The Lucky One, by Nicholas
Sparks (Grand Central Publishing, 2008, 326 pages, $24.99)
Inspiring
Who hasn’t read and loved books by Richard Paul Evans and
Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, Message in
a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, [all movies as well] and
more)? Mostly ‘chick’ books but also date movies, they are books to keep - inspiring,
feel-good stories.
He Gets the Dogs
Right!
The Lucky One is
no exception: a bit different, perhaps, to appeal to a different readership, The Lucky One centers around an Iraq war
veteran and – dogs! And Nicholas Sparks gets the dogs right! They are not
merely minor characters.
Something for
Everyone – And A Dog Named Zeus
Elizabeth-Beth and young son Ben, a brother who left for
Iraq and never came back, ex-husband-Deputy and ‘good ol’ boy’ Keith whose
family owns the county, Nana, Logan the Marine, a cross-country walk with Zeus
to search for and thank the ‘woman in the photo,’ and the mother of all
rainstorms which lasted for days. Something for everyone. And a dog named Zeus
to keep us focused on relationships and the bond between a human and a dog.
Who is ‘The Lucky One’?
I can’t help you on this one: you’ll have to read the book
to find out. But you will agree. Even though you read faster and faster, and
perhaps can guess at some developments in the plot, you will feel warmly
satisfied with the story. It all falls into place – the myriad of details that
seem so disjointed at first, fall into place in the most perfectly believable
way.
What would I change about The Lucky One? I would delete references to ‘dog obedience,’
‘commands,’ ‘firm guidance with the leash,’ ‘Come! Good Come.’ But, all in all,
Nicholas Sparks gets the dogs right and, in the end, that is all that matters.
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