Book Review: One Day By David Nicholls

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Book Review: One Day by David Nicholls

Reviewed by Pam Mc

 

Every now and then a book comes along that sweeps you up into the story and doesn’t let you go until you’ve finished it; One Day by David Nicholls is one such book!

 

It’s so well written and immediately engaging that I felt the real world slip away as I entered Emma and Dexter’s while they bickered, teased, flirted and laughed around me.

 

The book opens with the two of them curled up in bed at Dexter’s University digs in Edinburgh on 15 July 1988. They are talking about their plans now that they’ve graduated. Emma wants to do something that ‘makes a difference’ and Dexter wants to be famous but first he's going travelling. Emma has liked Dexter for years but is feeling insecure now she's got him:

 

'Here she was, after four romantically barren years, finally, finally in bed with someone she really liked, had liked since she first saw him at a party in 1984, and in just a few hours he'd be gone.'

 

This is probably a good thing as Dexter has other ideas on the ‘romance’ front:

 

‘At twenty-three, Dexter Mayhew’s vision of his future was no clearer than Emma Morley’s. He hoped to be successful, to make his parents proud and to sleep with more than one woman at the same time, but how to make these all compatible?’

 

Both characters are well drawn; Emma has an intensity to her that contrasts perfectly with Dexter's more selfish character. Emma cares too much, Dexter too little.

 

Each chapter of the book begins on the same date but in a different year as we follow the lives, loves, careers, successes, disappointments, failures and personal battles of Emma and Dexter over the next twenty years.

 

One Day is a brilliantly written comedy and a love story of our times, as it vividly brings to life the key periods of the last two decades and their impact through the lives of Emma and Dexter. It is, quite simply, a joy to read.

 

 

Publisher : Hodder www.hodder.co.uk

IBSN: 978-0-340-89698-3

Price: £7.99