Written by Nicholas Sparks in the late 1990s, A Walk To Remember is a teen-romance novel set in 1958 North Carolina.
The story is set in the small town of Beaufort where the residents were used to a very conservative way of life. The town itself had approximately eighteen churches. Of these, there was a minister by the name of Hegbert Sullivan, who worked at Beaufort Church. Hegbert is painted as someone who struggled with fatherhood as his wife died shortly after delivering their child, Jamie.
We are introduced to 17-year old Jamie, who appears to be somewhat isolated from the rest of her peers. She is usually spotted wearing the same cardigan and carrying a copy of the Bible, which makes her stand out as being quite unusual and someone that others did not have much time for. This did not seem to bother Jamie greatly; she had plenty to occupy her time including volunteering for an orphanage.
The main character of A Walk To Remember is Landon Carter. He is very different to Jamie in almost every aspect. Jamie and Landon have known each other since they were both young and went to the same schools together. However, they never socialised with each other. While Jamie would spent her evenings at home, Landon would spend his evenings with friends in a graveyard; they would sit on headstones and throw boiled peanuts around.
In the book, we see Landon deciding to take part in drama club as he thought it was a good way to build up credit with minimal effort. The drama club was to perform a play, which was written by Hegbert; Jamie had a leading role in the play.
Landon and Jamie spend a lot of time together. And while Jamie asked Landon to never fall in love with her, once Landon sees how beautiful Jamie looks dressed up as an angel he finds himself become increasingly attracted to Jamie. And the more time they spend together, the more Landon starts to appreciate Jamie's character and he finds it difficult to not fall in love with her.
Jamie however has her guard up. She was diagnosed with leukemia some years back. She knows she is coming towards the end of her life. When Landon learns about her condition, he steps in and supports her and tries to fulfil some of her wishes including raising money for an orphanage and getting married.
The book is well written, but admittedly, I did struggle to get into. However, once you get past the first few pages, you are gripped. You are transported to a small town, which gave me the vibes of Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls). A tragic love story, but not quite a tear-jerker. It is a weird way a warm story where we see the strength and power of love and how this helped transform Landon from a carefree boy to a mature, thoughtful man.
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