Lovely Little Shelf

The Book: One Day, by David Nicholls

The Story: On July 15, 1988 Dexter and Emma meet.  It is the day before their college graduation and they know that they are both setting off for big things.  They figure that they will never see each other again, and are mostly ok with that.

As time goes by, however, they really start to think about one another and end up getting back in touch.

We get to peek in at their lives and relationship on July 15 every year for twenty years, for just One Day.

What I Thought: This is one of those books that I picked up 100 times at the bookstore, kind of pining after it.  I loved the whole idea of seeing these people develop, through a really limited window, for 20 straight years.  Brilliant. I was so excited when I opened this on my birthday, in a stack of books from Shaun.  He knows me oh, so well.  I saved it up even though I really wanted to read it because we had a vacation coming up and I always try to save good ones for trips.

So. All that to say, I was way excited for this.

In a way, my excitement was fulfilled.  The technique that the author used really was awesome.  I loved watching the years flip by and seeing fashions and styles and everything change around these characters.  I thought that the prose itself was well thought out and executed. I wasn’t disappointed there.

I think where this book lost me was with these annoying, vapid characters.  I guess what I really wanted was more a story of “real life” people.  Famous VJs and authors and what-have-you just don’t really mean as much to me.  Maybe I read the back of the book wrong, but I was really disappointed when I realized the direction this was headed in.

I also thought that the amount of character development was a little sad.  Over 20 years it really doesn’t seem like either of the characters truly grew or changed as a result of the things that happened in the book.   I felt, at times, like it could have been just a normal ol’ novel, taking place over a couple of months or years.  I think I just would have liked more dynamic character change and life change. I guess I just thought that this was literary fiction and it was more like chick lit… or skating somewhere in-between the two.  I really just wanted him to take this to the next level and he really didn’t.  Meh. Maybe next time, David Nicholls, maybe next time.

I am sounding really negative, huh?  I’m not meaning to.  The thing is, I really did enjoy this.  I was so glad that I chose it for a vacation book because it drew me in enough to keep me interested but was easy-to-read enough to put down without getting lost.

I saw, too, that this is being made into a movie with Anne Hathaway.  Check out the trailer here. Can I even say how perfect that is?  When that puppy makes it to Netflix, I’ll be all over it!

Conclusion: With summer on its way, I say throw this in your beach bag!