According to Nicholas Sparks' agent query letter for the novel The Notebook, the book is written as a Southern novel, echoing the "local color" genre that emphasizes characteristics of the region--in this case, the South--where the story takes places. Some elements of life in the South that Sparks emphasizes are the kindness of the people, the commitment to remembrance, the traits of loyalty and honoring tradition, and of course, love. The Notebook is a love story though not set in the genre-specific formulaic style of the romance novel. Sparks also states that it is written in "lyric prose," a detail that sets it apart from any postmodernist or experimentalist genres.