One Day

This isn't great literature, but it's entertaining and told in a subtler way than I expected, despite a tricky mix of humour and sadness. In particular, the "ending" was not at all what I expected (and the better for it), but I would have stopped the book at that point, rather than drag out the story for a few more chapters, which I think weakened the overall impact.

PLOT
Dexter and Emma are at the same university and know each other by sight, but only meet properly on the evening after graduation, on 15th July 1988. Then they go their separate ways, but stay in touch, on and off. The book catches up with each of them on that date every year for nearly 20 years, through a mixture of his viewpoint and hers, including a few letters and show more voicemails. The format makes it quite a page-turner.

It is essentially a story of missed opportunities: Emma and Dexter were “unsure about what had happened and what would happen next” rather sums it up.

The central question is the "When Harry Met Sally" conundrum of whether men and women can just be friends, especially when there is an intermittent frisson between them.

The central problem was that I was never quite convinced why their friendship was so deep and enduring.

DEXTER and EMMA
Dexter is the indulged only-child of affluent parents: a vain, feckless hedonist. Emma is clever, idealistic, geeky and working class, with self-esteem issues.

Over the years, each has triumphs and failures and each has moments of wanting to make a move on the other. Sometimes their friendship is intense and at other times, very distant.

WRITING STYLE
One aspect that I liked was the way Nicholls plays with the reader's expectations. For example, some chapters open referring to "him" or "her", but tantalise the reader for a while as to whether that person is Dexter, Emma or someone else altogether. Similarly, sometimes you read a letter or message and only later discover that it was not received.

WILL THEY... WON'T THEY... WHY THEY?
So what do Emma and Dexter see in each other that binds them over so many years? They have almost nothing in common, and she realises from the outset that he is "an idiot" with a short attention span. Perhaps he likes knowing someone "ordinary", to convince others that he is vaguely in touch with reality, but there is guilt too, most noticeably early on when he wants to leave a generous tip in her restaurant, but "Emma felt another small portion of her soul slip away". Another time "He wanted to share all this excitement with Emma, introduce her to new possibilities, new experiences, new social circles", but is it really that he wants to share, is it that he feels his life is empty, or even than he wants to show off to her? At times they reveal a deep devotion, but Dexter "knows that he can always cancel Emma" if something better comes along. Is it that Nicholls can't decide or that the characters can't? (I can’t decide which.)

QUOTES
Some random quotes that capture the style and atmosphere of the book – some hint at SPOILERS:

* "Nothing here [Emma's room] was neutral, everything displayed an allegiance or point of view."
* "He wanted to live life in such a way that if a photograph were taken at random, it would be a cool photo."
* Making love, a man was "taking care throughout to ensure that he was in no way objectifying her".
* "At this stage in his life, his main criterion for choosing a career was that it should sound good in a bar, shouted in a girl's ear."
* "They were immune to each other now, secure in the confines of firm friendship."
* "Over the years she had reached a level of familiarity with Dexter where it had become possible to hear an idea enter his mind... she should hear the sound of his thoughts."
* "plagiarising 'girlfriend behaviour'"
* Living with a comedian, "Life continued against this tinnitus of mirth."
* "Reading and writing were not the same - you couldn't just soak it up and squeeze it out again."
* “Envy was just the tax you paid on success.”
* “Nothing in the world could be more melancholic than an unwanted engagement ring. It sat in the suitcase… emanating sadness like radiation.”
* Sex with [x] is like a particularly exhausting game of squash, leaving him aching and with a general sense that he has lost.”
* “These days grief seems like walking on a frozen river; most of the time [x] feels safe enough, but there is always the danger that [x] will fall through.”

Overall, it reminded me of some of Jonathan Coe’s books, and I later noticed that he had supplied a cover quote. show less

Ahhh...the joy of reading about two people being miserable for twenty years...

Well yes, there's that, however One Day is a very well written and a compelling read that will keep you up into the wee hours of the morning. I kept reading about this one and the premise sounded intriguing so I had to give it a try. The book follows Dexter and Emma for a span of twenty years, telling the story of where they are in their lives on one day ~ July 15 ~ every year. From everything I had heard (and read in the gazillion blurbs,) I expected this to be a love story, and while Emma does yearn to be with Dexter, love story it is not. What it is instead is a tale of lives misspent on bad decisions and two people who never quite figured out how to be show more happy.

One Day starts out twenty years ago, the morning after Dexter and Emma have hooked up. They've just graduated from college and their "real lives" are about to begin. Emma is idealistic and has harbored a crush on Dexter for a while. Dexter...well, Dexter doesn't seem to care very deeply about anything. They go their separate ways but remain friends over the years.He eventually gets a job as a Howard Stern like TV host and Emma begins working in a Mexican restaurant but dreams of writing. His life is a rapid descent into drinking, drugs, and sleeping with EVERY woman he crosses paths with. I found it really hard to have any sympathy for his character and to tell the truth, I kept hoping something awful would happen to him to make him wake up and quit being such an ass. But even when bad things did happen to him, he continued on with his selfish, self-destructive ways. Emma's life meanwhile is quiet and plods along slowly (marked by her own share of really bad decisions.) She eventually achieves "success" in life but she never seems to find happiness. Her relationships don't work out, she suffers from low self-esteem and I think we are supposed to believe that if only she and Dexter could figure out they belong together, they would get their happily-ever-after.

Only problem is, I never found myself rooting for them to get together because frankly, I thought Dexter was a jerk and would more than likely only break her heart anyway. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why he had such a hold over her heart for so long. I can understand it when she was in her twenties, but for two decades? Seriously? You know the girlfriend you just wanna shake cause she keeps picking the wrong men? Hello, Emma.

And the ending. Remember watching the last Lord of the Rings movie and thinking to yourself at least 4 or 5 times, "Ok, THIS must be the end?" Check. And I have some other issues with the ending, but discussing them would include spoilers and I don't wanna do that. Suffice it to say a certain pivotal event kinda pissed me off. Not to mention it was ripped right out of a popular movie from a few years ago. If you read it you will understand. Or you can email me and we can discuss it =)

Bottom line, despite my complaints, One Day IS highly readable. It gives a solid portrayal of the emptiness in living only for yourself with no regard for others (shout out to Jesse James and Tiger Woods.) It also does a fine job of showing us the changes Dex and Emma go through in their lifetimes...dreams that don't quite work out, disillusionment, aging itself, and longing for something more. Not every book can be about the winners at the game of life. show less

One Day by David Nicholls follows Emma and Dexter from their first meaningful interaction at the very end of their university years, initially intended as a drunken hook-up, through the next twenty years of their lives, told via snapshots of each anniversary of that first meeting. For Dexter, this journey includes early fame, arrogance, collapse, and a later, humbler attempt at finding his way. For Emma, it begins with frustration, uncertainty, and longing before she gradually gains confidence, stability, and professional success. Along the way, they remain central to one another’s lives as deeply flawed but profoundly complementary friends.

This was a book I enjoyed a great deal. Despite themes of loss, disappointment, and stagnation, show more it remains surprisingly light, and the audiobook in particular made for an easy, engaging listen. The dual POV structure generally works well, though a handful of chapters jump rapidly between concurrent scenes, which I suspect would be clearer on the page than in audio format.

What stood out most was the emotional realism. This is not a fairytale romance, and at times that makes it uncomfortable. Both Emma and Dexter enter relationships that feel compromised from the outset, laden with warning signs, emotional misalignment, or quiet resignation. Yet this discomfort feels intentional and necessary. It reinforces the sense that people muddle through, often making imperfect choices, sometimes losing themselves for years at a time, before gradually finding firmer footing. In that sense, the novel becomes less about destiny and more about resilience and persistence.

Nicholls’ technical devices are also impressive. The one-day-per-year structure is both a constraint and a strength, compressing time while sidestepping domestic monotony. The mirroring of Emma and Dexter’s thoughts subtly reinforces their emotional alignment without becoming repetitive. Literary quotations frame scenes neatly, echoing Emma’s academic background and later career, while letters and short excerpts provide broader narrative context without feeling clumsy or intrusive.

Overall, I’m not sure this is a book I’d actively return to unless I were feeling particularly stuck or reflective myself, but it is thoughtful, cleverly constructed, and emotionally honest. It has plenty to say about timing, ambition, regret, and the slow, uncertain process of growing into yourself. show less

Having previously seen the movie I knew what to expect, but from what I remember of the movie the ending seemed a little different. It could be that the visual depiction created different emotions. However, the book kept me enthralled. Maybe a bit long, although there is nothing that I would cut. The story describes Emma and Dexter for twenty years following a graduation party when they could have become lovers, but choose to be friends. It was funny, dramatic, annoying, emotional, typical of real life, and shows all the moments that could have had a lifelong impact if another choice had been made. I loved it.

"One day, out of the blue, I'll just walk away
Out of your life, no alibi
This time maybe we got through it
I don't think next time we'll do it
One day, I will, I'll be set free"
-- Blue Rodeo, "One Day"

Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley are friends from university. This book takes the unique approach of checking in on their relationship on the same day each year: July 15, St. Swithin's Day, starting in 1988 on their graduation day and continuing well into the 21st century. Over the twenty-odd years we see them, they have been friends, fallen out, had other relationships, tried out various jobs, and realized their true feelings for each other. That probably sounds soppy, but David Nicholls has a way of writing bitingly funny romance. Dexter and show more Emma (Em and Dex, Dex and Em) are people first and foremost. We see Emma shift from idealistic university student to fast-food jockey to teacher and writer, and we see Dexter travel the world, become a TV presenter, and enjoy the delights of wine women and song. And we see the world change as well, from compilation tapes to smartphones, and the characters' priorities change from student protests to parenting dilemmas.

Of all of David Nicholls' books, this one contains the greatest amount of detail. Since we check in with Dex and Em only one day of the year, each chapter basically covers the contents of that day and alludes to events that have happened in the interim. The allusions make Dex and Em feel even more real, as do the details about their thoughts and impressions. This caused me to savour the book much more than his other books, which I gobbled down greedily. It may also have helped that I am fairly close in age to Dex and Em at the beginning of the book. Some of their thoughts mirrored mine, especially the fear of what to do after university when the "real world" hits, experimenting with various social selves, and coming to some harsh realizations about different aspects of their personalities. Reading the later chapters was therefore an interesting glimpse into what the future might hold, in a general sense (obviously, the characters would be older than me if they existed in real life, and they live in a different part of the world and have made different choices, but the shift in priorities and perspectives could be fairly universal).

And because I became so invested in Dex and Em's well-being, the ending was a shattering blow, albeit one I could kind of see coming (in a "Please let me be wrong" kind of way). I was actually reading this book in the living room and had to retreat to my bedroom to finish it, because I was crying so much and didn't want anyone to see! It is embarrassing how attached I can be to fictional characters.

This is very much recommended if you like stories featuring relationships with equally well-written partners, books about young adults making their way in the world post-university and beyond, or if you enjoyed David Nicholls' other books. show less

One Day begins on July 15, 1988. Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew have just graduated from college, and they spend one long night together, talking and kissing. That one night blooms into a friendship that the two will develop over the next 20 years as they both have career ups and down, loves, losses, and everything in between.

One Day uses an interesting concept, telling the story of just one day--July 15--in the lives of its two main characters, Emma and Dexter, for 20 years. Although this causes some jumps in the story, it offers an interesting portrait of the lives of these two people, and how they change over the years. Nicholls is able to develop surprising depth in his characters, even though we only see a snippet of their lives at show more a time. His writing is witty, funny, real, and at times, heartbreaking.

I really enjoyed this book. It took a few chapters to feel connected with the characters, but after I was, I was totally hooked and found the book hard to put down. I was right there with them for every heart wrenching life turn, rooting for them to find their right path in life. The buzz for this book was right on—this is one to read now! show less

I was all prepared to gush about this book. How it's not like the other books; not Nicholas Sparks or Jodi Picoult or any of that nonsense. It's a great idea, and a great story, with a great writing style. Dexter and Emma become friends on the day after their college graduation, July 15, 1988, and they have strong romantic feelings for each other, but the situation isn't right for them to get together. (As is so often true in life). But, they manage to stay friends. Through years and years and jobs and emotions and relationships and breakups and gains and losses. It's not easy, and they are both far from perfect, and they fail (a lot), but they manage. And that's the most beautiful thing I can think of. Dex and Em, Em and Dex. Best show more friends, estranged friends, bickering acquaintances, completely in love but never talk about it because the situation isn't right. I won't lie and tell you it hasn't made me want to call my own "Dexter", and tell him I forgive him for not calling me on my birthday two years ago, and I'm sorry I told him to f*** off the last time he drunk-dialed me. Because neither of us is perfect, but if someone wrote a book about one day of my life every year, I'd want him to be in some of them.

The format of the book is magical. There's one chapter per year, the events of July 15, every year. And nothing in between. The story moves a long at a faster pace that way, because you're eager to find out not just what happens that day, but also what has happened in the past 364 days. Sometimes the chapters end with a little teaser, since the reader will never directly know what happens the very next day. But the answer is easily deduced from the next year's chapter. It even has repetition (which I love when done correctly) to emphasize the ways in which their lives are the same for multiple years, and the ways in which they come full circle.

And then I got to page 348, at which point the book became complete shit. And stayed complete shit through the end. Why can't authors understand that a book doesn't have to end in both romance and horrible, shocking tragedy? The contrived scenarios are unrealistic, and if I'm going to read a story that is unrealistic why would I read one that doesn't make me happy? (And doesn't have dragons in it?) Life, love, relationships, and friendships almost always, like the world, end not with a bang but with a whimper. This novel had the potential to reflect that, but fell short.

This is a book about growing-up, and the difficulties of friendship, and the difficulties of ordinary life (not contrived tragic life) in general. I recommend it to anyone who wishes that [The Unbearable Lightness of Being] didn't suck so bad.

But for the love of all that is holy, STOP READING AT THE BOTTOM OF PAGE 347.

Please PM me if you would like my address to send me your copy of the book, so I can glue pages 348-435 together and return it to you.

I'm not joking.

The End. show less