An obscure author is hired to ghostwrite for a catatonic lit phenom in a Colleen Hoover adaptation that explores the stories we tell ourselves about other people. Whenever Hollywood latches obsessively onto the oeuvre of a pop novelist du jour, the law of averages dictates that the ensuing spate of films can’t be all bad: More than a couple of those ’90s John Grisham-based potboilers were solid, while in “The Notebook,” we actually got one Nicholas Sparks movie that people remember two Key points and original sources are listed below.

• An obscure author is hired to ghostwrite for a catatonic lit phenom in a Colleen Hoover adaptation that explores the stories we tell ourselves about other people.S1

• Whenever Hollywood latches obsessively onto the oeuvre of a pop novelist du jour, the law of averages dictates that the ensuing spate of films can’t be all bad: More than a couple of those ’90s John Grisham-based potboilers were solid, while in “The Notebook,”...S2