Reviewed by Amanda Keats and Cesca Martin
One Day is the story of Emma and Dexter (Em and Dex), who meet on their final night at university. The book spans their interwoven lives for the next twenty years showing the highs and lows, loves and heartbreaks. The basic concept is that we see a day every year over twenty years to see how their lives develop.
Here, Cesca and Amanda explore whether it manages to live up to the hype...
Amanda: I make it a general rule of thumb not to read books that EVERYONE is reading. With the hype comes raised expectations and equally elevated disappointments. So when everyone started talking about One Day, dubbing it a life altering book guaranteed to have you laughing and sobbing in equal measure, I vowed to leave it well alone... at least until the hype had died down. Then they went and made it into a film...
Cesca: I am the complete opposite. Obsessed with not wanting to feel left out of any bookish chat I tend to buy everything the moment it comes out, build a small book tower and work my way through it. It still seems to take me as long to get round to things though...
Amanda: The main relationship between Em and Dex is a fascinating one. Emma clearly sees something great in Dexter that he has failed to notice. She is always sending him books to read, telling him he can do anything and should push himself harder. She frowns (a lot!) at his run of ditzy but gorgeous girlfriends and worries for him as he falls deeper and deeper into a very dark place. Simultaneously, Dexter is oddly drawn to Emma. He thinks of her often and she is the first person he wants to call when he needs to talk to somebody. While he is surrounded with people who adore him, he realises there is a loyalty in Emma he is unlikely to find elsewhere and grows to really love her. He also seems to fully acknowledge that he might just have it in him to be the man she wants him to be – and longs to reach her high expectations of him. The main issue seems to be that their timing is always off. And as they find other relationships and move further and further away from each other, the chemistry always remains intact. There is a passion in their relationship that cannot be equalled by other partners, who are more complacent and resigned to a quiet, content life which you just know is never going to be enough for either of them.
One of the things I really loved is the time-sensitive references to the 80s, 90s and noughties. The change from phones to mobiles, letters to emails, tapes to CDs and the start of the internet is brilliant. There are many references, too, to political situations and changing fashions (the hair is constantly changing on Emma's head!)
Cesca: Ooh me too. There are some wonderfully nostalgic moments.
Amanda: I really struggled with the opening jump. It starts with a geeky know-it-all Em spending the night chatting and kissing with the incredibly hot but totally arrogant Dex. It then moves onto the following year where they are the very best of friends, pen pals as they travel the globe and checking in with each other on a regular basis. I am not alone it seems in finding this jump completely jarring – not only because you don't know what's been happening over that year, but basically because it is unclear why they would have remained friends. I, personally, find that if the starts lacks plausibility, the rest just wanders off without making any sense – no matter how well written it is (and it is incredibly well written!). Emma is clearly besotted with Dex so wanting to stay in touch with him makes total sense. What isn't clear is why he would stay in touch with her. It just seems ridiculous. Having now read the whole thing, I can see what Nicholls was trying to do with the structure but I just don't agree (sorry David!).
Cesca: I liked the concept - so simple - but agree that the initial leap was not explained well enough. It simply seemed unrealistic that these two people became such good friends in such a short period of time.
Amanda: I was also very disappointed at just how sad the book is. People called it a weepy so I wasn't expecting all giggles and happy times but a “true” reflection of two people's lives over twenty years should have had some ups and downs not all downs with occasional fleeting moments of happiness. It just got too depressing. The sexual tension makes for some electric arguments and compelling dialogue but ultimately you want to smack them for not realising they should be together and as the years drag on, you just get sadder and sadder at the total waste of their time spent apart. The best sad books have a mixture of happy and sad/good and bad, not just a long line of disappointments and heartache. It gets frustrating more than exciting and their longing for each other and missed opportunities are just depressing.
Cesca: The dialogue is a definite highlight and there is no doubting David Nicholls can write fluently and wittily.
Amanda: But there is one absolutely massive issue I have with the book – the two main characters are just not very nice. Emma is clearly very talented but can't make up her mind what she wants to do as a career (fair enough). She becomes complacent and annoying, always keeping her air of superiority. Dexter gets cockier the older he gets and as he starts drinking, doing drugs and sleeping with everything that moves you lose all sympathy for him.
Cesca: I absolutely agree. I just didn't like them! I was beginning to wonder whether I did care what happened to them as they both seemed so self-obsessed and unpleasant.
Amanda: Completely. No matter how annoying or jarring it might be, when you reach the half-way mark, something just drives you on and it wasn't the desire to seem them happy – it seemed to just be frustration at not knowing what was going to happen next. You need to know how it all ends more than want to and it becomes very difficult to put down. You need to know that Emma and Dex will sort it out eventually and wake up and realise how perfect they could be together and how much better and happier they would each be with the other one by their side.
Cesca: I do think the second half of the book became a lot more interesting and there was no doubting that the book was well-written enough for you to continue to turn the page, but, OH, they're STILL annoying.
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