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

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Original poster

'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)!

OP posts:

Xenia · 17/02/2011 19:40

I did like it. It is a light read and I read it on holiday and enjoyed it.

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 17/02/2011 19:40

I think if a woman had written it, it wouldn't have got that much press or broadsheet reviews. Like Julian Barnes Talking It Over - it's a man writing a RELATIONSHIP book and therefore it must be BIG and BRILLIANT. Whereas a woman is just being typically obsessed with domestic subjects and not epic themes.

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 18/02/2011 13:15

I have finished it now. It had an end that just went on and on and on.

A 3 star effort. Well-written, entertaining, differently structured chick-lit or ITV prime time drama (or should that be dicklit? ) Fun but totally superficial. By tomorrow I will have completely forgotten the characters.

I also have a number of issues that can't really be gone into here without Spoilers.

Original poster

MissM · 18/02/2011 16:15

Ah, dick lit. That's the male chick lit equivalent I was searching for.

OP posts:

MrsJohnDeere · 18/02/2011 16:30

Utter tosh

Can't understand why anyone raves about it.

Caro1302 · 18/02/2011 21:59

I thought the references to dates were very well-observed. I was at uni in 1989 so it brought back loads of memories for me, and the description of 1st and 2nd marriages was spot-on in my experience.

However I couldn't like Emma or Dexter so I couldn't bring myself to care much about what happened after they'd got together. The dramatic incident left me unmoved and I found the whole book frustrating as it could have been brilliant.

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 18/02/2011 22:31

But Caro - Dexter had a DVD in 1996 - when the first DVD wasn't released till 1997! That totally RUINED it for me. And I think he had an ipod ahead of time as well.

[sadbitchemoticon]

Sarahg1969 · 21/02/2011 23:08

I've been desperately searching the Net for SOMEONE who's picked up all the historical inaccuracies in One Day, but Nicholls seems to have got away with it. I'm pleased some of you people are eagle-eyed.

Here are just a few of my observations, and I'm only up to 1997:

1 Minging/minger not in popular use until max 10 years ago, certainly not 1993.
2 'Middle-class' tattoos didn't take off until a few years ago.
3 'Mentalist' was coined in late 90s. Certainly not used in early 90s.
4 Misuse of the word 'sat' instead of 'sitting' is a very recent (and annoying) phenomenon. It was generally used correctly in early 90s.
5 'Gangster' cool was not big in 1995.
6 Also wrong in mid-90s were big watches, titanium objects.
7 Young professional women didn't carry the 'obligatory' water bottle in 1994. That's the last six or seven years, too.
8 DVDs mentioned in 96 - not introduced in Europe until 1999.

BalloonSlayer · 22/02/2011 09:44

I'd counter some of your points though Sarah, though I am not trying to make out that it's a particularly well-researched book.

My ex-husband and his friends frequently used the word "ming" to mean a smell. Something that was minging was smelly. I have not seen or heard from him since 1993.
Hylda Baker - "I was sat sitting there." - sat instead of sitting is a northern thing.
Water bottles - I am sure I remember them even before 1990.

daimbardiva · 22/02/2011 14:38

I finished this the other night - and enjoyed it. It's not a life-changer by any means, but I found it very readable, and liked the idea of it. I also thought the "one day" a year thing really came into it's own at the end once the "dramatic incident" had happened (which I saw coming a mile off). In fact, unusually the end of the book was almost the best bit - I found it to be the most revealing and telling about the characters.

I like David Nicholl's style of writing (although at times I had to remind myself I wasn't reading Jonathon Coe).

mellicauli · 22/02/2011 14:47

A bit of a pot noodle of a book: ultimately unsatisfying but can't help but finish it. I went to uni in 1989. It should have spoken to me but it just didn't.

"Minging/minger" was certainly common currency in Ireland in 1989. It meant dirty/dirty person and could easily stray in meaning. My friend had 2 middle class tattoos a couple of years after uni. Not sure if her Mum knows yet..

notreallycommittedtonicknames · 22/02/2011 15:17

Afraid I thought it was rubbish too. Couldn't like the characters and couldn't understand how they could like each other either. Glad some of you agree with me as I was beginning to think I was the only one!

nikki1978 · 23/02/2011 15:49

Just finished this and thought it was rubbish. It never really gripped me and I agree the characters were a bit blah. I found the end really depressing as Dexters life ended up just being really shit all in all didn't it?

Glad I have finished it!

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 23/02/2011 15:53

Also dexter's prod co was a PLC - so it had floated even though it had never traded or participated in business activity???

mottledcat · 23/02/2011 18:27

I don't think anyone of his class/age would actually be called 'Dexter'!!

But I enjoyed the book. Agree is so obviously going to be a film. Read more like a screenplay really.

sleeplessinderbyshire · 23/02/2011 22:21

i loved it and found the scene where dexter is in sole charge of the baby one of the funniest descriptions of hapless fatherhood I have ever read

Original poster

MissM · 24/02/2011 07:00

I started my first job in 1994 and carried a water bottle everywhere. I did raise my eyebrows over the DVDs, but Dexter worked in the media so perhaps he had them first

OP posts:

QuickLookBusy · 25/02/2011 15:32

I've just finnished it and really enjoyed it. It's basically good old fashioned love story.

My DH and I met in the summer of '88, I'm northern and a bit working class, DH is from Oxford and a bit posh. Thankfully that's where the similarities in our lives ends.

I agree with the name Dexter-really too American.

jinglesticks · 26/02/2011 19:51

I agree it wasn't great. the fact that you only heard about one day every year meant I could never forget that there was an author making this stuff up, so I never really believed they were real people iyswim. I don't think they were very believable actually, and but 2 dimensional.

BUT there were some great scenes. I read it in one night, whilst up bfing dd every 3 hours and I was terrified all through the "looking after the baby scene" at what he might do!

HighlandTea · 27/02/2011 00:05

So glad to see I'm not the only one who really disliked this book, I keep seeing it everywhere and wondering if I just didn't get it.

It left me feeling really down, Emma spent so much of her life wanting and waiting for him despite how vile he seemed to me and then when they grow up and seem like they might be able to make each other happy it's all over. I felt a little like she'd wasted her life.

The one day thing is good in theory but a little to convenient that then the accident happened on the anniversary of that first day/chapter. Basically you either missed important stuff or felt it was a bit contrived that things happened on that same date. Can't win either way!

justagirlfromedgware · 06/03/2011 17:24

I also found it very disappointing. Dexter is a very unpleasant character. Maybe it's just me, but the constant drunkenness would have turned me off on day one, let alone for 20 years. The book did succeed though in capturing that desolation of being single and poor when one is meant to be having the time of one's life. I also thought the depiction of Emma as never seeing that she's pretty even though she clearly is - is rather insightful - making the perspective of a male author rather vital in this instance.

alittleteapot · 07/03/2011 19:37

I"m surprised such a negative response to this. While definitely pretty light in many ways - a bit of a formuaic humour threading through - but it was very readable and I enjoyed it. I agree Dexter was so awful it made it hard to relate or sympathise with him. But I thought there were some central themes that were really poignant about that (my) generation and taht the book deserves praise for that.
Both characters represented a really common trait for that generation in that despite privileged starts in life - Dexter's money, Emma;s intelligence, neither is equipped with any wisdom in how to deal with life itself. Dexter is infected with a (very common) lust for celebrity and shallow instant gratification; Emma with self-doubt and insecurity also based on shallow values that unfortunately have become central to our culture. It's only through spending their 20s having a pretty lousy time (Dexter thinks he's having a good time but isn't really. Emma isn't whatever way you look at it.) that they finally find the wisdom to understand their own self worth/real deeper values. The point is is it too late?

anyway that's what i got from it - i already think younger generations are getting sorted younger and that "generation x" was cursed by thinking they could have it all but weren't very well equipped.

am i projecting my own little theories onto it? nice to sound off anyway having just finished the book

elkiedee · 08/03/2011 14:17

I thought it was an ok read but has had a lot of fuss made about it. I think it's chicklit only it's written by a man so somehow it's more serious.

piebald · 10/03/2011 19:09

Read it in a night really enjoyed it at the time but dont remember much about it now!!

sue6264 · 17/03/2011 19:09

awesome! loved it. did make me cry though.....

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