A Bend in the Road - Nicholas Sparks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Bend in the Road   In life, there are seldom clear-cut beginnings, those moments when we can, in looking back, say that everything started.   It’s impossible to recreate every feeling or every thought in another person’s life.   In the beginning, like most young teachers, she’d been an idealist, someone who assumed that every child would respond to her if she tried hard enough. Sadly, since then, she had learned that wasn’t possible. Some children, for whatever reason, closed themselves off to anything she did, no matter how hard she worked. It was the worst part of the job, the only part that sometimes kept her awake at night, but it never stopped her from trying again.   He knew her – her feelings, her fears, the things she liked and didn’t.   It made him feel new as well, as if anything were possible.   He wanted to start over. He wanted to find someone again; he didn’t want to live the rest of his life alone.   He’d never felt as if he’d been missing out on something when he’d been married. He didn’t look at his single friends and wish that he could lead their life – dating, playing the field, falling in and out of love as the seasons changed. That just wasn’t him. He loved being a husband, he loved being a father, he loved the stability that had come with all that, and he wanted to have that again.   But real hate, the kind that made the stomach roil, wasn’t possible without an emotional bond.   When she smiled, Miles felt the same strange fluttering he’d experienced when he’d first met her. It struck him that he hadn’t fully appreciated how pretty she was the last time.   Cities have a vibrancy, a sense of excitement that you can’t find in a small town.   I don’t need those things to make me happy. A nice quiet place to unwind at the end of the day, beautiful views, a few good friends. What else is there?   She could live with never having met Miles. But to fall in love with him and then lose him? ~ A Bend in the Road

 

 

 

 

 

Nicholas Sparks said in one of his first interviews, after his debut novel THE NOTEBOOK far exceeded the minimal sales it was originally expected to make, that he wrote "easy-to-read" romances destined for as large a reading contingent as possible. Surely A BEND IN THE ROAD, his latest, will not disappoint his legions of fans. But if Sparks was hoping to gain some ground in the world of literary fiction, he needs to try harder.

Miles's wife is dead --- his blessed, perfect, All-American PTA mom of a wife --- hit-and-run down while jogging at dusk one fateful night. The circumstances surrounding her death are still suspect, and Miles is trying to figure this out while also attempting to maintain as normal an existence as possible for his young son, the lovable Jonah. Jonah, however, has not taken his mother's demise lightly and is doing very poorly in school. Enter Sarah Andrews, the lovely single teacher, who offers to help Jonah academically and, eventually, help Miles sexually and emotionally. Miles and Sarah are deeply in love (isn't everybody in a Nicholas Sparks book?) yet their future together may be torn asunder by an evil secret. Will love conquer all? You won't find out until the last line of the book...

Or, if you're me, you will have figured out this plot as soon as these two lovebirds meet. Clearly, there is supposed to be a murder mystery underlying this tale of love after (someone else's) death, but it was so obvious, so much something I have seen on "Days of Our Lives" a million times, that what little interesting story there was here was ruined for me by Sparks's hackneyed plotting. The clues are so obvious that this could have been a Where's Waldo? picture with more text than usual. Although I am not a fan of the genre, I am fascinated by people who can write such lowest-common-denominator stories and end up rich and famous for them, hobnobbing with Kevin Costner and filling their book thank-you page with numerous references to agents of Hollywood and Madison Avenue. I'm not jealous, exactly --- I could never do what Sparks has done here. A twice-told tale of love the second time around is no stranger to the bestseller list, nor are characters as homogenous as Missy, the dead mom, or Jonah, the good-but-troubled kid. This kind of All-American romance now lives on bookshelves the way it used to live only on "Father Knows Best."

Sparks has a talent for doing what he does --- but it is too bad that he doesn't try broadening his rather perfunctory storytelling tone, digging deeper instead of just on the surface. He has also stated that he wanted to reinvent the genre of the romance, but he has done little but embrace its traditional formats and make Hollywood agents' bank accounts a lot more rich.

   --- Reviewed by Jana Siciliano

 

 

 

 

 

And when I came in with tears in my eyes, you always knew whether I needed you to hold me or just let me be. I don't know how you knew, but you did, and you made it easier for me.

~ The Notebook

 

You can't live your life for other people. You've got to do what's right for you, even if it hurts some people you love.

~ The Notebook

 

You are the answer to every prayer I’ve offered. You are a song, a dream, a whisper … and I don’t know how I could have lived without you for as long as I have.

~ The Notebook

 

And I learned what is obvious to a child. That life is simply a collection of little lives, each lived one day at a time. That each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers and poetry and talking to animals. That a day spent with dreaming and sunsets and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered. But most of all, I learned that life is about sitting on benches next to ancient creeks with my hand on her knee and sometimes, on good days, for falling in love.

~ The Notebook

 

I know there could never have been another. I knew it then and I know it now.

~ The Notebook

 

In times of grief and sorrow I will hold you and rock you, and take your grief and make it my own. When you cry, I cry, and when you hurt, I hurt. And together we will try to hold back the floods of tears and despair and make it through the potholed streets of life.

~ The Notebook

 

I realize the odds and sciences are against me. But science is not the total answer; this I have learned in my lifetime. And that leaves me with the belief that miracles, no matter how inexplicable or unbelievable, are real and can occur without regard to the natural order of things.

~ The Notebook

 

It is the possibility that keeps me going … and though you may call me a dreamer or a fool or any other thing, I believe that anything is possible.

~ The Notebook

 

I am nothing special of this I am sure. I am just a common man with common thoughts. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, that has always been enough.

~ The Notebook

 

You and I were different. We came from different worlds, and yet you were the one who taught me the value of love.

~ The Notebook

 

The hurt began to fade and it was easier to just let go. At least I thought it was. But in every boy I met in the next few years, I found myself looking for you, and when the feelings got too strong I'd write you another letter. But I never sent them, in fear of what I might find. By then, you'd gone on with your life and I didn't want to think about you loving someone else. I wanted to remember us like we were that summer. I didn’t want to ever forget that.

~ The Notebook

 

What are we, after all, without our memories … without our dreams?

~ The Wedding

 

You were honest and hardworking and kind. You were polite and patient and more mature than any guy I’d dated before. And when we were together, you listened in a way that made me feel like I was the only woman in the world. You made me feel complete and spending time with you just seemed right.

~ The Wedding

 

But it wasn’t just about my feelings. The more I got to know you, the more I was certain that you’d do whatever it took to provide for your family. That was important to me. You have to understand that back then, a lot of people our age wanted to change the world. Even though it’s a noble idea, I knew I wanted something more traditional. I wanted a family like my parents had and I wanted to concentrate on my little corner of the world. I wanted someone who wanted to marry a wife and a mother, and someone who would respect my choice.

~ The Wedding

 

My first thoughts after waking are – and always have been – of you.

~ The Wedding

 

Sometimes when you’re dreaming, I’ll move closer to you in the hope that somehow this will allow me to enter your dreams.

~ The Wedding

 

What I’m trying to say is that you are there, in everything I am … in everything I’ve ever done … and looking back, I know that I should have told you how much you’ve always meant to me.

~ The Wedding

 

I've been thinking about you constantly since I left, wondering why the journey I'm on seemed to have led through you. I know my journey's not over yet, and that life is a winding path, but I can only hope it somehow circles back to the place I belong. That's how I think of it now. I belong with you.

~ Nights in Rodanthe

 

Before we met, I was as lost as a person could be and yet you saw something in me that somehow gave me direction again.

~ Nights in Rodanthe

 

Saying good-bye to you today is the hardest thing I’ll ever have to do, and when I get back, I can honestly swear that I’ll never do it again. I love you now for what we’ve already shared and I love now in anticipation for all that’s to come. You are the best thing that ever happened to me. I miss you already, but I’m sure in my heart that you’ll be with me always. In the past few days I spent with you, you became my dream.

~ Nights in Rodanthe

 

When I sleep, I dream of you and when I wake, I long to hold you in my arms. If anything, our time apart has only made me more certain that I want to spend my nights by your side, and my days with your heart.

~ Nights in Rodanthe

 

Before he met you, he was trying to find something. After you came along, he’d already found it.

~ Nights in Rodanthe

 

Men are like that sometimes – if they meet someone and fall in love, it’s real, no matter how fast it happened. But if someone falls for a woman they happen to care about, all they do is question the man’s intentions.

~ Nights in Rodanthe

 

I don’t need those things to make me happy. A nice quiet place to unwind at the end of the day, beautiful views, a few good friends. What else is there?

~ A Bend in the Road

 

Everyone – you included – is on her best behavior in the beginning of a relationship. Sometimes little quirks turn out to be big ones, and the big advantage that women have – sometimes the only advantage – is their intuition.

~ The Guardian

 

I’m just telling you not to simply shrug it off if it bothered you so much, but don’t let it ruin a good thing, either. That’s what dating is for, you know – to find out about a person. To find out if the two of you click.

~ The Guardian

 

That he’ll never let you down. That boy’s got a heart the size of Kentucky, and he loves you. That’s important. Take it from someone who knows. My mom used to tell me that whatever you do, marry someone who loves you more than you love him.

~ The Guardian

 

It was funny that you could know someone for years but still discover something you never noticed before.

~ The Guardian

 

In the instant their lips first met, there was a flicker of something almost electrical that made him believe the feeling would last forever.

~ The Guardian

 

You’re going to come across people in your life who will say all the right words at all the right times. But in the end, it’s always their actions you should judge them by. It’s actions, not words, that matter.

~ The Rescue

 

People come, people go – they’ll drift in and out of your life, almost like characters in a favorite book. When you finally close the cover, the characters have told their story and you start up again with another book, complete with new characters and adventures. Then you find yourself focusing on the new ones, not the ones from the past.

~ The Rescue

 

There was something inside her that longed to be desired, to be cared for and protected, to be listened to and accepted without judgment. To be loved.

~ The Rescue

 

When he finally said it, all the terrible parts suddenly went away – all the frustration and anger and fear that both of us were experiencing. I remember how excited I was – you can’t even begin to imagine it. I started crying.

~ The Rescue

 

She loved the way he smelled; she loved the rough texture of his hands upon her and the wrinkles around his eyes whenever he laughed. She loved the way he stared at her as she got off work, leaning against the truck in the parking lot, one leg crossed over the other. She loved everything about it.

~ The Rescue

 

The initial feelings associated with love were almost like an ocean wave in their intensity, acting as the magnetic force that drew two people together. IT was possible to be washed away in the emotion, but the wave wouldn’t last forever. It couldn’t – nor was it meant to be – but if two people were right for each other, a truer kind of love could last forever in its wake. In the end, it’s worked out because we both want it to. As long as you two have that, you’ll be able to make it through anything.

~ The Rescue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicholas Sparks

Born in December 31, 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska, The United States

 

As a child, he lived in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska, finally settling in Fair Oaks, California at the age of eight. His father was a professor, his mother a homemaker, then optometrist's assistant. He lived in Fair Oaks through high school, graduated valedictorian in 1984, and received a full track scholarship to the University of Notre Dame.

After breaking the Notre Dame school record as part of a relay team in 1985 as a freshman (a record which still stands), he was injured and spent the summer recovering. During that summer, he wrote his first novel, though it was never published. He majored in Business Finance and graduated with high honors in 1988.

He and his wife Catherine, who met on spring break in 1988, were married in July, 1989. While living in Sacramento, he wrote his second novel that same year, though again, it wasn't published. He worked a variety of jobs over the next three years, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone, and started his own small manufacturing business which struggled from the beginning. In 1990, he collaborated on a book with Billy Mills, the Olympic Gold Medalist and it was published by Feather Publishing before later being picked up by Random House. (It was recently re-issued by Hay House Books.) Though it received scant publicity, sales topped 50,000 copies in the first year of release.

He began selling pharmaceuticals and moved from Sacramento, California to North Carolina in 1992. In 1994, at the age of 28, he wrote The Notebook over a period of six months. In October, 1995, rights to The Notebook were sold to Warner Books. It was published in October, 1996, and he followed that with Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), and Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), Three Weeks with my Brother (2004), True Believer (2005) and At First Sight (2005) all with Warner Books. All were domestic and international best sellers and were translated into more than 35 languages. The movie version of Message in a Bottle was released in 1999, A Walk to Remember was released in 2002, and The Notebook was released in 2004. The average domestic box office gross per film was $56 million -- with another $100 million in DVD sales -- making the novels by Nicholas Sparks one of the most successful franchises in Hollywood.

The film rights to Nights in Rodanthe, True Believer and At First Sight have been sold, and Nicholas Sparks has written the screenplay for The Guardian, though he has not offered it for sale at this point.

He now has five children: Miles, Ryan, Landon, Lexie, and Savannah. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and children.

His ancestry is German, Czech, English, and Irish, he's 5'10" and weighs 180 lbs. He is an avid athlete who runs daily, lifts weights regularly, and competes in Tae Kwon Do. He attends church regularly and reads approximately 125 books a year. He contributes to a variety of local and national charities, and is a major contributor to the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre Dame, where he provides scholarships, internships, and a fellowship annually.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.nicholassparks.com/

http://www.not-so-simple.com/sam/ns4.htm

http://becky2ann.tripod.com/id47.html

http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/0446527785.asp

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2345.Nicholas_Sparks

http://darlynandbooks.blogspot.com/2010/04/bend-in-road-by-nicholas-sparks.html