The Last Song, Nicholas Sparks
A beautiful story of forgiveness, redemetion, and more importantly …love.
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks was an extremely captivating story. I just completed the book and it is one that stays intertwined in your thoughts far after you have completed it. Just to warn you, it is hard to put down once you have started it. It was actually a complex book full of different and interesting characters. The funny thing was even though they were so different I still felt a deep emotional connection with almost all of them. I could easily relate to Ronnie the 17, almost 18 year old that is bitter because of family break down and she shuts down herself . She vows to stop playing piano, which she and her dad had been playing since she was four and gave up her dreams and him. She started making wrong decisions, accomplices, etc, but I can remember having some of the same thoughts as she went through her trials. Especially the redemption. Her mom sends her brother Jonah and her to stay the summer where she finds herself searching out the same type of bad crowd at first and gets into more trouble. Expecting her dad to think the worst of her, he shows her nothing but love and respect. There relationship continues to grow and she becomes acquainted with an exceptional young man,Will, who she falls in love with dad’s approval. He is humble with a gentle spirit and absolutely adores Ronnie and sees past the front and to who she really is inside. As the summer continues, her dad, Steve, and her brother Jonah work on a window for a church that was burnt months ago. The pastor of the church felt like Steve was his son. They have a special relationship and he helps him to find what he is looking for and inevitably it is to hear Jesus speak. At the end of the summer the truth comes out that Steve has a terminal cancer and thus the reason he wanted to spend this summer to reconnect with his children. When he tells Ronnie, her thoughts turn to the three years she didn’t speak with her father and she earnestly prays to God that he will multiply their time. You start to see the Holy Spirit working in all of them and even though he loses the battle they all come out stronger in the end. She finished the song that her dad had started months ago and was able to play it for him before he passed, which also inspired her to audition for Julliard and pursue her passion, the piano. She and Will had parted at the end of the summer and not on good terms. Her dad encouraged her to forgive, not only him but mainly herself. He comes to the funeral and promised to call, but leaves you wondering a while what will happen. I could guess the ending of the book after reading a few chapters in and I was hoping I was desperately wrong. I could sense that her dad was having health problems and wouldn’t make it, hence The Last Song title, but I was enthralled with the story. I was so involved with Will and Ronnie’s relationship that I kept my fingers crossed that in the end it would work out. Still hoping after all the sobbing, yes, sobbing I would get my happy ending and you know what……….You will have to read it yourself to see how the story unfolds.
I admire Nicolas Spark for being able to involve so many different characters into one plot. The personalities are so real its hard not to get emotionally involved. I remember not speaking to my parents in my rebellious years, trying to figure out things out myself, when what I really needed was the love of my parents and more importantly, the love of Jesus. When Jesus did take over my life I suddenly had those same remorseful, shameful feelings about the time I had lost with my parents. I sincerely prayed that God would multiply the time I had with my parents and make us whole again. I know I prayed it b,ut it was hard to imagine that it could happen after all we have been through. I learned the same forgiveness and the same redemption. This has been one of my biggest gifts from my Father. Not only do my parents and I feel like we have had that time miraculously back but our relationship was and is so strong. I never thought I would be able to talk so candidly and open to them, but hey, they are my best friends. It made me think back while I was reading and even though it was a fictional story, it made me feel blessed once again that I still have my parents. I love a mainstream author that isn’t afraid of really interjecting the workings of our Lord. Kudos to Sparks, you got me on this one! This is definitely my cup of tea..
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