The Notebook- The Book vs. The Movie, You Decide

The Notebook is a short novel, so you could read it in one day if you had time. I read it in two because I was busy, but I like these types of novels. With larger novels if you put them down for awhile you sometimes have to try and recall what happened earlier in the book. However, as other reviewers have pointed out the Notebook is a very simple and light story, which means there is no complex plot to keep track of. Basically the main part of the story focuses on two characters and Sparks does a good job of describing the sights and sounds of every scene.

I first became interested in this story because I had watched the movie and enjoyed it. Yes, it is not an intellectually deep film as many have noted, but people should not be expecting this when they watch a love story. If I wanted to watch something intellectually profound and deep I would watch a documentary.

Once I read the book I could see why it was changed for the movie script. I still love the movie, but I think certain scenes and aspects were added to play up the tension between Allie and Noah.

For example, in the book Allie and Noah first meet when she is 15 and he is 17. In the movie Allie is 17 and Noah seems to be a little bit older, but they do not say how old exactly. Another difference is how Allie and Noah are separated for fourteen years before they reunite, but in the movie is is only seven. I think the script writers wanted movie goers to see Allie and Noah as two lovers that were parted by social class and the war.

However, in the book World War II does not start until almost a full ten years after Allie and Noah first meet, whereas in the movie only one year has passed and Noah has just written his final goodbye letter. Thus, the movie wants you to feel that Allie and Noah were on the same wave length and that her impetus for voluntering during the war was because she had a feeling one of the wounded men could be Noah. In the book it says she volunteers because she think of Noah, but the movie makes this act seem more profound. In the book Noah has stopped writing Allie shortly before the war, but he does not seem as deeply effected as the movie character because he has a girlfriend at the time. However, she eventually breaks up with Noah because she can tell he loves someone else. The movie Noah comes across as an innocent before the war and it hardened by fighting in the war. The book Noah is hardened by the loss of Allie and that is why his relationship with the next woman does not work out. In contrast, the book Allie seems as if she has been more faithful to Noah than the movie Allie. In the book she states she has not "been" with another man since she was with Noah, but in the movie this point is not clear. These are just a few examples of how the book and the movie differ.

I am not sure if most teenagers who love the movie also love the book, but I have a feeling the film would not have been as popular if it had followed the book more closely. In the movie there is a very dramatic scene where Noah tried to talk Allie out of going back to her fiance. In the book this scene is less confrontational and Noah simply hugs Allie and tells her that he loves her no matter what decision she makes. The dramatic element made the movie interesting, but the candor of the book made it heartfelt and a little bit more memorable. I like both the book and the movie and I enjoyed comparing the differences between the two.