One Day - David Nicholls

Synopsis from B&N: It’s 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day—July 15th—of each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.


I don’t know why it still surprises me that so much modern fiction is fully of swearing and sex…but it does.

I heard about this book when I saw a preview for the movie. While I enjoyed the book, I think I’ll be skipping the movie due to the above issues.

All that being said, I think that the format the book took was quite clever. To cover two decades of the relationship between Dexter and Emma by highlighting the same date (coninciding with the day they met), was a unique way to share their story. And, quite frankly, I didn’t feel like I had missed out on anything by the book not covering the other 364 days of each of those years. Nicholls did an excellent job with that aspect.

I didn’t ever grow attached to either Dexter or Emma…or any of the subsidiary characters. I mean, it was an interesting story, but I didn’t feel like I could related to any of the characters.

The ending (well, not the very end but the end of the second to last part) did come as quite a shock to me. I hadn’t seen it coming at all…which I always appreciate.