I confess: I have written haikus about Nicholas Sparks and all terrible-ness that he represents. I love to hate the idea of Nicholas Sparks. I must admit I forced myself to watch both Dear John and The Notebook-- knowing that I'd probably be mad afterward, but I was sick of being out of the cultural loop. So, I pulled the trigger. Why did I dislike him without being familiar with his work? He represents much of what I find terrible about women: hopeless romanticism, the inability to move on (is there a word for this?), and strong men rescuing feeble women. I actually wondered if Nicholas Sparks was a woman secretly writing with an alias so that women would swoon at the idea of a man being so sensitive to write such sap... but instead, I'm pretty sure it really is just a sappy (or secretly macho?) man who has alienated some strong women (my little sister also has a strong distaste for his work). With this disclaimer out there about my prejudices, here's what I actually thought about his reading (since I decided it was time to quite talking smack without having actually read his work).
Safe Haven is predominantly set in North Carolina, like Dear John and The Notebook also seemed to be (Sparks lives in NC). The protagonist is a late twenty-something named Katie. Katie is starting a life in North Carolina because her husband, who she's run away from, beat the hell out of her on multiple occasions. She waitresses to support herself and pay for a small cottage off a back road. Katie meets the local grocer, who is a widower with two children and they slowly build a relationship. In the meantime a woman moves into the cottage next to Katie's and the two women become friends and the friend, Jo, counsels/gossips with Katie regarding the relationship.
The relationship progresses slowly since the two are both trying to get over their spouses-- one who was an abuser and the other, a victim of cancer. As Katie and the grocer, Alex, become increasingly acquainted, the readers find out more about how Katie escaped from her estranged husband and we find out he's most likely looking for her. We also find out that the estranged husband is a police detective, which lends to the credibility of the story as to why Katie is so terrified that her husband will come to find her.
The reader is also able to get more about the estranged husband, Kevin, through sections told from his perspective. It works for a few reasons: It helps build the suspense as he finally picks up her trail and comes after her and it shows that Sparks can effectively switch the storytelling perspective and he can execute this switch well.
While I flew through the story because it had some edgy-ness to it (dealing with issues of abuse), I liked the resolution of the main conflict (no, I won't spoil it for you), but I can't say I liked the final twist (which I am going to spoil). The final twist? Her friend, Jo, is the ghost of Alex's deceased wife.... That's right. A GHOST. Booo.... (and not in the ghost-sort-of-way). I couldn't help but felt like I'd been slapped for reading the whole book and then getting something so cheesy. I guess I got what I was looking for-- cheese. It was just such a shame because it was such easy reading and mostly believable story (although then when I looked back Kevin's word choice seemed over the top) and I was just getting to the point where I could defend Sparks... and then, I couldn't.
No comments:
Post a Comment