Categories: TRAVEL

The Choice — One of Two Novels by Nicholas Sparks Set in Beaufort

Nicholas Sparks books are no stranger to eastern North Carolina readers. In his 2007 novel, The Choice, novelist Nicholas Sparks centers his action around the Beaufort and Morehead City, North Carolina waterfronts and seldom strays more than a few miles from there throughout the novel.

Nicholas Sparks Books: “The Choice” and “A Walk to Remember” Are Set in Beautiful, Historic Beaufort, North Carolina

Beaufort, a lovely little town that also serves as backdrop to his earlier novel, A Walk to Remember, lies just across the Newport River Bridge from Morehead City. Protagonists Travis and Gabby make several jaunts across this bridge as well as across the bridge across Bogue Sound that connects Morehead City to Atlantic Beach. They pass through Indian Beach, Pine Knoll Shores, and Salter Path on their way to Emerald Isle and back to Morehead City and the beautiful town of Beaufort.

If I had to zero in on one word to describe Sparks’ unassuming little hardbound book, I’d choose the word, “simple.” Nicholas Sparks’ novel, The Choice, is simple in its plot, simple in its language, simple in its characters and story-and most of all-simple in its beauty.

Sparks has structured this novel much like one of his earliest successes, The Notebook, and just as in this little gem of a novel, I closed the covers of The Choice, completely satisfied in my choice of a book where I could spend a couple of reading hours.

Nicholas Sparks Books: Some Folks Adore Them While Others Claim to Hate Them

I admit to being something of a literary snob. My North Carolina authors of choice include Charles Frazier and Thomas Wolfe. My tastes tend toward classic and literary fiction. Occasionally, I’ll admit Pat Conroy or Colleen McCullough or historical non-fiction books that expand my knowledge of North Carolina history.

When I choose a contemporary novel, it’s usually because my high school students have fallen in love with it, and I’ll give it a cursory read to discover the appeal. I read the first J.K. Rowling book this way. Now that I’m retired, I can indulge my own tastes, and I want a book that makes me cry. Real tears even.

Nicholas Sparks Books: Choosing to Purchase of a Hardbound Volume of “The Choice”

Normally, I would never have picked up The Choice, especially at the jacket’s $24.99 price. I’ve willingly spent fifty dollars on a volume of Keats, but a little tome I can finish in an hour never makes it to the cash register.

On this day, the book store had the hardbound book on sale for $6.98. Besides, we had enjoyed seeing The Last Song at the movies at Emerald Isle, a Nicholas Sparks-Miley Cyrus collaboration, so I added The Choice to my pile of books at the check-out counter, alongside an audio version of 1776, John Lawson’s A New Voyage to Carolina, and a non-fiction work about Beaufort’s Old Burying Ground.

Nicholas Sparks Books: Meanwhile, Back to “The Choice–“

I enjoyed this novel for a number of reasons. I had spent the previous week in and around Beaufort, Morehead City and Pine Knoll Shores with my family. As Sparks rendered descriptions of Cape Lookout, Shackleford Banks, Beaufort’s creeks and the beaches in a simple, almost GPS-style, I found myself filling in missing sensory details because I had just stood where he had stood and watched the same scenes he depicted.

Sparks’s rendition fell short of what my favorite author,Thomas Hardy would have done. Hardy describes every tree, every bush, every twig-but it was fine. Those eastern Carolina settings were still fresh in my mind.

Secondly, I have spent many delightful hours walking around Beaufort, taking photographs of the grandnieces and grandnephew in the trees along the creek (Sparks left out the ants!) and of the yachts and small fishing boats moored along Beaufort’s waterfront.

I had just taken my grandnephew parasailing. On previous adventures, we had seen the wild horses on Shackleford Banks, the dolphins and osprey and gone shelling on Shell Island. We had tromped Fort Macon, explored crannies in the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. We have thousands of photos taken in all these places over the years. I would have loved reading The Choice for its setting alone.

Nicholas Sparks Books: Simplicity is Key to Enjoying a Sparks Novel

As I read through the novel with its simple plot and its normal seeming characters, I kept thinking, “What’s the point?” “Where’s he going with this?” I had come to know Travis and Gabby like they were old friends. There were only a few pages left, so he had to take the story somewhere.

I won’t divulge the best parts of the novel. Good reads I don’t spoil for people. I will say that the story was immensely satisfying, despite its simplicity.

Sparks did it to me in The Notebook and he did it to me now. In one simple, unassuming little novel, Nicholas Sparks accomplished what I search high and low for a writer to do: he made me cry.

References: Nicholas Sparks. The Choice. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2007.

Slideshow: The Historic Little Town of Beaufort, North Carolina