Dear John (Mass Market Paperback)

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Key Phrases: Chapel Hill, North Carolina, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hot on the heels of True Believer and sequel At First Sight, Sparks returns with the story of ne'er-do-well-turned-army-enlistee John Tyree, 23, and well-to-do University of North Carolina special education major Savannah Lynn Curtis. John, who narrates, has been raised by a socially backward single postal-worker dad obsessed with coin collecting (he has Asperger's syndrome). John bypasses college for the overseas infantry; Savannah spends her college summers volunteering. When they meet, he's on leave, and she's working with Habitat for Humanity (he rescues her sinking purse at the beach). John has a history of one-night stands; Savannah's a virgin. He's an on-and-off drinker; she's a teetotaler. Attraction and values conflict the rest of the summer, but the deal does not close. Savannah longs for John to come home; her friend Tim longs to have a relationship with her. On the brink of John and Savannah's finally getting together, 9/11 happens, and John re-ups. Savannah's letters come less and less frequently, and before you know it, he receives the expected "Dear John" letter. Sparks's novel brims with longing. (Oct. 30)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The Washington Post

In the days following Sept. 11, 2001, hardly anyone, not even the late night comedians, knew what to say. Now, more than five years later, the roster of books and films addressing 9/11 and its consequences has grown long. There are explorations of religion and foreign policy, memoirs of life on the 21st-century battlefield, depictions of global culture, investigations, predictions and elegies. With Nicholas Sparks's contribution to the list, Dear John, we see our political climate in yet another light: candlelight, maybe. Or moonlight.

Narrator John Tyree is a wayward son of Wilmington, N.C., reformed first by the service (he seems to shed most of his rebelliousness at boot camp) and later by love. John meets Savannah Lynn Curtis while home on leave, in June of 2000. Savannah, a rising senior at UNC, is spending her summer building houses for those without. The couple share two fleeting weeks -- including an innocent scene under a half-built roof that's as big-screen-ready as they come -- before John must return to his post in Germany. For more than a year, he pines and she endures, counting the days until he will be honorably discharged.

Then the Twin Towers fall. Rather than returning to his love, John reenlists. In January 2003, his unit is sent into Turkey, then transferred to Kuwait. In March, he takes part in the invasion of Iraq. While John's days play out in the desert (when asked about his time there, all he mentions is the sand), Savannah must face her own unlucky destiny. Finally, with the death of John's father, whose somewhat unbelievable tale provides the main subplot of the book, the two are reunited and left to sort things out amid their tears and ours.

It isn't hard to picture John Tyree. We can simply imagine his predecessors, men in uniform staring pensively from earlier wartime romances. Apart from the occasional detail -- e-mail, cellphone, Outback Steakhouse -- Dear John could take place in any modern American era. For Sparks, weighty matters of the day remain set pieces, furniture upon which to hang timeless tales of chaste longing and harsh fate. Only in a novel such as this could we find our political buzzwords -- peacekeeping, IEDs, hurricane relief -- interspersed with these sentiments: "And when her lips met mine, I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever."

There's a reason, after all, they call it escapism.

Reviewed by Margaux Wexberg Sanchez
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446618306
• ISBN-13: 978-0446618304
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (246 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #732 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best novel since A Walk to Remember, October 30, 2006

By	A. Robson (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Dear John (Hardcover)

Wow. I had become quite bored with Sparks' latest novels, feeling they were cookie-cutter romance novels, but this book is a return to his old writing style. Similar to The Notebook, and A Walk to Remember, this book is a must read for any Sparks' fan, as well as anyone wanting an old fashioned love story...full of love, heartache, romance, fulfillment, tragedy, and sacrifice. Well done, well written, and just fabulous.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Man's Long Journey, November 22, 2006

By	Wantz Upon A Time Reviews "www.wantzuponatime... (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dear John (Hardcover)

John Tyree is a soldier first, a man second. Or so he thinks until he meets Savannah Lynn Curtis. While on leave, he falls desperately in love with Savannah, the proverbial girl of his dreams. Sweet, intelligent, and giving, John knows he'll always carry her torch.

When September 11 changes the world, John is no exception. Moved by patriotic loyalty, he chooses to "re-up" in the army, adding time to his service and breaking his promise to return to Savannah. More promises are broken when he must attending to his ailing father.

This is the story of how an ideal love can falter, despite its purity and strength. Not every romance results in a happy ending, but with a great deal of luck, those who don't survive will find meaning from the experience. Love, loyalty, friendship--all those sentiments are great, but to what cost? And how does this make a good man great? This is John's journey to that understanding.

It goes without saying that Nicholas Sparks is one of today's "master" storytellers. Part of what makes him so successful is that he has the ability to create moving stories without pulling punches or painful twists. Such is the case in DEAR JOHN. Sparks offers a love story that has all the requisite components--well-crafted setting, high emotion, obstacles, resolution--then breaks it. It is from the sadness that hope emerges, and John Tyree, although still quite young, gains wisdom that will last a lifetime. Sorrow will be a large part of this, yes, but there is room for something more, something that will reach beyond the pages and touch John's tomorrow in a way only he will see.

While this works, there is something lacking. It is one of those hard-to-define qualities that marks the difference between a good book and one that is outstanding. Maybe it's the heavy reliance on John's soldiering as an excuse for certain behaviors. Or perhaps it has more to do with aspects relating to John's relationship with his father, who appears to have Asperger's syndrome.

I'm giving DEAR JOHN 4-Books for a beautiful story, but not five because of that indefinable element that was lost between idea and paper.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
11/22/2006

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A tragic love story with great characters, January 16, 2007

By	Bill Garrison (Oklahoma City, OK USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Dear John (Hardcover)

Dear John isn't the book I normally read. I read the Notebook and really didn't like it, but I know that Sparks is a great author and my wife reads everything he writes. So I decided to read Dear John because it's a short easy read, my wife read it, and Sparks is a good author. I'm a sucker for a good romantic movie, so maybe I'd like a romantic book.

The book opens with a prologue about John Tyree and it appears to be set in the present. My first thought was that this prologue gives away way too much of the plot. Then chapter 1 begins seven years earlier. John Tyree is a high school kid without direction. He's had an okay life, being raised by his emotionless father, but senses he wants more. This causes him to join the Army and the Army redirects his life and gives him focus. He quits smoking and partying and becomes an excellent soldier. At home on leave in Wilmington, North Carolina, he meets Savannah and they instantly become friends. Savannah is a Christian girl two years younger than him that is beautiful and John falls for her. I don't know what women readers think of John and Savannah, but John is a little rough around the edges, but chilverous and kind. Savannah, is perfect, a pretty, kind, moral girl who any guy would fall for.

I've read a few Christian novels in my time and the first half of the novel starts out like one, with Savannah the Christian girl and John the rough Army soldier. Of course, this isn't a Christian novel and I didn't expect it to be. However, Savannah does make some choices that I wish were explained better. It's not that they aren't realistic, but the story is told from John's point of view, and it would have been nice to be inside Savanah's head for some of the novel so the reader could see her motivations for her action. As a character, she had everything together. Occasionally she acts on impulse, or seems too. I'd like to know more about her thoughts before some of her actions in order to make them more believable.

Sparks has stated that he is a writer of love stories, which he defines as stories with a tragic element. Dear John is well written, with great characters and a good plot. But to know that Sparks writes tragedies kind of spoils the fun. I asked my wife and she said all his stories have an element of sadness. Sparks would be a great author too if he added a few happy or at least bittersweet endings. The plot of Dear John felt convoluted, like Sparks had to add some unrealistic twists in order to give the story an appropriate sadness. Still, I understand his appeal. I raced through this novel like few others. Another minor complaint: Sparks believes characters can have a love that is so strong it can force people to ignore marriage vows or moral principles. That subject comes up in this novel, and (I promise I'm not giving anything away) characters seem to be ready to excuse certain behavior in the name of love.

Dear John is a good book and I can see why Sparks is a bestseller. John and Savannah are great characters as is Tim and John's father. I recommend this book to anyone who likes tragic love stories. Since I don't, I probably won't be reading more of Sparks any time soon even though I enjoyed his writing and characters very much.