Reviews and More

I watched a Season 1 episode of House on DVD the other day, and forgot how awesome and fun this show used to be. I mean, I still think it’s one of the better shows on television, but I haven’t really liked the way Season 4 has played out thus far. I’m not into the new assistants at all, and just miss things being the way they were back in the beginning.

I know that in my House recaps, I complained about Foreman, Chase, and Cameron at various times. Now I see that despite their flaws, those characters contributed a lot to the show. I can’t say the same thing about the Season 4 helpers.

In classic House eps, at least the assistants would give reasons for their diagnoses. If they thought it was lupus, cancer, or some obscure disease, they would say why, and House would act off their suggestions.

But these new assistants just toss guesses out without bothering to explain anything. Kutner in particular is guilty of this. For example, he might guess that a patient is suffering from mesothelioma, but when House asks why he made that assessment, Kutner will say something like, “Because you told us not to say it’s lupus.”

Yeah, big help there, buddy. (Sigh.)

Despite my dislike for the new helpers, I’m still looking forward to April 21 when House returns with brand-new episodes. After all, Hugh Laurie has always been the main attraction for me!

Nicholas Sparks is one of those modern authors that I always see on bestseller lists. People who like his works really like them, while those who hate his books really hate them. There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground at all.

I’m one of those readers who is leaning towards the “hate” side, though I honestly haven’t read enough of his stuff to make a complete judgment yet. I’ve checked out The Notebook and True Believer, and didn’t feel that either was worthy of all the buzz and good reviews.

Nevertheless, I decided that I would give Sparks the benefit of my personal “three strikes” policy against authors, meaning that I would have to read at least one more of his books before writing him off as a lost cause. That book turned out to be The Choice, which I recently completed.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The story takes place in the small town of Beaufort, North Carolina starting in the 1990s. That’s when we meet Travis Parker, a handsome, adventurous, successful, life-loving veterinarian with a close-knit group of friends he’s known since childhood. Travis seems to have it all — except for a special woman to share it with.

Enter Gabby Holland, Travis’ new next-door neighbor. Gabby first meets Travis when she goes over to his house to confront him about his dog Moby. Gabby’s own dog Molly is pregnant, and Gabby’s sure it’s because Travis allows Moby to wander around the neighborhood without a leash. Travis tries to explain that Moby was neutered years ago, but Gabby doesn’t give him any room to argue.

The first two-thirds of the book go on to describe how Travis and Gabby overcome that inauspicious start to fall in love — all in the course of a single weekend (in typical Sparks fashion).

The final third of the book flashes forward 11 years. Travis and Gabby are now happily married and have two girls of their own. Their life seems rather idyllic, until one terrible night when Travis runs their car off the road in a rainstorm. He escapes with a few injuries, but Gabby sinks into a coma as a result of the accident.

She stays that way for 12 weeks, after which point Travis is faced with “the choice”: Does he comply with the wishes laid out in Gabby’s living will and pull the plug, or does he listen to his heart and keep her on life support just a bit longer in the hopes that she’ll eventually recover.

My Reaction: First, I was surprised that I didn’t absolutely loathe The Choice, as I did the two previous Sparks titles that I read. I found that the story moved along at a brisk pace, there weren’t any dumb subplots at all, and the two lead characters, Travis and Gabby, were actually pretty interesting. That made it easy to stick with the book, as evidenced by the fact that I finished it in just three days.

That being said, however, I didn’t exactly like this book. I thought it was ok, but nothing spectacular. It follows Sparks’ typical pattern of love at first sight = eternal, burning love that never dies — something that just seems so damn hokey these days. I mean, he had Travis and Gabby fall in love over the course of a single weekend, which was completely unbelievable.

Moreover, their marriage was full of joy and bliss, with nary a disagreement or fight cropping up to cast a cloud over the idyllic scene. Again, a very typical Sparks scenario that just doesn’t mesh with real life.

I found the whole “choice” part of the story to be incredibly predictable. Obviously, there wouldn’t have been a choice involved if Travis had intended to follow Gabby’s wishes, so what was the point of dragging that part out? If Sparks was trying to build tension, he failed miserably, as I can’t imagine any reader who would actually think for a moment that Travis would opt to pull the plug.

And Gabby waking from her coma at the end… well, yeah, another “happily ever after” here. What a surprise. Only not.

I really didn’t like the way Sparks chose to have Travis dismiss the living will as a sign that he loved Gabby, as if those who follow living wills and remove their spouses or relatives from life support are somehow giving up on them. That’s a terrible message to send, and rubbed me the wrong way.

At any rate, I’m not going to count The Choice as a strike against Sparks. Out of the three books I’ve read by him, this is probably the one I’d recommend over the others. As such, I’m not writing Sparks off just yet, and will read at least one more of his works in the coming months.