96. ONE DAY

David Nicholls 2009

A single day, July 15 is revisited annually from 1988 to 2007 in this absorbing tale effectively depicting the up and down friendship of Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley. Dexter is a handsome, uppity, girlfriend-hopping, self-centered and materialistic man. Emma seems the opposite: a sweet, charming, smart, conscientious and sentimental woman. After hooking up on the night of graduation, July 15, 1988, they separate and somehow always meet up or connect on the 15th of July every year there after. Through their separate lives, can they remain each other's best friend forever?

"I suppose the important thing is to make some sort of difference," she said. "You know, actually change something."(opening line)

"So I've given this whole "growing old" thing some thought and I've come to the decision that I'd like to stay exactly as I am right now."(5)

'At twenty three, Dexter Mayhew's vision of his future was no clearer than Emma Morley's. He hoped to be successful, to make his parents proud and to sleep with more than one woman at the same time, but how to make these all compatible?... He wanted to live life to the extreme, but without any mess or complications. He wanted to live life in such a way that if a photograph were taken at random, it would be a cool photograph. Things should look right. Fun; there should be a lot of fun and no more sadness than absolutely necessary.'(9)

'The trick of it, she told herself, is to be courageous and bold and make a difference. Not change the world exactly, just the bits around you. Go out there with your double-first, your passion and your new Smith Corona electric typewriter and work hard at... something. Change lives through art maybe. Write beautifully. Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully well. Experience new things. Love and be loved if at all possible. Eat sensibly. Stuff like that.'(12)

'You're gorgeous, you old hag, and if I could give you just one gift ever for the rest of your life it would be this. Confidence. It would be the gift of Confidence. Either that or a scented candle.'(42)

'I will find you, I've been thinking about you. Dex and Em, Em and Dex-- what was he thinking?(49)

'Rule Number Five. No scrabble. More and more of his friends were playing it now, in a knowing ironic way, triple-word-score-craving freaks, but it seemed to him like a game designed expressly to make him feel stupid and bored. No Scrabble and no Boggle either; he wasn't dead yet.'(74)

"I'm not scared of her, I'm just not going to do it so that we can say that we've done it. And I'm not going to do it if the first thing you say afterwards is "please don't tell anyone" or "let's forget it ever happened". If you have to keep something secret it's because you shouldn't be doing it in the first place!"(100)

'I love him, she thought, I'm just not in love with him and also I don't love him. I've tried, I've strained to love him but I can't. I am building a life with a man I don't love, and I don't know what to do about it.'(187)

"Sympathy for the spinster. I'm perfectly content, thank you. And I refuse to be defined by my boyfriend. Or lack of." She was starting to speak with real zeal now. "Once you decide not to worry about that stuff anymore, dating and relationships and love and all that, it's like you're free to get on with real life."(286)

'Ridiculous at thirty-eight, to expect a song or book or film to change your life. No, everything had evened out and settled down and life was lived against a general background hum of comfort, satisfaction and familiarity. There would be no more of those nerve-jangling highs and lows.'(382)
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Hodder & Stoughton Great Britain edition 2010
435 pages
Book owned
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Personal note: I finally read this souvenir book bought from Amsterdam, May 2010. If you want to see a great review of this book, check out Loving Books.