Hope, trust, loyalty and love according to Nicholas Sparks

MANILA, Philippines - Three things are staples in a romance novel — that a boy and a girl meet and they fall in love; that conflict shall arise; and that in the end, a happy ending awaits the couple. These are the three simple necessities for the emotionally hungry readers. These are the sure-cure remedies for human’s endless vice for fairy tales.

Yet, bestselling novel writer Nicholas Sparks, of A Walk to Remember, Dear John and The Notebook fame, defies such pattern and opts instead to use tragedy as a focal point for his stories. Nevertheless, with almost $80 million in worldwide sales of his books, Sparks leaves no one indifferent to his story telling.

Recently in the country to promote his new book, The Best of Me, Sparks explains why most of his novels are imbued with melancholic touch. He says, “All great love stories, by definition, have to end in tragedy, they have to. Because if there is no great love in the first place, there would be no tragedy.” For him, there is no opportunity for tragedy if there was no love lost in the first place. It is the science of duality working on its own.

“People remember tragedy, we all remember Romeo and Juliet. It’s far more tragic than anything I’ve read, like Gone with the Wind, Titanic,” he adds.

But although gloomy subjects have found a permanent residence in Sparks’ works, his constant readers can attest to the fact that his stories would not always end in tragedy. Sometimes it starts with one. Like in previous novels A Message in a Bottle and A Bend in the Road, where the story picks up from the lost of a loved one, in his new offering, The Best of Me, the loss of someone gave a reason for two estranged lovers to confront their own past and the choices they made. Highschool sweethearts Dawson Cole and Amanda Collier, who have lived apart for 25 years, are summoned back to their small town for a funeral, and for one weekend, both will try to answer the question of whether love can rewrite the past.

“It is a story of reunion, of choices and the consequences of those choices,” Sparks explains. The book will make readers find themselves asking the same questions as do the characters. “Should I have decided differently?” “Should I have done this or that instead?” And as Sparks bluntly asks, “What if you married someone else?”

And the turmoil constantly plaguing the novel, the pang of sorrow or cracks of joy here and then, cleverly positioned in different areas of the story, is the exact definition of a Nicholas Sparks literature.

“Every genre has a purpose,” Sparks says. For him, his genre “is to move the readers through all the emotions of life.”

And it’s not an easy task. “Every day,” he says, “is a battle with writer’s block.” “Writing is easy, writing well is hard,” he adds.

But Sparks is relentless in his passion of bringing emotions of every rhythm to his story. “That’s what’s it is supposed to be,” he says. “Because by doing so, when you turn that final page, when you close the cover, all the emotions of life, it feels like you’ve lived it at the same time. That’s the purpose of my genre, it’s supposed to live many lives.”

And this style of storytelling is perhaps what endeared Nicholas Sparks to Filipinos, who are well-known to be romantics at heart. Originally scheduled for a two-day promotional tour, Sparks extended his stay for three days to accommodate the clamor of his many fans for another autograph-signing session.

Xandra Ramos-Padilla, merchandising director for books of National Book Store, says that the reason they wanted to bring Nicholas Sparks to the country is because “having someone like Nicholas Sparks in Manila is an amazing chance for Filipino readers to actually meet him. Authors don’t come much bigger than Nicholas Sparks!” Furthermore, Xandra adds that bringing Nicholas Sparks to the country helps National Book Store’s goal of creating “venues to encourage more people to develop a deep appreciation for reading and learning.”

With 17 published books under his belt, six of which became blockbuster film adaptations, Sparks can easily live a complex lifestyle. Yet, he has remained humble and sincere. Observers said that when Sparks arrived at the airport, “he was alone, there were no assistants, and no entourage, just him!”

Nicholas Sparks — who took up jobs in real state appraisal, waited at tables, sold dental products by phone and did a stint in the manufacturing business before becoming a world-renowned author — is all too happy with the simple joys of life. When asked of his perfect date, he prefers simple activities like “fly a kite, go to the circus. Like in Dear John, go to the rodeo, go to the fair.” Nothing fancy for him.

With his wife Catherine — whom he says, “I met her Monday, and I told her I was going to marry her on Tuesday” — and his children serving as his inspiration, as well as the young writers he wishes to encourage, Nicholas Sparks continues to define a generation of story telling centered on hope, trust, loyalty and love.

It may be hard to find that fairy-tale ending in his stories, but perhaps Nicholas Sparks is not writing it — he’s living it.

(The Best of Me is available in all leading bookstores nationwide. For more information, visit www.nationalbookstore.com or www.nicholassparks.com)