nightmares Echo.