This fast-moving journey through a century of soldiers’ heartbreak and rage at being dumped by their sweethearts reveals the psychological distance between the home front and the war theater, but even more tellingly illuminates the eternal war between men and women.” Nancy F. Cott, author of Fighting Words: The Brave American Journalists Who Brought the World Home between the Wars

John Dear has been arrested in the cause of peace and human decency more times than anyone else I know. I am honored to consider him a friend.” Although drained by battle overseas and the loss of Savannah, he realizes that due to a legacy from his father, he's able to express his love in an unexpected way. How you doing? Still in the Army? When I first met you I loved you so much I raved about you to all my friends. Tall, handsome, tattoos, a bit on the edgy side ... I don't usually surf in the romance section in the bookstore. One day i accidently saw Dear John on the shelf of deserted counter. There were many novels of him including "The Notebook", "A walk to remember", "Message in a bottle" so on..There's so much I want to say to you, but I'm not sure where I should begin. Should I start by telling you that I love you? Or that the days I've spent with you have been the happiest in my life? Or that in the short time I've known you, I've come to believe that we were meant to be together? I could say all those things and all would be true, but as I reread them, all I can think is that I wish I were with you now, holding your hand and watching your elusive smile. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks is one of those books I've developed a love/hate relationship with. I love, love, love the first part of the book, and I immediately fell for the main character, John Tyree. But when he gets his Dear John letter, it was all down hill from there, and I have to say I was left in angst. The ending is to some extent depressing, but I do have to give it to Sparks because he paints a realistic picture. However, someone needs to let the man know that he's writing fiction and sometimes, it's okay to have a happily ever after. His readers would surely appreciate it.

John Tyree, the main character, has a father with Asperger's syndrome. The story is partially set in Wilmington, North Carolina where John's father was a single parent who had difficulty having meaningful conversation with his son and has an obsession with coin collecting.

Subscribe to Nicholas’s Mailing List

Our story has three parts: a beginning, a middle and an end. And although this is the way all stories unfold, I still can’t believe that ours didn’t go on forever.” Sparks continues to reside in North Carolina with his wife Cathy, their three sons, and twin daughters. A Roman Catholic since birth, he and his wife are raising their children in the Catholic faith.

Dear John is one of those books that always makes me cry, and always leaves me with a pain in my heart, as if I have suffered all the pain. It is very emotional and real to the core. After I finished it this time around, I just wanted to consume all the pain John felt and lessen his burden. There is something about his character that makes me care so much. But he decided to let Savannah go, because he cared about her more than himself. Although drained by battle overseas and the loss of Savannah, he realizes that due to a legacy from his father, he's able to express his love in an unexpected way. Who “wrote” the Dear John?: Most of what we know about Dear Johns comes from what men have had to say about women’s break-up notes. In a very real sense, it’s true to say that men invented the “Dear John” and authored apocryphal specimens in hugely different styles. Rather than seeing the “Dear John” as a female epistolary genre, we should think of it more as a male oral tradition . So, although Dear John is about women’s letter-writing, it’s also very much about men’s story-telling. After college, Sparks sought work with publishers or to attend law school, but was rejected in both attempts. He then spent the next three years trying other careers, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone and starting his own manufacturing business.These two plot holes are easily ignored because of the tone of the story. It is not a novel one would read to analyze, but rather a book to enjoy on the beach or when feeling lonely. It could easily be read in a day if time permitted. In the first sentence of the prologue, John asks: "What does it mean to truly love another?" How does John’s answer to this question change over the course of the novel? How would you answer this question?