The glow of silence (novel)
The Shine of Silence is a novel by Nicholas Sparks published in the United States in 2006 under the title Dear John .
Content description
The novel is on the one hand about the love affair between the student Savannah and the soldier John Tyree, on the other hand about John's relationship with his father.
The story begins with John Tyree's childhood in Wilmington, North Carolina. His father, who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome and has no great passions other than his coin collection, raises him alone. This coin collection is also the only thing that connects father and son. Although John originally started this hobby, it is John's father who is increasingly becoming obsessed with it. Since John is less and less interested in it at the same time, father and son ultimately distance themselves from each other even with this last thing in common. John rebels to get attention from his father. His life was generally disoriented until he decided to join the army .
On a visit to his father's home, he meets the student Savannah. She, too, is only in Wilmington on her semester break to get involved socially. John is impressed with Savannah's commitment, and the two grow closer together. Savannah quickly finds good contact with John's father, as she knows how to deal with autistic people : Alan, who is the brother of her good friend Tim, is, like John's father, autistic. John is surprised at how carefree and understanding she is with his father.
Savannah will soon have to go back to college, but the young relationship should not be lost. John promises Savannah that in a year from the end of his military service, he would like to build a future together with her. From then on, he writes several letters with Savannah from his locations around the world. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 interfere with the end of duty, as John feels obliged to extend his service. When John informs Savannah of this decision over a weekend at home, she is angry, then sad, but finally agrees to wait for him.
John is sent to Afghanistan. There he waits longingly for letters from Savannah that are no longer coming. After two months he receives a last letter from her in which she writes that she will marry another man. John is injured, destroys all letters he has collected and concentrates on his work as a soldier. Even after being shot on a mission, he stays with the army. When he received the bad news that his father had suffered a stroke , he returned to the USA for the first time. A discussion takes place between the two of them at the father's bedside just before his father dies.
Lonely and alone, John mourns, but then goes in search of Savannah and finds her on her parents' farm. She had opened a horse farm there for the therapy of autistic children, but failed. So all her attention is on her husband - Tim, as John soon learns - who has terminal lymphatic cancer and is being treated as an inpatient in the hospital. When they visit Tim in the hospital, he tells John that Savannah still loves him. Back at the farm, John and Savannah speak out, and it becomes clear that they both wish they could have a future together. But as it is, John sets out and sells his father's coin collection before returning to work. He sends the money to Savannah to pay for Tim's expensive medication and home care.
filming
In 2010, The Shine of Silence (Dear John) was made into a film with Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried in the lead roles.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Dear John in the Internet Movie Database (English)
