Reviewed by Yoko Nonoyama
Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw in the 1970 film adaptation
Love Story was written by Eric Segal in 1970. It became a world-wide bestseller, with over 21 million copies sold in 33 languages. In Japan, it is known as “Aru-Ainoutaâ€, which was released as a movie. Oliver Barrett and Jenny Cavilleri are the main characters in this book about different kinds of loving. Oliver finds it easy to love Jenny, and Jenny teaches Oliver about loving, dying, and being strong. Oliver learns that ‘Love means you never have to say you are sorry’. Their story has made people laugh and cry all over the world.
One day, Oliver Barrett met Jenny Cavilleri at the university library. Their first impressions are not good. They argue, they fight, but they gradually get along with each other and finally they fall in love. They marry and make a home together. They work hard in order to live together and not to rely on their parents, they enjoy their life, and they make plans for the future. But a tragedy happens to Jenny. She is very ill with a blood disease. It is destroying her blood and nobody can stop it. She is dying so they learn that they did not have much time left.
Love Story can move everyone and of course I am the one of them. This book told me not only about loving but also about how important family is. Death comes to everyone so I think we should live life to its fullest and feel happy living with our family. I want sincerely to love someone and I want to be like Oliver and Jenny in the future.
Yoko Nonoyama is a fourth-year student in the Dept. of British and American Cultural Studies.