What really defines a good book? And more importantly, what defines a great book?
I recently, as in less than twenty four hours ago finished Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. Who is by the way one of my favorite writers. And I was devastated by the end of the book. I knew before reading it that the probability of it ending in heartbreak was most likely. So why then was I still surprised that it crushed me in the end? And why do we enjoy books that make us feel as if we just ingested Mexican food with extra peppers?
My theory is that the best books are those that access all of our emotions, happiness, joy, loss, sorrow, and the most powerful love. If you think about books that most people know today there are all of these characteristics. Harry Potter for instance is based around the fact that Harry's parents were murdered. But in this happening he is left with the gift of being chosen, if you can say. Twilight, while none of the main characters die in this series, we all travel with Bells through her transformation into immortality and the eventual loss of her humanity. But it is because of this loss that she finds her true place. And even back to works like, Wuthering Heights, Little Women, My Antonia, Romeo and Juliet, Huckleberry Finn, there is always a huge travesty that takes place and eventually forms the characters in the book.
So I wonder if the real reason we enjoy these kind of books is because we relate better to them if the people in the story suffer normal losses or if we enjoy them because they enable us to release all of our emotions?
And in a book like Dear John was it more devastating because John and Savannah lived but could and would never be together while continuing in their lives knowing that while she loved the man she was married to, he would still never be her life's true love?
