But what in the world was it when the story ended? While the hero does something that is truly um, heroic, how much of what happens to John Tyree is his own fault? He breaks his word to Savannah, who is supposedly the greatest love of his life, leaving her free to move on with her life, which she does in Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. (By the way, doesn’t the book say Savannah is a brunette with dark features? Who’s THIS chick? What about John Tyree’s olive skin?)
Yes, I oversimplified the plot a bit, I know. The book has really vivid character sketches and locale and situation descriptions which really capture the beauty (and ugliness of the situations the characters face). Ms. B and I learned a lot about North Carolina. While I appreciate the attention of detail to John Tyree’s life in the military, sometimes it could be a bit tedious, and I say this as someone who usually does not. I know that men tend not to be talkative about their feelings, but John Tyree’s physical unavailability to Savannah is only matched by his emotional unavailability. One has to wonder, would their relationship have really succeeded in the real world?
The hallmark of a good story is that the reader cares about its characters. Ms. B. and I agreed that this was definitely the case with Dear John. However, since we both strongly agreed that when one meets the love of one’s life, one makes better choices to keep that love, we’re going to have to give it a Whitman Sampler (you know, with all those fruity gooey centers and that often ends up being regifted) – three out of five truffles.
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