My Thoughts About "One Day"

I just finished reading One Day by David Nicholls.  I've had this book sitting on my desk for a few weeks now and I finally picked it up on Monday.  And only just now, when I needed to write those three words "by David Nicholls", did I finally notice that the writer was, in fact, male.  I read the whole thing thinking the writer was female.

I wonder what it is that makes a person judge whether or not a writer is male or female. It's not something that normally comes up because normally you notice these things when you first look at the book cover (which is something that I did, but the writer's name is in the bottom right corner and the covers a little folded up there, somewhat obscuring it).

I can't say that I greatly enjoyed the novel, nor can I completely say with sincere conviction that I hated it.  I was pretty neutral about it up until the very end of chapter 18, page 385.  Really a bad feeling was coming from the beginning of chapter 18.  Because you know it's too early for a happy ending.  When things are going too well, you know something horrible is just around the corner.  But I never thought it would be that...

Well, here's the obligatory cut then.  Spoilers follow.


Seriously.  You had to kill off Emma?  That was necessary?

What bothered me about this book: that I could not stop comparing it to When Harry Met Sally.  There's even a line somewhere in the book where a character (Ian, I think) compares Emma and Dexter to Harry and Sally.  It's just... it's not a compelling plotline for me.  Two characters who so obviously should be together and yet for over a decade refuse to acknowledge that need.

Oh, don't get me wrong - waiting a whole book length for characters to get together (or movie length, or tv series length - God knows I love Bones and that's been six years of sexual tension).  But for some reason in this book it was just agitated.  And like I said, over a decade of denial.

It just feels like it's trying too hard when you have to kill a character to make some sort of point, to make the story meaningful and literary.  It seems cruel and pretentious.  I don't want to read a bittersweet story about how two people struggle for 16 years to be happy only to have it wrenched from them just on the verge of finally beginning that happiness.  If the main character is going to struggle I damn well want to see them experience true happiness.  I want a resolution - not a heart wrenching plot twist.  It's getting old and yes, cliche.  It's tiring and boring.

Alright, enough bitter ranting about my great dislike for the ending.  I did think the "gimmick" the book used was clever - showing one day out of the characters' lives for each year (the anniversary of their initial meeting/graduation of college).  That was clever, yadda yadda, the characters were interesting (obviously or I wouldn't have cared as much about Emma's death).

The book sort of felt like something I might read in a college English class, which probably made me a little bit belligerent about it, although I'm not sure why.  I guess it felt like it was trying a little bit too hard to be literary.   Or maybe I'm just jealous since I feel like I've writer's block with my own story and hate everything I've written because something just seems missing.