Movie to come!

I’m not even sure where to start when describing One Day by David Nicholls.  Ultimately, it’s a story about the friendship between Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley.  Some people have referred to it as a love story but I’m not sure that I agree.  Nicholls introduces us to Dex and Emma on July 15^th, 1988 which happens to be the night they meet.  The book follows the ups and downs of their relationship for the next 20 years.  The interesting part of this is that each chapter is set on July 15^th of the next year.  Initially, I was worried that I’d feel like I was missing large portions of their lives and friendship but that wasn’t the case.  Nicholls does a fantastic job of pushing the story forward by leaving each chapter with a slight cliffhanger and starting the next chapter smoothly filling in the gap.  Nicholls successfully details the separate lives of each character while also explaining the state of Emma and Dex’s relationship.  This allows their relationship to evolve by creating very well rounded characters.  I found myself totally engaged in the story and feeling the sort of drive to start the next chapter that you get when reading a James Patterson novel.  Luckily for me, that push was followed by a bit more meat to the chapter than a typical Patterson.  As I mentioned before, it’s often described as a love story (and it’s being kind of marketed as one for the movie version coming out in August) but I think I might describe it more as a burning friendship.  Maybe that is a better description of love anyway?  I guess I just really enjoyed their friendship and never really saw the desperate need for them to end up being in love.  I do admit that their love story compelled me a bit more over the last 3 chapters than in the rest of the book.  Overall, I highly recommend it as a summer read.  It’s engaging, different, and the characters are really well written.  If you’re looking for a full fledged romance, this might not be it.  Then again, maybe you’ll see more of the romance than I did.  Anne Hathaway will star in the movie version as Emma Morely so I'm expecting it will get a decent amount of press in August.