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Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

What we're reading

'One Day' by David Nicholls

82 replies

MissM · 15/02/2011 14:20

Has anyone read this? I've just finished it and need someone to discuss it with (book club doesn't meet until March to talk about it)!

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Hullygully · 15/02/2011 14:21

I read it, I htought it was rubbish.

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turnitup · 15/02/2011 14:21

Me I really liked it even though I found bith emma & dex annoying at time (more so dex)

I thought the 1 year apart on every chapter really worked well.

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BerryLellow · 15/02/2011 14:24

Hated it, couldn't like any of the characters so found it hard to care about what happened.

Shame really, as I thought the idea for chapter every year was interesting.

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QuickLookBusy · 15/02/2011 14:28

Iv'e just bought it, looks like I shouldn't have bothered!

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Hullygully · 15/02/2011 14:29

Yes, Berry. Was a good idea, badly executed.

Can't understand the hype.

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MissM · 15/02/2011 14:31

I hadn't heard of it at all and after the first few pages was sure I'd hate it, but ended up absolutely loving it. Found it very poignant, very reminiscent of the 90s and thought the characters were very believable. It had its faults, but I loved it.

Looks like it's just me though!

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lulabellarama · 15/02/2011 14:32

Also disliked it.

Weak female lead character and ridiculous big event that he had directly lifted from his time writing for Cold Feet.

Guff.

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Melty · 15/02/2011 14:33

I thought it was an inspired idea, and read the many positive reviews so was really looking forward to it. Loved the references to things I used to do during my late teens and early 20s.
My brother read it and thought it was a bit rubbish, so I read it to prove him wrong.
I was very disappointed.
I thought Dexter was a complete idiot, didn't like him and couldnt work out why Emma would want to be friends with him (even in uni) despite his "beauty" . So I ended up thinking she was an idiot too.
I think the one day bit per year was a brilliant idea, but in practice, it didn't work, as I didnt get to see how the characters had grown. (Or ought to have grown anyway)

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gobehindabushfgs · 15/02/2011 14:34

I cried when they had the big falling-out

emma very annoying and a bit 2D though

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lipglossandlashes · 15/02/2011 14:35

Hated it, everyone else in my book club loved it. Smug characters and a film being made with Anne Hathaway as Emma, awful. Living in the past never actually moving on. Liked David Nicholls Starter for Ten though.

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cestlavie · 15/02/2011 14:40

Actually, I thought it was brilliant. Technically, it's incredibly well written: really good story arc and very well paced and structured. The use of language is also very strong - it feels like the sort of book that other writers turn round and say "bloody hell, that's well written" (as some of cover quotes suggest).

I also love the story and setting, maybe cos it's not a long way from my era. Well pitched and very reminiscent of the time. Although it is layered on a bit thickly here and there, it's beautifully understated in other parts.

In terms of the characters, okay, both Dex and Emma are caricatures, but they're well written, fully rounded and broadly sympathetic ones and, let's face, they're really a plot device to drive the story at the end of the day. Quite a few of the secondary characters are badly written though, Dex's wife, his friend, Em's boyfriend - they feel really lazy and one dimensional which is bizarre and David Nicholl's can write stunning thumbnail sketches (like the waitress in the restaurant).

So, not without its flaws, but overall a beautifully written book (well, for me anyway!)

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MissM · 15/02/2011 14:41

I liked it cos it could easily have tipped into being irritating and smug (as it seemed to have done for most of you here!) but never did (in my opinion). You could believe that the characters were who they were and did what they did - nothing was out of character. It was a light read, but I didn't ever think 'this is completely ridiculous now' or not relate to some aspect of the characters' behaviour. I also cried with laughter at the description of Dex looking after his baby daughter. And I wept at the end!

You can tell David Nicholls always has one eye on the film version when he writes though.

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TaffetaCat · 15/02/2011 14:45

Very average. I knew what would happen.

I just finished Never Let Me Go. Different gravy.

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TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 15/02/2011 15:26

I am reading it now and oscillating between 'good' and 'meh' - however there are some factual inaccuracies that bother me. Mainly that Dex's mum appears to have had her daughter at 15 - she is 49 when ill and Cassie 34. Is this likely / realistic? Given her class and character background.

Anne Hathaway as Emma? Do me a favour. She's awful.

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MissM · 15/02/2011 16:04

Agree about Anne Hathaway. Like there are no decent northern actresses to play Emma?

It's not trying to be 'Never Let Me Go' though is it. I liked it cos it was basically chicklit written by a bloke (what's that called?)

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BalloonSlayer · 15/02/2011 16:09

I loved it. I never saw Cold Feet though. I saw the Dramatic Incident coming, but what I didn't expect were the years' entries after it. Because of that when I finished it I sat and cried - they were what genuinely moved me.

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TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 15/02/2011 16:18

Yes, MissM - rather appropriately Maxine Peake was talking about a similar issue today.

NB: don't spoil the dramatic incident for me!

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cyb · 15/02/2011 16:21

I liked it as I read it on holiday by the pool in Portugal and tbh the Argos catalogue would have had me in raptures ,I was so realxed and happy

But I DID enjoy it

And didnt see the incident coming

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DuplicitousBitch · 15/02/2011 16:25

i enjoyed it because i was and edin at a similar time but it is a pileof twaddle adn the incident is shite. iti s a book that could have finished half way through.

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MissM · 16/02/2011 13:50

Didn't see it coming either and also cried over the chapters that followed. This seems to be a really divisive book (opinion-wise I meant).

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MadeInChinaBaby · 16/02/2011 13:58

I thought it was utter shite.

I saw the 'dramatic incident' coming a mile off, and wished it had happened earlier, preferably in the first chapter.

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mamma2boyz · 17/02/2011 16:40

Dexter was a complete idiot...and not at all fanciable so the whole of the first half annoyed me. 2nd half much better.
Really well written though, just not very likeable character!
Enjoyed it but read it because someone recommended it to me and was disappointed

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iPhoneDrone · 17/02/2011 16:45

rubbish

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TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 17/02/2011 19:18

I'm now in 1999 and it's starting to remind me of one of those 'We love the 90s' clip shows - big mobiles, fusion restaurants, the Rachel, Shed Seven - just a list of irrelevant cultural talk-points.

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lalalonglegs · 17/02/2011 19:34

So glad others felt disappointed by One Day - I was really outraged by the good press it got but there was another thread where everyone on it droned on about how it was their favourite book and how much they empathised with the characters. It just read like a film treatment to me - I imagined Richard Curtis would have snaffled up the rights within seconds.

David Nicholls did write a screamingly funny article about his teenage passion for origami which has softened me towards him a little.