Dear John

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The people who populate the voices recorded in the letters to an author, as well as of those relationships developed and often broken along the way, are hugely significant. Now, for the first time, hundreds of letters sent to McGahern, from his formative years as a young writer in the late 1950s, through to time of his death in 2006, are fully catalogued and accessible. This correspondence also adds to and contextualises the recently published The Letters of John McGahern edited by Prof Frank Shovlin.

Our story has three parts: a beginning, a middle and an end. And although this is the way all stories unfold, I still can’t believe that ours didn’t go on forever.” I really enjoyed Reading Dear John. In a nutshell, the story follows a twenty three year old in the military who met the girl of his dreams at the beach: Savannah Lynn Curtis. They are together for a few years and then after 9/11, he decides to stay in the army and she ends up with her best friend. The letters sent to an author are less often anthologised, if at all. Yet, they offer a remarkable cross-section through the literary and personal networks, friendships and relationships that intersect with the literary and creative worlds. How do other writers approach and critique McGahern’s writing? What of their own self do they bring to the reading of his works? So much in these letters ties to the world, both physical and imaginative, out of which McGahern wrote and crafted his stories and novels. Ian McEwan, for instance, wrote to McGahern in 2006 stating that he “would dearly love to come and see the land that lies around your imagination”. Trying to explain her interest in John’s dad’s coin collection, Savannah says, "The saddest people I’ve ever met in life are the ones who don’t care deeply about anything at all. Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand." Do you agree with Savannah? Do you think John’s father is a satisfied man? When I first read Dear John- I was an optimistic, romantic teenager. I gave it 3 stars because I wasn't happy with it's ending, I wanted the happily ever after.

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The story is about a romantic couple who fall in love over one summer. They are separated during the man's military service. Alright, it's not always agitating when John narrated his relationship with Savannah. It was good near the end, though. The conflict was real. Even though Savannah became more hateful than before (at least to my own opinion), it was nice to finally read something interesting between them. What happened to John and Savannah in the end wasn't something that everyone would call a happily ever after, but it's still acceptable to me. Since, you know, i don't really adore this couple. :p OK, so...I finally finished. Like a lot of other people, I read this simply because I saw the preview for the movie and I HAVE to read a book before I see the film adaptation. In this case, I really wish I wasn't so anal retentive. Dear John is, dare I say, a pleasure to read, in addition to being incisive regarding the gendering and biases built around the mythopoeia of the epistolary breakup. Carruthers's multidimensional interrogation of the wartime brushoff encompasses fictions, reality, sexual orientation, POWs, social media, and all manner of telling the loved one So long, see you never. This learned and relevant treatment is a unique and deeply researched addition to the literature of broken hearts.” There are beautiful passages of both looking up at the night sky when the Full Moon is shining. Each knowing that the other is also gazing at the same Moon.

I laughed. I cried. I felt nearly all the emotions John and Savannah felt. That is the sign of an incredible book. The way Sparks wrote the novel engulfed me in the story to the point where I had to set out time during the day to get things done, otherwise I would have just read this book all day. The gate to John McGahern's mother's house, Aughawillan, Co Leitrim. Photograph courtesy the McGahern Archive at University of Galway Okay, so, this is my second Nicholas Sparks's novel after A Walk to Remember, which I really loved. It tells a story of John Tyree who takes two weeks off from the army. Then he met a sweet girl named Savannah, who by chance did a volunteering in John's neighborhood. As you might already guess, they fall in love for each other. Really deep. They're quite certain they're gonna get married to each other and live happily ever after. Until 9/11 tragedy ruins everything. John Dear has the gift to capture the social gospel as Jesus and the apostles proclaimed it. His writing is in the tradition of Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, and Daniel Berrigan.” How you doing? Still in the Army? When I first met you I loved you so much I raved about you to all my friends. Tall, handsome, tattoos, a bit on the edgy side ...Living Peace’ is a deeply moving and profoundly inspiring account of John Dear’s journey of enviable courage, boundless faith, unquestioned hope and unconditional love.” This is life story of John Tyree, american special forces soldier and his distance relationship. John was a trouble maker in his youth. After dropped out from his high school John enlisted into army. He had problems with his attitude. In the army John has been changed. John eagerly awaits his discharge from the military so he can begin a life with Savannah, but John also has a deep sense of duty and loyalty to his country and fellow soldiers. After September 11, John makes a decision that will change his life and Savannah’s life forever. Do you think John made the right decision? Does Savannah think he made the right decision? Given the outcome, do you think John regrets his decision? I could handle the slowness and the too-much-narration of this book. but THAT THING, the one that I mentioned above... I couldn't take it. Really. She's just unbelievable. She doesn't even know what she really wants!

Across the archive is a wealth of new material, from letters from Nobel Prize winners, to fan mail from the general public, as well as files of literary and personal photographs, all of which capture and share a further glimpse into the mind, writing and life of John McGahern.New media: DEAR JOHN explores the role of constantly changing technologies in both facilitating intimacy and undermining it in wartime. Has the digital era made it harder or easier to endure separation caused by deployment? And how persuasive is the widely shared view that bad news cuts deeper the faster it arrives—that an electronic Dear John is more damaging than one delivered by mail?

OK, OK, you loved her. I understand. Not when she spotted that your dad was autistic though, that didn't go down well at all - incidentally, I didn't need to know that, but I suppose it was a means to an end so we could all weep over your reconciliation with him ... I didn't by the way. When all is said and done, we do what we do for one another. For friendship. Not for country, not for patriotism, not because we're programmed killing machines, but because of the guy next to you. You fight for your friend, to keep him alive, and he fights for you, and everything about the army is built on this simple premise." And when her lips met mine, I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever.” I was able to feel the magnitude of the pain John felt when he saw Savannah for the first time wearing a wedding ring. The description in the novel is extremely vivid and eloquent. The situations in which the two are placed are realistic and allowed me to picture the settings easily.The song Savannah performs in the film--"Little House"--was actually written and performed by Seyfried, with Hallström asking his star to do it. "I had a piano in my house in Charleston. Every day I'd go home and play. I had a violin, guitar and piano. That's my wind-down method. I was writing the song," she said. "I don't know what it means or where my head was but, at the end of the shoot, Lasse asked me to bring in my guitar to do a freestyle song for a montage. I was like, 'All right.'" Our hero John grew up with a silent, meticulously organized father that he didn't understand. In his teens he began to rebel, hanging out, playing pool and drinking. This continues for a number of years with John working menial jobs, getting several tattoos and going nowhere fast. Eventually John decides its time to grow up and he joins the army. In fact it's during 2 weeks leave that he first meets Savannah, diving into the ocean to rescue her sinking purse. Savannah is your stereotypical good-girl; raised in a stable family she's kind, pretty and hopes to save the world. It's also love at first sight for our couple despite the warnings from her tattoo phobic college friends. Together the pair plans a future together, counting down the days until John's discharge as Savannah helps him understand his father and he in turn feels contentment for the first time in his life. The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount are Jesus’ blueprint for peace. I urge everyone to study John Dear’s beautiful reflections [“The Beatitudes of Peace”] and join his campaign of peace and nonviolence.” Carruthers makes a convincing case that the Dear John letter has helped make women, not war, the culprit for love's breakdown under pressure.” I fell in love with John's character and surprisingly his father too. Each is well written and they felt like real people. I also enjoyed reading about John's military career and the reasons that take men into a war. Savannah as the heroine was a little too perfect for me but their heartbreaking love story and the regret that they both share will keep you up into the wee hours, and leave you wondering about John long after you've finished reading its bittersweet ending.