Just finished an interesting book which I enjoyed for the most part. There seems to have been quite a lot of buzz about this book, so I thought I'd give it a go. One Day, by David Nicholls, which I read in audio format, has two central characters - Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew. They meet at University in Edinburgh on the night of their graduation - 15 July 1988. The book then catches up with the two over the next 20 years - always on that same day, 15 July (or St Swithins Day). Both go their separate ways - with careers, relationships and all the paraphernalia of your life as it moves from your early twenties, to your thirties and then heading for the big FOUR-O! Across all those years, they always find that there is no-one they can talk to, or indeed want to talk to, quite like each other. Will they or won't they get it together, or indeed, should they or shouldn't they get it together? This book feels very real in places - funny, nostalgic, excruciatingly embarassing and totally maddening at times. The characters get under your skin and you want to throttle one, or other, or both at times and shout "just tell him/her how you feel you idiot!" The thing to take from this book is ... don't let those little moments slip away - seize the opportunities when they come along. I couldn't give this the full monty score because I got so irritated at the male lead that I lost sympathy for him at times. This could have been to do with the narration - where I found that the accent assigned to Dexter really got on my nerves (sorry Anna Bentinck, but Dexter's "voice" was really offputting). So, it's a FOUR STAR book for me - but well worth a read.
The stats bit:
Length: 448 print pages (16 hours, 26 minutes).
Price I paid: £7.99 (as part of my monthly fee with Audible).
Other formats available in: print; unabridged audio (CD); Ebook (Kindle).
Do they or don't they? Sounds frustrating - just like life really!
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