One Day by David Nicholls

One Day by David Nicholls

The Hollywood-ready latest from Nicholls (The Understudy ) makes a brief pit stop in book form before its inevitable film adaptation. (It's already in development.) The episodic story takes place during a single day each year for two decades in the lives of Dex and Em. Dexter, the louche public school boy, and Emma, the brainy Yorkshire lass, meet the day they graduate from university in 1988 and run circles around one another for the next 20 years. Dex becomes a TV presenter whose life of sex, booze, and drugs spins out of control, while Em dully slogs her way through awful jobs before becoming the author of young adult books. They each take other lovers and spouses, but they cannot really live without each other. Nicholls is a glib, clever writer, and while the formulaic feel and maudlin ending aren't ideal for a book, they'll play in the multiplex. - Publisher's Weekly 

Why I Chose This Book

Again, a purely superficial reason behind this choice. And by superficial, what I mean is Anne Hathaway is in the movie and because I'm a fan of her acting, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to read a David Nicholls book before watching the movie. I did watch Starter For 10 (starring the oh-so-amazing James McAvoy, the other half of the awesome pairing that is Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy) and that movie was rather entertaining. Thus, I was hoping that this will be a Chuck Palahniuk situation. 


Last week, Nora Roberts was interviewed by The Guardian in this interesting and inspiring feature and there was a reference to One Day as well as the struggles that female romance authors have had to push through as opposed to male romance authors. And hence, my decision to finally attempt One Day was solidified.