One Day by David Nicholls
This is my favourite romance novel of all time - it’s so honest about life and how the right person is often in front of you all the time.
The Book
A sumptuous love story that’s totally honest about the pitfalls of love, life and fame. Nicholls writes with a beautiful sensitivity, his characters Emma and Dexter are full of flaws and bad decisions which makes them relatable and loveable. Their lives are messy, their love lives are full of the ‘wrong’ ones and bad decisions, their friendship goes through the rocky phases which we all experience with close platonic relationships and there is none of the usual ‘glamouring’ when it comes to romance novels.
Nicholls manages to explore addiction, fame, romance, friendships, parental relationships, death, breakdowns and career paths all with a sensitivity and ‘real life’ lens that is often sorely missing in books. None of it is romanticised and as you go through the book you get a real sense of the characters growing up and exploring their life paths as one would in real life.
This is a thick book but it’s worth the read - and every page is necessary for building the story. But I would suggest that you read it with a bar of chocolate and a box of tissues.
Ratings
Readability || ****
{ Readability: is the book easy to read, does it have simple yet effective language that is accessible and does it have a good flow}
Perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea - because this book is about learning and immersing oneself in a totally foreign language there are entire sections taken up with lists of Italian words which can feel a bit intense. However apart from this the language used is easy to comprehend, and each sentence flows into the next. It feels more like a conversation one would have over a dinner with a really good friend.
Structure || *****
Each ‘chapter’ is relatively short meaning that even if the content can sometimes feel a bit heavy there isn’t long to go until a natural pause. The story follows a general chronology which makes it easy to follow and despite the original piece being written in Italian the translation feels very natural.
Decadence || *****
Like a beautiful bowl of steaming hot lasagne, this book should be enjoyed with a glass of wine, windows open and a long lazy afternoon ahead for digesting.
Review Accuracy || ***
Hmmmm honestly I was slightly disappointed reading the reviews. There were a lot of people who - like me - adored it. But there were also people who a) took their knowledge of Greek mythology to an obnoxiously academic level or b) missed the point of it entirely and were bored by it.