Three Weeks with my Brother: A Book Review

Nicholas Sparks and Micah Sparks, Three Weeks with My Brother (audio books, 2004, 9 hours 20 minutes).

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This is my second book by Nicholas Sparks (this one also has his brother Micah as a co-author). I read The Notebook shortly after my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, based on recommendations by those who knew my interest in the topic. At the time, I joked that The Notebook was my chic-lit for the year, but enjoyed it because Noah, the main character in the story, grew up in the salt marsh which was similar to my childhood. After my review of The Notebook, a number of people recommended this book, thinking I’d identify with their adventure. There were parts of this book that I really enjoyed and which drove me to tears and other parts of it that drove me crazy.

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Three Weeks with my Brother centers on a round the world trip the two Sparks’ boys take. In telling the story of the trip, which starts in Florida, goes to Guatemala to check out Mayan ruins, then to Peru for Machu Picchu, then on to Easter Island. The trip next goes to Ayers Rock in the Australian outback, to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Taj Mahal in India, ancient caves in Ethiopia, the Island of Malta and finally to northern Norway… When the trip starts out, the two Spark boys are excited about his grand adventure, much like my dog pants and dances when I tell him he can go with me in the truck. They call each other Little Brother and Big Brother and pal around like preteens. They are quickly bored at looking at pottery and old stuff and didn’t seem to have much interest in the cultures they were visiting. It was more like they were interested in being able to say they’ve gone around the world than in the journey itself. Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed with their journey. Furthermore, a pampered junket doesn’t qualify for an adventure in my book.

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That said, I really enjoyed the other part of the book, where we learn about their lives growing up. For most of their younger years, their father was studying in an attempt to earn a doctorate. He later became a professor, but until then, the family endured a lot of hardship and even after that, they were never flush with material possessions. This leads the two boys to make a pact to be a millionaire by the time they were 35 (they both made it). We learn about the tragedies in their lives. Their mother died from injuries she sustained after being thrown from a horse. This happened shortly after Nicholas’ marriage. Then their younger sister came down with a brain tumor. While she was stable (and after the birth of her children), their dad died in a car accident. During this time, Nicholas was struggling with pharmaceutical sales, starting a family and writing novels. He sold the rights to publish the third book he wrote, The Notebook, for one million dollars and started a spree of best sellers and books being made into movies. His brother, who’d sold real estate, ended up starting several manufacturing companies and also became very successful. Then their sister’s cancer returned and she died, leaving the two Spark boys on their own. Shortly afterwards, they took off on a round the world trip.

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As a travelogue, I wouldn’t recommend this book. As a memoir, I would recommend it. I listened to the unabridged audio version.

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PS: In preparing the links to this post, I just reread my review on The Notebook. That review was in 2006 and I wrote that I was glad that my mother wasn't as bad as the woman in the book, but now I realize that she's been at that stage for probably the last two years... Last night I dreamed I had a conversation with my mother and she was talking, using full sentences without forgetting where she was going with her thoughts. I wish I could have stayed asleep.