Book Review: One Day by David Nicholls.

Product details:
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton.
Paperback, 435 pages.
Release date: February 4th 2010 (first published 2009).
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Ages: Adult.

It's 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. They both know that the next day, after college graduation, they must go their separate ways. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. As the years go by, Dex and Em begin to lead separate lives—lives very different from the people they once dreamed they'd become. And yet, unable to let go of that special something that grabbed onto them that first night, an extraordinary relationship develops between the two. 

Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day—July 15th—of each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.

Wonderfully witty and observant David Nicholls’ One Day has won over both readers and critics alike since its release in 2009.  Reading like a screenplay, it was inevitable that this book would see its big screen transfer sooner rather than later, and so, with the movie recently hitting cinemas across the world, I thought it was high time I read One Day and found out for myself what it is that makes this book so special.

One Day tells the story of two very different people, Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley over twenty years, providing us with fragments of their lives on one day, July 15^th, each year. We follow Emma and Dex from the end of their university days and the beginning of life in the real world, right through their twenties, thirties and early forties and all the changes those decades bring.  We get to witness their hopes and fears, their dreams, their loves, their losses and all the while we wonder if they will ever be more than just good friends, or rather if they should ever be more than just good friends, because Emma and Dex are not what you would call a match made in heaven.  Emma is a bookish working class northerner with low self-esteem while Dex, less academically inclined and from a privileged background is good-looking and confident to the extreme. They say though that opposites attract, and Emma has always had a crush on Dex.  When, after their first night together, they go their separate ways, she can’t but wonder what might have been, and keeps in touch by sending him long letters as he travels around the world. Self-absorbed Dex can barely manage to send her one-line postcards in return, and doesn’t take much meaning from her painstakingly written letters.   Essentially he’s not ready for a relationship, but as the years progress and Emma and Dex maintain their friendship, has their moment passed, or will there still be time for romance?

 As I was reading One Day I wondered if I would connect with the characters. The structure of the book means that the reader only gets to delve into the lives of Emma and Dex for a few hours every year, but the truth is I don’t think I have ever known characters as well as I got to know these two, and I was sad to say goodbye to them.  The characters and their lives are written with such realism that everyone will identify with them in some way, and therin lies the beauty and the mass appeal of this book. Emma and Dex are flawed, realistic characters. You will see something of yourself or someone you know in them, while their friendship is universally relatable.  Not only does One Day ponder  ‘the one that got away’ or ‘the friend who might have been something more’  it also raises that age old question that asks if men and women can ever truly be just good friends, and I think everybody has asked themselves that at one time or another!

One Day is an overall great read, living up to all the praise and hype that it has received. Along with the engaging and well written story of Emma and Dex that will make you laugh and cry, One Day is also a fantastic cultural narrative and has a  nostalgic element to it as it journeys through the years. I really enjoyed reading Emma and Dex’s story I’m now all ready to experience the movie and to judge Anne Hathaway’s accent for myself!