Book Report: The Last Song

Book Report: The Last Song

 “Love is fragile and we’re not always its best caretakers. Even the best of us make mistakes; we just muddle through and do the best we can to hope this fragile thing will survive by all odds.”

-Nicholas Sparks

The Last Song, a novel written by American author Nicholas Sparks was published on September 8th, 2009. The Last Song, like many other books of Nicholas Sparks is a romance novel with a hint of tragedy and has been able to capture the interest of millions of readers, but the distinctive feature of this book is that it is as much of a novel about family relationship as it is about love. The story is about a seventeen year old Ronnie falling in love and mending broken relationships with her family members. Here, Piano acts as the bonding factor between Ronnie and her father’s relationship and thus the title “The Last Song” is from the part of the book where Ronnie plays one last song for her father.

The novel is set on Wrightsville beach North Carolina in the modern time, with people living a laid-back kind of lifestyle. The book is written in modern style using simple language starting off with Ronnie, a rebellious teenager who has to spend her summer with her father and her brother at Wrightsville beach in North Carolina. She wants to be anywhere but near her father. She hates her father because he left her family three years earlier and plans on spending the summer without ever talking to him but after meeting a handsome boy and falling in love, she slowly starts to change for the better. She starts mending her relationship with her father and also picks up her lost interest in playing piano which she shared with her father. As Ronnie starts developing into a mature woman, she learns the truth about her father’s illness and decides to spend extra time on Wrightsville beach to care for her father. Her prolonged time consists of bonding with her father but growing farther from Will, her summer love. In the end though, she loses her father but gets back Will.

The story is written in third person’s point of view with each chapter focusing on a certain character.  The flow of each chapter and the character portrayed in it helps readers distinguish between the nature of different characters as well as imagine in depth the scenario that is playing out in the book. Writing about characters, the protagonist Ronnie is more of a moving character where as other characters like her father Steve Miller, and her lover Will Blakelee, even the villain of the story Marcus are more of a placid characters. While Ronnie’s character undergoes a drastic change from a self-centered rebellious teenager to a mature, understanding woman, the character of Steve remains as calm and collected father who believes that his children are capable of making their own decisions, the character of Will is that of a handsome gentleman who has no intention of hurting anyone around him and in contrast to Will, the character of Marcus is a self-centered manipulator who cares about no one other than himself and loves watching other people suffer. The only slightly moving character apart from Ronnie is Blaze, also known as Galadriel who, like Ronnie, is a rebellious teenager at first but tries to be a better person after almost dying because of catching fire in her clothes. Another character, which plays an important part for the readers in understanding Ronnie, is that of Ronnie’s younger brother Jonah Miller. His character is that of a typical ten-years old boy but this little boy is a medium for the readers to understand Ronnie’s inner persona, her softer side.