Nicholas Sparks is a well known and best selling novelist. I haven't read anything by him, but now know all about his life listening to the audio version of Three Weeks With My Brother. It was the perfect audio book--it wasn't complicated and the story was interesting enough to keep my attention. Previous to this, I had two aborted audio books. John Adams was a mammoth 21 cassettes, and I knew it would be hard to pay attention all the way through. And Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil just didn't capture my fancy after the first side of the first tape.
A few thoughts.
- Before T was born, we thought a lot about the name Micah for a boy. I like it now more than ever and would consider it in the future if the circumstance arose.
- The book toggles between the author's past and current, where he and his brother Micah take a 3 week trip around the world. I was attracted to it initially as a travel book, but it turns out the memoir of Sparks and his family was much more interesting to me than hearing about all the sights he and Micah visited. And really, the sights of Machu Pichu and Ayer's Rock and on and on served mostly to detail the relationship between the brothers and provide the framework to reflect on their past shared history. I didn't know much about it before starting, which heightened the suspense and uncertainty of what would happen to their family.
- There were a lot of things I couldn't believe in the description of themselves as children. The parents were very hands off letting them run around and discover things and get into a lot of trouble. I can't imagine a parent being able to raise children this way today. A lot of it was shocking.
- It is quite amazing to think of all these two brothers have been through. Over the period of about 10 years, both of their parents had dies in tragic accidents, and their sister suffered from a fatal brain tumor. It does seem like too much for one family to endure. The story evolves over time, and it is clear that the events have pulled the two brothers together. it made me wish that I had a closer relationship with my sisters. It's also interesting to see how they both responded to the tragic events.
- Sparks' wife Katherine (who he calls Kat) is amazing. She stays home with her 5 kids, while her husband goes on book tours and takes a three week vacation with his brother. I would have a hard time with that.
1 comment:
Have you read _Angela's Ashes_? (Knowing you, you have.) His family also seems to endure more than the usual amount of suffering for one family. Readers--even readers who knew McCourt as a child in Ireland--called him on it, said he wasn't being truthful, said he was exaggerating the details for effect. His response: it's not non-fiction; it's memoir; I can write it any way I remember it. Did Sparks get any of the same kind of criticism?
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