Tag: break ups

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

Leave a comment

I’ve been going through this weird sort of dating thing with a guy for the last two years. It really doesn’t make any sense to my family and friends, and I know that it isn’t healthy for me anymore, so I’m working on ending it completely and letting go.

I’ve avoided love stories for this reason, but I actually think reading Dear John may have been what I needed.

John is in the army and has really struggled throughout life. He meets Savannah, they fall in love quickly, but then he has to go away. They write letters, but eventually the distance becomes too much and she ends it. She moves on, gets married, but it’s obvious that they both have a lot of love for each other.

I think reading this book made me really think about how you can have these intense feelings for someone, but that they might not be the right person for you, or that the timing may not be right and it just might not work out for that reason only.

I think it’s important to recognize this and use that as closure so that you can move on. John wanted the best for Savannah and was okay with letting go of his own desires so that she could move on and hopefully be happy. I really like that. I like that they didn’t have their happy ending together, but they both could be happy with how things ended up. It’s more realistic than the fairy tale stories about love.

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Leave a comment

This is maybe the first time that I actually like the movie better than the book. The movie was so much better than the book, that I almost think they had to have read it and thought “I could do this and make it better” and that’s why a movie even exists at all.

I really hate when I don’t like a book that I’m reading and I hate to be negative, but there just wasn’t anything that I really liked. I didn’t like Pat, which is maybe why it was so bad. It’s possible that if I hadn’t seen the movie and known about what had happened between him and Nikki, I’d like it more, but I really can’t decide if that matters at all.

Is Pat supposed to come off as boring? He’s so uninteresting as a person and really doesn’t seem like he has anything going on in his brain other than being with Nikki. I understand being obsessed with something and your whole life revolving around it, but I feel like I know nothing about him other than that he’s a Eagles fan and he wanted to get back together with his wife.

His dad was always super distant and I feel like that’s something that could’ve been written about and resolved rather than this weird story about a dance competition and a woman who likes him. The whole dancing part was weird in the story. In the movie it was a major plot point, but in the book it was just something he did for awhile to be able to talk to Nikki and then it was over and done with.

The ending also happened really fast. It was like they had the dance competition, he ran into his friend Danny randomly, watched the wedding video and remembered Nikki cheating, saw her with kids, and then got over it and was ready to be with Tiffany. I have a hard time believing that if he was so convinced he was supposed to be with Nikki and had to improve himself for her, that he would so easily accept that she was happy with someone else and leave her alone. I don’t buy it at all.

It was pretty disappointing to read this and not like it. I had actually read so many things about this book being great and good for someone going through a break up. I don’t think this would resolve anything for me if I was in a relationship that had just ended. I was actually really happy that I wouldn’t have to read any more of it, as harsh as that sounds. Would not recommend.