El guarian. nicholas sparks

Maria del Mar Garcia Ms. Robles World Literature 25 February 2011
Literary Review: The Guardian, by Nicholas Sparks
The novel The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks is centered on Julie Berenson’s life and events she went through once her young husband, Jim, died. Right afterhis death, a little kid approached to Julie’s house and gave her an ugly Great Dane puppy followed by a letter from Jim. The letter basically said that he would always be watching over her. Julie named the puppy “Singer” and since then, it became greatly important and significant to her since it was her only ‘family’ member. Four years later, she found herself experiencing unexpected situations thatled her to find true love. She first dated for a couple of weeks a guy named Richard, who appeared to be the perfect one; he was handsome, gentleman, and treated her like a queen. As the weeks went by, he was beginning to act mysteriously aggressive and desperate, which made her want to end the relationship. However, he didn’t stop following her, visiting her at her work in the hair salon norcalling her house, especially when she was with her best friend and new lover, Mike Harris. When Julie became aware that Richard was stalking her, with the help of Mike, she notified the police. Nevertheless, this didn’t stop Richard; he became a huge threat to Julie and Mike’s life and therefore, the three of them (including Singer) rented a beach house and stay away from him. This didn’t last longbecause Richard found them out. He poisoned Singer and tried to kill Mike and Julie, but the moribund Singer managed to save Julie’s life. Singer was, after all, her guardian angel.
Nicholas Sparks, author of 15 New York Times bestsellers, sold more than 50 million copies of his books; seven of them have been adapted to movies, which have become huge hits. Some of his most well-known works areThe Notebook, A message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Last Song, The Guardian, The Lucky One, Dear John, The Wedding and many more. Nicholas Sparks grew up as an ordinary kid, with both parents, and a younger sister. Although Nicholas’ romance novels tend to have sad twists, he didn’t went through anything tragic; he had a happy childhood and a common life as teenager and adult. He foundhis true passion of writing during his first year at college, when he got an injury on his Achilles tendon and was restricted to do any physical activity for three months. His mom then suggested him to write a book; and he did.
What is most admired of Nicholas Sparks in this novel is his way to get into people’s feelings and the suspense his combination of words creates on readers. While readingthis novel, as readers, we can feel a diversity of emotions such as love, loss, happiness, and anger, among others. “And she felt sure, as she had with Jim, that not only did Mike love her now, but there will never come a day when he wouldn’t”. This quotation is just an excerpt that shows the way Nicholas intervenes with the reader’s sentiments of love and happiness. He knows how to play withreader’s feelings and he writes with such passion that makes readers even want to fall in love with characters. However he is also able to portray the feeling of loss, as shown in the following example. “You want to know what it was like to lose my husband? She wanted to ask. Here’s what it’s like. Jim’s dead, and now that he’s gone I feel like I’m dead, too”. That little part definitely makesreaders feel sorry for the character and makes them walk in her shoes and think how would they feel and act if they were on that situation. Nicholas Sparks’ style does not only help with the conveying of emotions but also of portraying the sense of suspense. “What if he follows us? Mabel froze in her driveway. What if Richard planned to follow her to the beach? What If he was watching now?” On this...