RATING GUIDE:
5 – A keeper!
4 – Very good
3 – Passable
2 – I’d rather read a telephone book
1 – An absolute bomb.
Read at your own risk!
This is my second time to read a book written by Nicholas
Sparks. The first book I ever read
which was written by him was called “The Notebook,” and while I’ve pretty much
forgotten what it was all about, I have vague memories of its very sensitive
male protagonist. If I’m not mistaken,
it was a guy who knew how to cry, which surprised and touched me at the time
because I haven’t really come across many male protagonists with a sensitive
nature in stories.
The next time I “encountered”
Nicholas Sparks, it was through the film adaptation of his novel, “Message In A
Bottle”. Now, this was memorable
because it was a movie that drove me to tears, even though I knew how the story
was going to turn out. I thought I was the
only one who reacted this way to something by Nicholas Sparks, until another
friend told me the same thing happened to her; this time over a film adaptation
of Nicholas Sparks’ “A Walk To Remember”.
I recently learned that another
one of Nicholas Sparks’ books, “Safe Haven,” has just been turned into a movie
starring Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel.
Here’s the trailer:
As in “The
Notebook” and “Message In A Bottle,” Nicholas Sparks’ “Safe Haven” starts off
slow and ends, well, relatively slow.
Like sailing across placid waters.
Or getting a massage. Or
listening to mellow songs.
Not that the
experience is bad. It’s actually nice
to read a quiet book once in a while.
When you live in a world that seems to want --- no, demand --- anything
and everything RIGHT NOW-ASAP-STAT, it’s a surprisingly refreshing experience
to read a book that isn’t bursting with testosterone-driven action or sex, sex,
sex.
“Safe Haven” is
the story of Katie, a quiet, mysterious woman who comes to live in a town where
Alex, a widower, lives. Alex befriends
Katie, and his cop instincts soon prove him right. Katie has a dark past.
She’s on the run from her abusive, narcissistic, crazy bastard of a
husband named Kevin.
While “Safe
Haven” has a fairly predictable ending, its value lies in having a female
protagonist who is actually a victim of marital abuse. I am close to a few women who have actually
been through abusive relationships/marriages, which is why I feel a
“connection” to this book. For a
romance, this book goes against type by having a female protagonist who isn’t
your usual heroine. She’s pretty, but
has had her share of battle scars. To
read about someone like her triumph over adversity was particularly satisfying.
Nicholas’
writing style is pretty simple and straight-forward. There’s nothing awe-inspiring about it. I think his strength lies in his ability to write from the point
of view of a woman. As I read this
book, I couldn’t help but ask, How can a guy write about a woman so well? To
write with so much understanding and sympathy?
I’m amazed.
What I get from
“Safe Haven” is Nicholas Spark’s great understanding of people, his sensitivity
to their strengths as well as their flaws.
He appears to have a great empathy for people. Only a sensitive, understanding person can write about people in
a way that makes its readers understand, if not accept, what they’re all
about. I am particularly impressed with
his characterization of Kevin, the villain in this story. Kevin is absolutely an evil bastard, and yet
the readers get to view him with pity, as well as hate. He’s as scary and disturbing and hateful as
hell, and yet, when he finally gets what’s coming to him, you actually feel
quite sorry for him.
There’s nothing
fantastic about this book, so if you’re expecting a grand, Hollywood-type
production, this might not be the book you should be reading. But if you are interested in reading a
sincere, heart-felt, deep story about a woman who triumphs over adversity, of
reading about believable, likeable people who find love and each other in the
most challenging situations, then you will enjoy this book.
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