"the notebook" is about two nameless twins left by their mother at the start of ww2, forced to live in poverty with
their grandmother who constantly insults them, her favorite phrase being "sons of a bitch". They do their best in
the situation they are giving and help people in the town to keep themselves alive. The reason its called a "the
notebook" is they have a secret notebook which they write their daily lives in, as proof of their existence. They
also use this notebook and various other books like a dictionary as their only means of education, studying every
day as much as possible. Throughout the book they also do what they call exercises, which are things to keep their
minds off the horrors of war and poverty, starving themselves, beating themselves, insulting themselves. Heres a
quote from the book:
Grandmother often hits us with her boney hand, a broom, or a damp cloth. She pulls our ears and grabs us by the hair.
Other people slap and kick us, we don't even know why.
The blows hurt and make us cry.
Falls, scratches, cuts, work, cold, and heat cause pain as well.
We decide to toughen our bodies so we can bear pain without crying.
We start by slapping and then punching one another. Seeing our swollen faces, Grandmother asks:
"Who did that to you?"
"We did, Grandmother."
"You had a fight? Why?"
"For nothing. Don't worry, Grandmother, it's only an exercise."
"An exercise? You're crazy! Oh well, if that's your idea of fun..."
We are naked. We hit one another with a belt. At each blow we say:
"It doesn't hurt."
We hit harder, harder and harder.
We put our hands over a flame. We cut our thighs, our arms, our chests with a knife and pour alcohol on our wounds.
Each time we say:
"It doesn't hurt."
After awhile, we really don't feel anything anymore. It's someone else who gets hurt, someone else who gets burned, someone else who gets cut, who feels pain.
We don't cry anymore.
also a pretty good of example of the style in which the book is written.
Overall its a pretty sad and perverse book. Lots of fucked up sex, death, betrayals, surprises. I would consider it a standalone masterpiece.
But the sequels are equally as engaging. Near the end of the first book the twins split up, one leaves the secluded and cutoff town they live in by the means of escape,I wont mention how but its a huge wtf.
Anyway "the proof" is about the twin who stays in the original town and his struggles to find meaning in his life without his twin brother. He becomes very sick for a while but he gets over it and one day comes across a women trying to drown her deformed baby in a river. he asks if she needs help with said task, but she eventually admits she can not do it and forgets the idea. he ivites her to stay at his home and help raise the child, he does this and the child ends up being the main focus of the story for a while.
Wont ruin that but its a pretty sad story overall.
"The Third Lie" is about the other twin brother name Claus and his life from when he made it over the fence to a new town, he is forced to sign a sheet of paper which contains three lies on it, the last one being he has a new fake name, Klaus. he gets the short end of the stick in terms of life...
Honestly the third lie confused the shit out of me, I need to reread it to make sense of it all. Overall the themes of the book seem to be that passion is the curse of mankind, and will only lead to death of you or the people you love.
Also theres this really cool side story about a guy called victor who ends up strangling his sister to death, oddly enough hes says the more provocative words in the whole book, words that echo the loudest and strike the most chords to me. Obviously it was wrong to kill his sister and he is insane, but he has a way with words.
