One Day by David Nicholls

It’s impossible for me to avoid a “When Harry Met Sally” comparison when reviewing “One Day”. This, too, is a story of two people meeting, connecting. Becoming friends, then not friends, then more than friends, then not…the ebbs and flows of Emma and Dexter knowing one another for decades.

We get to know Emma and Dexter far better than we do Harry and Sally, though. Mostly because this is a novel and that was a movie, but also, I think, because we learn more about them as they seek to establish who they are and what they will do with their lives. We get more of their youth, of their individual selves, instead of just the moments they are together.

The premise of “One Day” is to take a day, the same day, out of each year of Emma and Dexter’s lives and use it as a snapshot of where they stand in their lives. (July 15th – I kept wondering what the significance of that day was to the author.)

I am an easy target for that type of thing, and it didn’t hurt that the time frame of the book was one that was a close match to my life. As said before, I think the strongest part of the book was the beginning, where the author establishes Dexter and Emma on the day they graduate from college and start to realize that the rest of their lives is ahead of them. Some of the descriptions of that time of life, that college feeling, were particularly well done.

She comes from a modest Yorkshire background, is left-wing, sexually reticent when sober (but she is not always sober), had a double first in English and History from Edinburgh University, but then spent her early twenties working unrewardingly, first in fringe left-wing theatre, then in a restaurant.

He comes from a classy family, is handsome, spoilt, easy-going, unintellectual, narcissistic, considers the world his oyster, and is bedding lots of women. It is hard to see how they see in each other enough to have a long-lasting relationship. Perhaps neither of them want a permanent commitment – he because he likes to flit, she because she is afraid of getting hurt. Emma is under no illusions about Dexter (he makes no secrets about his affaires), and he has one or two insights about her (but not many).

By the time he is in his late twenties, Dexter is in tawdry television programmes and has become a minor celebrity; he has gone to seed and is an alcoholic. Emma at last has a decent job teaching and has become more confident, sexually too. But they phone each other most days, though Emma has another live-in boy friend (a rather pathetic stand-up comic!) and Dexter is as promiscuous as ever.

Then at one stage she is so repelled by what he has become that she breaks off contact for a few years (and about time, too, the reader thinks!). He drifts downwards, from failure to failure, rather rapidly. She drifts upwards, slowly but perceptibly, with a success to show at last. If only ….

After two or three unsatisfactory relationships, she meets him again. Much has changed for him in the interval (it would be a spoiler if I described it), and the years have had an effect on her, too (ditto). It is a touching chapter. From here on onwards I really must not say any more about the ups and downs that are to follow; but what had been a fairly light-hearted read before becomes increasingly involving. If one has written off Dexter before as a jerk, one begins to think better even of him, at least from time to time.

There is a superb passage – rather a key passage for the book – in which Emma reflects on the difference between being in one’s turbulent early twenties and in one’s calmer late thirties.

The chapters are snapshots of what happens on the same day in successive years, beginning in 1988. There can be quite a lot of development between one year and the next, and this is an ingenious device inviting the reader to fill in the interval for him- or herself. It also charts the changes in popular culture and, to a lesser extent, in politics from year to year. That’s also very well and unobtrusively done. And Nicholls has an excellent ear for dialogue, an excellent eye for settings, and brings every character (there are great many more than Em and Dex) marvellously to life.

The ups and downs of each of their lives provide interesting contrast and as a reader, I went back and forth on whether I wanted these two people to get together or not. I gnashed my teeth when I felt they were making terrible choices, or when they were making choices that would have made all the difference if only they knew what the other was thinking.

One day, one moment, can make all the difference in a person’s life…or in this case, two people’s lives. This story of Emma and Dexter is an enjoyable and touching one…and in the end, the reader comes away feeling s/he experienced far more than just numerous July 15ths with them.

One Day; Nicholls, David; Hodder and Stoughton; Hachette Book Group; Rs. 295

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Alright, I will be honest. I avoided this book for the longest time. I do not read books that are written or talked about the most, so eagerly and early. I like for the drama to have died down and then I opt for it, if I do, and that’s what happened with TGWTDT (hate using abbreviations, however will do with this one). And when I started reading it, I could get by only the first 70 pages and then it went back to the shelf. I did not touch it. After all it was a slow read, till Deens ( a dear friend and great reader of good books) highly recommended it and almost ordered me to finish reading it.

With great trepidation and fear, I picked up from where I left and to my utter dismay, I enjoyed the read. What is the book about?

Well Stieg Larsson was a Swedish writer and I am glad that he wrote the book in Swedish and the fact that it had to be translated. Anyway, that is a different story all together. What is the book all about? To simply put it, it is about the disappearance of Harriet Vanger – great-grand niece of the Vanger Industries’ CEO Henrik Vanger who hires the services of Mikael Blomkvist – a finance journalist whose career is in the dumps as his magazine, Millennium is about to shut down (hence the Millennium Trilogy). And here enters Lisbeth Salander who helps Mikael solve the assignment.

Now nothing happens in the book till Page 285, so you better be prepared to endure a bit.  After that the book moves at top-notch speed with it’s usual twists and turns. The whole world has heralded this book and I love the way it is written, though my only issue is that it drags no end sometimes. I like how other mystery writers like Dorothy Sayers and Christie feature in the book. It is gripping, towards the end and yes the revelation leaves you flabbergasted! A must read for all crime who-dun-it lovers.

Books to Movies

They say that a great book can never be made to a great movie. I beg to differ in some cases. There have been times when great books have come alive so well on the big screen. It’s amazing to see what some directors have done with these books. Here are few of my favourites:

1. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: Vivien Leigh as the playful, bashful, and headstrong Scarlett O’Hara took my breath away. It was after watching the film that I read the book and it remains to be one of my favourite books and movie. I mean how can anyone forget Vivien picking up a handful of dirt in her hand and looking to the sky while saying, “I will never be hungry again”, or for that matter the famous, “Tomorrow is another day” as made famous by the on-screen Scarlett as Rhett Butler (played brilliantly by Clarke Gable) leaves her on the staircase of her house. This is one movie no one should miss.

2. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: I am referring to the 1962 film version directed by the genius – Stanley Kubrick – the black and white imaging and play of light and shadow was brilliant. It was the component that propelled the story further. With James Mason as Humbert Humbert and Shelley Winters as Charlotte (played to the hilt) and not to forget Sue Lyon as Dolores Haze, the story was etched and controversial – of course only because of the book. How in the world could a man do this to a young girl? What I loved about the movie was its unfolding – Kubrick cleverly changed the order in which the events unfolded by moving what was the novel’s ending to the start of the film. Brilliant I say!

3. The Shining by Stephen King: Yes the book was longer. Yes the book was creepier. Yes we all loved the book. However, how can one discount the film? Jack Nicholson was brilliant. The past and future conjoined with what the child saw. I for one could not sleep for two days after watching this one.

4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: I am certain that if there is another adaptation of this book, no one will go and watch it. I love the story – makes me think I am reading Indian fiction for some strange reason – I mean come on – five daughters who need to get married – an intrusive mother, a doting father and the class and moral system of early Georgian England. The intelligent and spirited Elizabeth Bennett is one of my favourite heroines and I wish every girl their very own Darcy. The Lawrence Olivier version rules!

5. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje: Ralph Fiennes as the wounded soldier. Juliette Binoche as Hana the nurse who looks after him. Naveen Andrews as the enigmatic sapper Kip who loves Hana, a thief with chopped hands and the story of the english patient’s life. All the action takes place in a run-down war-torn Italian villa. The book had to be brilliant, but the film touched every single note right. Superb!

I don’t think one post will be enough for this. I have to come back with more…for sure…