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A Walk to Remember is a novel by American writer Nicholas Sparks, released in October 1999. The novel, set in the mid-1950s in Beaufort, North Carolina, is a story of two teenagers who fall in love with each other despite the disparity of their personalities. A Walk to Remember is adapted in the film of the same name.
Writing
Sparks wrote the manuscripts for A Walk to Remember, his third novel, in the summer of 1998. He wrote it in North Carolina, which is the setting of the novel.[1] Like his first published novel The Notebook, the prologue to A Walk to Remember was written last.[2] The title A Walk to Remember was taken from one of the tail end pages of the novel: "In every way, a walk to remember."[3][4] The novel is written in first-person, and its narrator is a seventeen year-old boy, living in the 1950s.[1]
The novel was inspired by Sparks' sister,[1][5] Danielle Sparks Lewis, who later died of cancer in June 2000. Although the story is largely fictional, certain parts were based on real experiences.[4] For example, his sister's husband proposed marriage to her despite her sickness. After her death, Sparks said in the eulogy: "... I suppose I wrote this novel not only so that you could get to know my sister, but so that you would know what a wonderful thing it was that her husband once did for her."[5]
Characters
- Jamie Sullivan is the daughter of the Beaufort church minister Hegbert Sullivan. Jamie, whose name was taken from Sparks' editor, Jamie Raab,[6] has leukemia; however, the novel presents her fate ambiguously, causing Sparks to receive frequently asked questions from readers as to whether she lived or died. Throughout the novel are hints that Jamie would ultimately die, depicting her deteriorating health. However, Sparks had a hard time in how he would present it because his previous works, in which the protagonist ends up dead, received "furious" reactions from readers. Sparks thought that since his sister was alive when he nearly completed writing the novel, he thought Jamie should be alive. Sparks comments, "As to whether she actually lived or died, it's ambiguous and purposely meant to be that way. If you wanted Jamie to live, she lived. If you knew that Jamie would die, she died."[4] She, at the end, marries Landon
- Landon Carter is a son of a rich family, although Sparks described him as a "typical teenage boy".[4] Landon is the name of Sparks' third son.[6] Hegbert did not like Landon for how the latter's grandfather's wealth was accumulated and has deemed him, in the words of Sparks, a "sort of aimless" lad. Eventually, Hegbert let Landon go out with Jamie when Hegbert saw positive changes in Landon's attitude.[7]
- Hegbert Sullivan is Jamie's father. He is the Beaufort church minister. His wife died shortly after giving birth to Jamie.
Reception
The novel was published in the fall of October 1999 in hardcover print, and later in paperback edition. It spent nearly six months in the best-seller list on hardcover, and an additional four months on paperback.[1]
The novel received mixed reviews from critics. The Sunday New York Post holds that it "never fails to be interesting, touching, at times riveting ... a book you won't soon forget".[8] African Sun Times echoes the former's comments, saying, "A remarkable love story that, like its predecessors, will touch the hearts of readers everywhere."[8] New York Daily News compliments Sparks, commenting that he "has written a sweet tale of young but everlasting love, and though he's told us to expect both joy and sadness, the tears will still come".[8] Clarissa Cruz of Entertainment Weekly, however, panned the novel, saying, "With its cliche-riddled prose and plot twists that can be predicted after skimming the prologue, Nicholas Sparks' latest, A Walk To Remember, reads more like the script for a bad after-school special than anything approaching literature."[9] Although the novel is number 12 on their list of 1999 Bestsellers Fiction,[10] Publishers Weekly described it as "a forced coming of age story" and "the author's most simple, formulaic, and blatantly melodramatic package to date".[11]
Adaptation
A Walk to Remember was adapted in the film of the same name, becoming Sparks' second novel adapted to the big screen after Message in a Bottle in 1999. Sparks sold the film rights to Warner Bros. in December 1998, months before the publication of the novel.[1] The movie was directed by Adam Shankman and produced by Denise DiNovi and Hunt Lowry for Warner Bros.; the film premiered on January 25, 2002.[12]
The film, starring American singer and actress Mandy Moore (Jamie) and Shane West (Landon), is set in the late 1990s. Sparks and the producer thought that because the film was suitable for teenagers "because of the message it provided", they had to make the adaptation more contemporary.[12]
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