A Walk to Remember Summary

It takes place between 1958 to 1959 in Beaufort, North Carolina. The story tells of

two teenagers who fall in love, even though they have very dissimilar personalities. The

novel is told in the first-person voice of Landon Carter. Landon’s father is frequently away as

he must spend much of his time in Washington, D.C. While his father is outgoing, Landon is

shy, which causes some tension in their relationship. At his father’s urging and with the help

of his best friend Eric Hunter, Landon runs for and is elected, class president. One of his

duties as president involves attending a school dance with a date, but he is unable to obtain

one. With nobody left to ask, he turns to Jamie Sullivan, who is the daughter of Hegbert

Sullivan, the local minister. The highly religious Jamie accepts his invitation. The popular

Landon finds himself somewhat embarrassed while accompanying Jamie, who always carries

a Bible with her. By the end of the evening, however, Landon realizes that she was a good

choice as a date. After a few days pass, Jamie asks Landon to join her in the school Christmas

production. He reluctantly agrees. Jamie is excited about his joining her but he fears the

ridicule he will face if his friends find out about it. Walking Jamie home after rehearsals

becomes a regular part of Landon’s routine. When, one afternoon, Eric teases Landon about

the time he spends with Jamie, he becomes embarrassed again, however, he continues to

spend time with Jamie. Landon learns more about how much she helps others, including the

time she spends at an orphanage, which they suggest as a venue for the school Christmas play

before their proposal is rejected by Mr. Jenkins. While they are waiting for Mr. Jenkins,

Jamie tells Landon that all she wants for her future is a church wedding where her father

walks her down the aisle. Landon finds this a bit unusual but accepts it, as he increasingly

enjoys his time with her. As they are walking home one day, Landon tells Jamie that they are

not friends, yet at the performance of the Christmas play the next day, when he delivers a line
telling Jamie’s character that she is beautiful, he knows that he means it. Later, Jamie asks

Landon to go around town and retrieve the jars that are used to collect donations for the

orphanage. He finds that only fifty-five dollars and change had been collected. When he gives

the money to Jamie, there are almost two-hundred and fifty dollars. The pair spends

Christmas Eve at the orphanage and he invites Jamie to have Christmas dinner with his

family. The day after Christmas, they share their first kiss at Jamie’s house. They eventually

receive Hegbert’s permission to spend New Year’s Eve at a local restaurant, after Landon

states his love for Jamie. A couple of weeks into the new year, Jamie tells Landon that he

cannot be in love with her. When he presses her for an explanation, she tells him that she is

dying from leukemia. The next Sunday, Hegbert shares the news of his daughter’s condition

with his congregation. Jamie is too sick to return to school after that. One evening, while

having dinner at Landon’s house she tells him that she loves him too. Jamie refuses to stay at

a hospital, saying she wants to die at home. Landon’s father helps obtain the best doctors and

equipment to help her do so. This act of kindness helps to ease the tension between Landon

and his father. One day while sitting with the sleeping Jamie, Landon has an idea and goes to

the church to speak with Jamie’s father. He asks his permission to marry Jamie. Hegbert

shows no enthusiasm but does not deny Landon’s request either. Landon quickly returns to

Jamie and asks her to marry him. They marry before a full church in fulfillment of Jamie’s

dream. Although at this point, she is too weak to walk, she manages to walk down the aisle

and her father can give her away. The story ends with Landon thinking back at that time,

many years later, as he had done at the start of the book. He still wears Jamie’s ring.
 Book Review

A Walk to Remember

The book “A Walk to Remember” is an award-winning book with the genre romance,

drama, and melodrama written by a very famous American romance novelist Nicholas Sparks

which was released in October in the year 1999. It takes place between the years of 1958 to

1959 in Beaufort, North Carolina. The famous novel was inspired by Nicholas Sparks'

beloved sister, Danielle Sparks Lewis, who later died of cancer on June 2000. Although the

story is largely fictional, certain parts were based on real experiences according to Nicholas.

The story was telling us about two young people who fall in love with each other despite of

their different personalities wherein Jamie Sullivan, the girl in the movie is a very young and

modest sweet girl raised in a world where Christianity is at its best, while Landon Carter, the

boy, was just a young, aimless, self-centered high school boy who often makes fun of anyone

in their school who is different from his views. It took me a while to get into this book as at

the beginning it’s hard to see where the story is leading. Nicholas Spark’s books are always at

a slow phase at the beginning but eventually, take you by surprise at the end.

A walk to remember is what you call your average teenage drama at the beginning.

The story goes like this, two teenagers who fall in love, despite their differences. Jamie and

Landon, although knowing who each other are since they were young, live completely

separate lives. Jamie is the daughter of the town's Baptist minister. She is seen by others as

someone who does no wrong, helps anyone and lives a carefree life. She lives her life apart

from other teenagers, spending her time taking care of her father, volunteering at the local

orphanage and rescuing hurt animals. Landon, on the other hand, is a typical teenage boy,

spending his time hanging around with his friends and staying out too late, your happy go
lucky type of guy who would date a lot of girls since he is famous. They first meet when

Landon has no choice but to ask Jamie to the dance as he had no better offers. She's sweet,

she's a big Christian, she's quiet, not the kind of girl that Landon typically goes for. When the

night turns out to be a huge success, Landon begins to rethink his perspective of Jamie and

decides that he couldn't have had a better date. Over time they start to build a relationship and

Landon joins the Christmas play, directed by Jaimie. They begin to grow closer and closer

and maintain a routine of walking home together after rehearsal. As the story goes on it gets

more interesting by the moment Landon starts to fall in love with this girl who he never even

bothered to look at or to talk to before asking her to the dance. Little does Landon know,

something is holding Jaimie back from being able to fully commit to someone and

completely fall in love.

The book slowly builds you up to the point where you can’t stop reading where you

thought it’s just another average love story and then fills you up with many twists and turns

with sweet humor and bittersweet moments. The slow build-up made me emotionally

attached to the characters every minute that passed when I was reading. Then there is an

unexpected twist at the end which completely changes their lives forever. Nicholas Sparks

just know where to poke your heart. There are even times that I relate to the characters in the

story.

In conclusion, A walk to remember is a kind of book which tells people what love

should be. It also shows that love can happen anytime anywhere with any kinds of people.

The person, that you always make fun with, can surprisingly become your soul mate. This

book is really good for a romantic story lover, I guess. If you prefer love to adventure or

mythology books, this one is appropriate to read. On the other hand, this book doesn’t end

with a happy ending but a teary one. But to be honest, I’ve always felt sleepy reading this

book, and it’s not that romantic to me nor does it sad. In every chapter, many passages are
boring to read. For that, I mean they don’t relate to the story nor does the reader want to

know about the information provided. However, the main parts, I mean the parts which

include Landon or Jamie or both of them; they are all interesting to read. I felt good reading

about them. This book started as boring but is quite a good read.

Submitted to: Ms. Ymie Lou M. Tabanag

Submitted by: Kyle John V. Don XII-Buffett