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A review by jonwesleyhuff
One Day by David Nicholls
3.0
The structure of this book is very clever. But a clever gimmick will only get you so far. Thankfully the author uses the idea of charting one specific day each year in the lives of two people over twenty years to full effect. Emma and Dexter are two very fully realized characters full of flaws and thoughts and conflicting emotions that felt real - sometimes uncomfortably so. I liked that the book didn't hold your hand and expected you to keep up with the changes in the characters lives from year to year. Although some were introduced more subtly than others it's not like you could ever miss the big changes. This desire to see how the character's lives would change really provided the book with a compelling narrative thrust that lead me to read the book in the space of a couple of days.
The book isn't perfect. Like so many protagonists in books people end up with jobs in the media and writing books and going off to Paris for the summer which undercuts the realism a bit. And the big event that so many have alluded to... well, things get a bit melodramatic from there on out and I cringe a bit to think of how Hollywood will handle it in the adaptation (currently in production). However, much of this melodrama is balanced out by the wit and humor of the rest of the book which helps even the scales as I think of the book as a whole. Tthe ending does seem to take a while to wrap-up, and I'm afraid I rushed through the final pages a bit just to see where this was all headed. That being said, I really came to care for these characters and enjoyed this book immensely.
The book isn't perfect. Like so many protagonists in books people end up with jobs in the media and writing books and going off to Paris for the summer which undercuts the realism a bit. And the big event that so many have alluded to... well, things get a bit melodramatic from there on out and I cringe a bit to think of how Hollywood will handle it in the adaptation (currently in production). However, much of this melodrama is balanced out by the wit and humor of the rest of the book which helps even the scales as I think of the book as a whole. Tthe ending does seem to take a while to wrap-up, and I'm afraid I rushed through the final pages a bit just to see where this was all headed. That being said, I really came to care for these characters and enjoyed this book immensely.