I love, love, loved the movie for this book (of the same name). When I saw it the first time in high school, I nearly sobbed my eyes out. I'm a weepy girl, but that movie made me beyond weepy -- I was crying possessed.
I read this book to compare it to the movie. And I was pleasantly surprised. Most books are infinitely better than the movie. But this one is exactly the same. It was as if the book was made into the script, word for word.
The one difference that gave me grief was that the book's ending was far better than the movie's. In essence it was the same but there was a incident that was changed. They should have used the book's ending. It would have been a more dramatic end.
But the movie wins over the book for this one. The scenery and the cast override the book's better ending. But this is a book with a good, solid story. Not too sappy. Simple but poignant.
It's a very short book too. I read it standing up in approximately an hour in National Bookstore. A classic.
