One day?

[beguilingeyes]

Is it just me? did anyone else hate this book? I've read it twice now and really didn't like it very much.
SPOILER ALERT
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He's horrible to her all her life and then we're supposed to feel sorry for him?

I think the Netflix Emma is better than the film Emma, at least you can tell it's trying to comment on class. And I'm enjoying the very nostalgic sound track, Dexter's fashion sense (which celebrity is he dressed like for this year), and Emma's book choices. But can't see how anyone younger would enjoy it, because the basic story is so annoying, so if you don't get the nostalgia for the 90s what is the point.

See, that's why I hated it. I graduated on exactly the same day as Emma and Dexter and none of it was relatable. Starting with them being called Emma and Dexter.

Working class northern girls who graduated with me or were in my age group were called Michelle, Karen, Julie, Debbie, Lisa etc. In my whole school there wasn't one Emma. I remember us all being amazed when twins called Hannah and Charlotte joined the school. People where we lived just didn't have names like that. Rich boys (not as in old money Boris rich, but Dexter rich) were called Tim, Adam, Chris, whereas working class ones were Wayne, Dean, Dale. There were at least 3 Andrews and Stephens in each class.

Maybe that's what irked. It was written by someone who thought they'd got the cultural references right, but actually, they'd moved 5-10 years ahead. I can see the early parts of it being late 90s but not late 80s which it's supposed to be.

They were all horrible as well. His mother. Him. Emma might as well have had a whippet in her bedroom and a racing pigeon which she wore a flat cap to train such was the nonsense about her background.

Emma was reasonably popular in the 60s and 70s so I don't think that was a bad choice but there is no way parents from the upper middle class would have called their son Dexter in the 1960s.

Reading the book ATM for book club and my first thought was that it was an odd name for him @JaninaDuszejko.

Loved the Netflix series and read the book afterwards.

OMG what a disappointment! Book Dexter is just an awful, charmless human and his internal dialogue makes it clear how much of an arse he is and how little thought he gives to Emma.

By contrast the actor’s portrayal of him was so laden with charm, humour, kindness and vulnerability, even in his dickish moments. We were also spared the running commentary on what he really thought about women - all of which meant that it was possible to see how Emma would have fallen for him.

It also suggested the possibility that Dexter might always have been burning a candle for Emma which added real possibility to the will-they-won’t-they moments. Whereas it really does feel like book Dexter ultimately runs out of options and settles on Emma in quite a convenient and cynical way.

Book Dexter does feel like he has been written by a man and I’d struggle to see any female reader falling for his character. However, Netflix Dexter feels very much like he’s been directed by a woman for the benefit of women.

This is a rare case in which I’d recommend skipping the book and going straight to the series.

I haven't watched the series, but I find it quite odd that on Netflix the trailer and the still photo of it does not show one of the two main characters, British Asian Ambika Mod (Emma). Instead "English rose" Eleanor Tomlinson (Sylvie) is featured along with Leo Woodall (Dexter). Obviously Sylvie is a major character, but the plot is all about Emma and Dexter's relationship. It makes me uncomfortable that she has been omitted and makes me wonder why they have done this.

Sorry, not the point of this thread. but adaptations have been discussed and it struck me when I looked it up tonight.

Yeah, I thought that was an interesting choice by Netflix as well. My daughter is quite critical of them w.r.t. diversity, she says they'll have e.g. a gay character in very gay shows about being gay but don't have characters that just happen to be gay in 'non-gay' shows. So you have to be in your box. Maybe Ambika Mod has fallen foul of that kind of viewpoint here as well. It's crazy though, she's so good in it.

Where is Eleanor Tomlinson featured? I can only see the two leads:

I started the novel twice, and failed to finish it twice, finding the characters of Dexter and Emma highly irritating. I've never seen the film, but DH suggested watching the Netflix series and much to my surprise, I'm really enjoying it (only two episodes in so far!). I was at uni in the 90s too, so there's a large dollop of nostalgia to savour, but also I think Emma in particular is far more likeable in the series than she was in the book.

Nobody should call anyone Dexter. Baby boy, dog, cat or crayfish. It's a horrible name.

I didn't enjoy this book. I didn't like either of the characters. He was v one dimensional and she was annoying and self righteous.

Funnily enough I did enjoy the film. The flatness of their characters worked better for 90 mins.

Not tempted to stay with these characters any more to watch the tv show.

I hated the book for exactly the same reason as you.

It's a typical 'don't we all love a posh bad boy' thing. It's clear to me that the writer wanted to be a Dexter.

I hated the book for exactly the same reason as you.

It's a typical 'don't we all love a posh bad boy' thing. It's clear to me that the writer wanted to be a Dexter.

Went on to take a photo to put on here and One Day on Netflix has changed. The trailer now contains 'Emma'. Since I have started to watch it, the photo above isn't a still anymore.

My general image for One Day is a picture of 'Dexter's' face and doesn't match @Southeastdweller's.

From the image and trailer that I was commented on, you could easily assume that the series was about Dexter and Sylvie's relationship as Emma wasn't shown or commented on. I presumed it was the same for everyone and wouldn't change otherwise I would have taken a photo at the time.

Netflix is fairly random in the still they choose. It seems to change. I didn’t even see a still, I just saw the trailer auto play as I was flicking through.

And the trailer I saw I didn’t think it was about Sylvie at all. Maybe there are different trailers!

I liked both the book and the Netflix series and a large part of this is nostalgic because I lived as a young adult through the same time period as Em and Dex. I went to university 1987-90 so the same generation as Em and Dex. I knew similar personalities at university, chippy northern girls usually the first in the family to go to university having to compete for places on equal terms with posh rich public school boys (think David Cameron, Jacob Rees Mogg, George Osborne). When I graduated in 1990 I had to go to London to get my first job and within a year the country was in recession with mass redundancies and negative equity hence Emma having to work in a grim restaurant. I remember having an interview for a job as as an editorial assistant In a publishing house in London and the pay was worst than working in a pub and wouldn’t even pay the rent so those types of job you could only do if you also had family money to support you. The 90s was an extraordinary period which started in recession and ended with the moneyed Cool Britannia years, the scene in Quaglinos epitomise the excesses and wealth heralding what was to come in the noughties and the New Labour years. Socially it was also a time of massive change the most significant for me was the tackling of institutional racism as a result of the murder of Stephen Lawrence. It also made society look at itself more and start to question and deal with other areas of discrimination. It was also the time of the poll tax riots and the last time we would have live without the internet and social media. It was nice to see the graduation ball with everyone just enjoying themselves letting their hair down and interacting without phones coming out to film it all and thinking how this would all look on instagram the morning after. I watched the Netflix series first then read the book and found the series very faithful to the book. I found both Em and Dex in the book believable and I think it caught the spirit of the time, the laddish ladette culture, the poverty then massive wealth, a society being more aware of itself and tackling ingrained problems. It really was a momentous decade.