User:Sunnylilacs/A Walk to Remember

Plot Summary
As Jamie and Landon are walking home one day, Landon yells at Jamie, upsetting her. He tells her that he is not friends with her. The next day at the first show of The Christmas Angel, Jamie enters the stage dressed as the angel, making Landon simply utter his line, "You're beautiful" , meaning it for the first time. Following that, Jamie asks Landon if he would go and retrieve the collection jars of money for the orphans' Christmas presents around the town. Once he collects the jars from the townspeople, there is only $55.73, but when he gives the money to Jamie, there is $247, thanks to Landon's anonymous donation. Jamie proceeds to buy gifts for the orphanage and both Landon and Jamie spend their Christmas Eve at the orphanage. For his gift, Jamie gives Landon her deceased mother's bible. As they enter the car to go home, Landon comes to realize his true feelings for her, thinking, "all I could do is wonder how I'd ever fallen in love with a girl like Jamie Sullivan." . He then invites her to his house for Christmas dinner, where Landon and Jamie share their first kiss in the "gnarled" garden. Landon then asks Hegbert if they can go to Flavin's, a local restaurant, on New Year's Eve. Hegbert initially refuses, but after Landon states his love for Jamie to Hegbert, he allows it.

On New Year's Jamie and Landon go to dinner where they share their first dance. A couple of weeks later, Landon expresses to Jamie that he is in love with her. She insists to him that he can't be, and he demands a reason why. Jamie finally confesses to him that she is dying of Leukemia. The next Sunday, Hegbert announces to the entire congregation that his daughter is dying. The next Monday, Jamie does not return to school, and it is realized that she never will because she is too ill. Jamie tells Landon, "I love you, too" for the first time while having dinner at Landon's house. A couple weeks later, Eric and Margaret visit Jamie's' house, where they both apologize for ever being rude to her. Eric gives Jamie the $400 that he collected for the orphanage. Jamie refuses to live at the hospital because she wants to die at home. In turn, Landon's father buys Jamie the best equipment and doctors so she can spend the rest of her life at home. This action mends the gap that has grown between the father and son. While sitting next to a sleeping Jamie, Landon develops an urgent idea. He runs to the church to find Hegbert. At first, Hegbert is reluctant, but when Hegbert does not refuse, Landon takes action. He runs back to Jamie's house and asks her, "Will you marry me?" .

They get married in a church full of people, and Hegbert walks Jamie down the aisle. When they reach Landon, Hegbert says, "I can no more give Jamie away than I can give away my heart. But what I can do is let another share in the joy that she has always given me." . Hegbert has had to experience so much pain in his life, first losing his wife, now knowing his only child will soon be gone too. The book ends with Landon forty years later at age fifty-seven. He still loves Jamie and continues to wear her ring.

Characters

 * Hegbert Sullivan is the father of Jamie Sullivan and minister at the local church . He is very old with "translucent skin" ; he is oftentimes crabby but his daughter describes him as having "a good sense of humor" . He wrote the local play, The Christmas Angel but he maintains a strong dislike for Mr. Carter due to his father's choices.


 * Mrs. Carter is the mother of Landon Carter. "She [is] a nice lady, sweet and gentle.".


 * Mr. Carter is the father of Landon Carter. He is a congressmen in North Carolina and is gone nine months out of the year because he lives in Washington D.C..
 * Angela Clark is the first girlfriend of Landon and then begins dating Lew.


 *  Carey Denison is the treasurer at Landon's high school as well as a tuba player. He is unproportional, with short arms, a large stomach, and a squeaky voice.

Reception
Theresea Parks from Publishers Weekly goes on to say how many will be disappointed stating, "Readers may be frusturated with the invariable formula that Sparks seems to reguriate with regularity." She also writes that it is especially similar to The Notebookin its " corny flashback device that mimics The Notebook." Overall Publishers Weekly expresses its disapointment.