Any Nicholas Sparks fan will have already bought and read this book and no matter what I say about the novel, they will read it anyway. Anyone who doesn't like Sparks won't read it and, therefore, my words matter little to that sort of person, too. As a result, I almost didn't post anything other than the title of the book so I could keep track of the total number of books I read this year. But something stopped me, so I am writing about this book regardless of the fact that few people will probably really care.
I have read every book Sparks has ever written. Sometimes I have read them twice--once when first published and then again before a movie premier to remind myself of the plot. They are always sad in some ways and hopeful in others and someone always dies, maybe not a main character, but someone. Two By Two, however slight, shifted, in my opinion, from standard Nicholas Sparks, and it makes me wonder if we aren't going to start to see new things from him.
Two By Two is the story of Russell Green and his family: wife Vivian and daughter London. We get Russ's own thoughts and comments in italics while the main story, with lots of character involvement, is told in bold print. While we get background information about the family and extended family, the novel focuses mainly on the year when Russ's life spiraled out of control--he quit his snob, started his own company, made no money, wife had to go back to work, wife decides to leave him, wife threatens to take away his daughter. Knowing that Sparks himself is recently divorced, I had to wonder how much of Russ is actually Sparks himself, or some version of himself. I don't know details about his divorce, nor do I want to, but there were times when Russ's emotions were so raw and intense, it just made me think that only someone who had experienced divorce and the possibility of losing a child could write so passionately about it. (Although it can be argued that Sparks has written about so many things passionately that he perhaps knew nothing about except through research. How many times have I heard a friend say, "I can't believe a man wrote this.") I spent much of the book wondering about this and wondering when the sudden death that seems so often to occur in Spark's novels was going to jump up and surprise me.
Yet what I got instead for much of the book was a detailed story about a man and his family. I looked forward to reading, much in the same way I loved reading The Longest Ride, and while my heart broke for Russ, I didn't cry. I didn't even come close, whereas when I read The Longest Ride, I was crying about 50 pages in and never stopped. I loved reading about the evolution of Russ as a dad, as a friend to others, and as a son/brother. I was anxious about Vivian, a character that flip flopped so often you never really know what she was going to say or do, but after a while I realized that Russ was going to be able to handle her, no matter what. I thought Russ was going to be OK.
And then...Sparks threw in his curve ball--death--so I took a deep breath and turned the page and kept reading and you know what? It turned out OK. The death he created (perhaps in the spirit of "Everything happens for a reason") only helped to enrich the other characters. No one fell apart. No one changed the course of their lives. No one packed up and moved away because they couldn't cope (although people do move away but for other reasons). I did cry because it was sad, but everything turned out OK in the end. Would I have preferred if this character had not died? Yes, of course, but I don't think other characters would've come to the realizations they came to without this devastating event. People changed because a woman died. Her death enabled them to realize things about themselves that they wouldn't have otherwise. They moved forward and the ending left me with hope. I can't always say that about other Sparks books. Mostly I just feel like crying for days because the story is so sad.
But not this one. Perhaps that's why I wonder if Sparks' writing isn't changing a bit. Has his divorce changed his outlook on life? Has his perspective changed? Will we see more hopeful stories from him in the future? I am a Sparks fan. So you can bet that I will keep on reading his books regardless, but a little more hope and a little less death would be nice. After all, I read to escape reality. Not wallow in it.
Happy reading!
:) Dodie
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