Sam Reviews "Dear John" by Nikolas Sparks

I have to admit I'm a sucker for a romance story that doesn't end the way a typical romance story is expected to.  I do feel that this story fell a little flat compared to The Notebook (admittedly the only other Nicholas Sparks book I've read so far), but it was still a good story.  Sparks' books are made for TV, which explains why so many of his books are movies.  The stories are simple but genuine, and make for nice, short, and sweet reads.

"What does it mean to truly love another? There was a time in my life when I thought I knew the answer: It meant that I’d care for Savannah more deeply than I cared for myself and that we’d spend the rest of our lives together. It wouldn’t have taken much. She once told me that the key to happiness was achievable dreams, and hers were nothing out of the ordinary."

"Life in the army didn’t pay much, but considering there was no rent, no food expenses, and really nothing to spend my paychecks on even when I got them, I had money in the bank for the first time. Not a lot, but enough."

" My dad ended every letter with the promise that he would write again soon, and once again, the man didn’t let me down. He was, I’ve long since come to believe, a far better man than I’ll ever be."

"Everyone in the army is forced to grow up, especially if you’re in the infantry like me. ...  you’re forced to learn the most important lesson in life, and that’s the fact that you have to live up to your responsibilities, and you’d better do it right. When given an order, you can’t say no. It’s no exaggeration to say that lives are on the line. One wrong decision, and your buddy might die. It’s this fact that makes the army work. That’s the big mistake a lot of people make when they wonder how soldiers can put their lives on the line day after day or how they can fight for something they may not believe in. Not everyone does. I’ve worked with soldiers on all sides of the political spectrum; I’ve met some who hated the army and others who wanted to make it a career. I’ve met geniuses and idiots, but when all is said and done, we do what we do for one another. For friendship. Not for country, not for patriotism, not because we’re programmed killing machines, but because of the guy next to you. You fight for your friend, to keep him alive, and he fights for you, and everything about the army is built on this simple premise."

"I read mainly mysteries and thrillers and books by Stephen King, and I took a particular liking to Carl Hiaasen because his words flowed easily and he always made me laugh. I couldn’t help but think that if schools had assigned these books in English class, we’d have a lot more readers in the world."

"I debated whether or not I should stroll over and introduce myself, then decided against it. They weren’t my type, or more accurately, I probably wasn’t theirs."

“'I’ve always loved people who have this . . . passion for life.'
“'It’s a passion for coins, not life,' I corrected her.
“'It’s the same thing. Passion is passion. It’s the excitement between the tedious spaces, and it doesn’t matter where it’s directed.'”

"Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there’s nothing to make it last."

"A person with autism lives in his own world, while a person with Asperger’s lives in our world, in a way of his own choosing."

"I realized, it [the Asberger's diagnosis] might explain two questions that had always plagued me regarding my mother: What had she seen in him? And why had she left? ...  I could envision a quiet man who struck up a conversation about his rare coin collection with a poor young waitress at a diner, a woman who spent her evenings lying in bed and dreaming of a better life. Maybe she flirted, or maybe she didn’t, but he was attracted to her and continued to show up at the diner. Over time, she might have sensed the kindness and patience in him that he would later use in raising me. It was possible that she interpreted his quiet nature accurately as well and knew he would be slow to anger and never violent. Even without love, it might have been enough, so she agreed to marry him, thinking they would sell the coins and live, if not happily ever after, at least comfortably ever after. She got pregnant, and later, when she learned that he couldn’t even fathom the idea of selling the coins, she realized that she’d be stuck with a husband who showed little interest in anything she did. Maybe her loneliness got the better of her, or maybe she was just selfish, but either way she wanted out, and after the baby was born, she took the first opportunity to leave."

"It’s strange how knowledge changes perception."

"Yeah, it’ll be hard, but life moves fast-we’ll see each other again. I know that. I can feel that. Just like I can feel how much you care for me and how much I love you. I know in my heart that this isn’t over, and that we’ll make it through this. Lots of couples do. Granted, lots of couples don’t, but they don’t have what we have.” I wanted to believe her. I wanted it more than anything, but I wondered if it was really that simple."

"As tender and exciting as it [making love for the first time] had been, I couldn’t help wondering whether there had been a trace of desperation in our actions, as if we were both clinging to the hope that this would sustain our relationship through whatever the future would bring."

"As we were drifting apart, I was becoming more desperate to save what we once had shared; like a vicious circle, however, my desperation made us drift apart even further."

"When I close my eyes, I see your face; when I walk, it’s almost as if I can feel your hand in mine. Those things are still real to me, but where they once brought comfort, now they leave me with an ache."

"...the sensation of her body against mine was like a glass of cool water on a hot summer day."

"I knew there were words to comfort Savannah, but as usual, I didn’t know what to say."

"I know she loves me, but she’s never loved me the way she loved you. She never had that burning passion for me, but we were making a good life together."

"...the relationship between Savannah and me would never be what it once was. We’d met at a carefree time, a moment full of promise; in its place now were the harsh lessons of the real world."