![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccI had never heard of the novel One Day until the film came out and the tag line was "the book that everyone's talking about!". Really? Ok, then. I have, after all, been somewhat out of the loop of late.
Then my sister gave me her copy when she came down to visit. So I read it. Somewhat slowly admittedly - I seem to have less time for reading than I did, mostly because it's impossible to hold a book and express milk from both breasts simultaneously. (And believe me, I've tried. Still DVDs are entertaining and ABC24 has a lot of stuff on I'm happy to watch.)
I started off really liking the book - Emma and Dexter reminded me of people I knew, and they were only a couple of years ahead of me in terms of when they were supposed to be going to uni and out into the world. I recognised the passion of uni students, the disillusionment of late 20s and early 30s, when all that you thought you'd achieve hadn't been realised and dreams started to be abandoned in favour of mortgages and compromise.
And yet the novel lost me somewhere in the middle. It took me a while to work out what it was that was losing me - I was having trouble getting motivated to finish, and was skipping large sections. Then I hit the ending, which really annoyed me and simultaneously clarified what it was that had changed.
Spoilers for the entire story including the end of the book and why it annoyed me below:
Basically the novel started out as two voices, Dexter's and Emma's. Both had equal time, equal space, different thoughts. They start out on the night of their graduation, having hooked up but not actually slept together. Emma's attracted to Dexter. Dexter's... not so much attracted to Emma. The novel then follows them on the same day every year for the next 20 or so years. During this time they form a friendship. Dexter becomes famous as a dire trendy TV presenter (I thought of Craig Charles in "Funky Bunker" as my model there). Emma teaches English in a secondary school. They form relationships with other people, but remain in contact and remain close friends. So far, so good. Then, somewhere along the line the author lost Emma's voice. She became more and more a construct to "save" Dexter, by remaining his One True Love. Her relationships were always second best - she couldn't fall in love, be happy because she was needed to be the saviour. And it irritated the hell out of me. Dexter could fall in love and marry, have a child - but Emma was still meant to be pining over a guy she'd had a crush on in uni. Even if they were still friends - and for part of the novel she very sensibly told him to go away as he was spiralling into addiction and being a complete arsehole - I just didn't see how she maintained the crush in the face of all available evidence. Then they finally did get together - just as she was becoming successful in a field she'd dreamed of - and got married and she changed her name. That really surprised me - it didn't seem to fit with the Emma who'd been in the entire first part of the novel, or even the Emma who was older and disillusioned with so much. And of course she was publishing a successful line of novels, so you'd think she might want to retain her name!! There was nothing in her voice to explain why she wanted to do it, other than her laughing over it. I could have accepted it better if she'd elucidated to be honest.
Then they started trying for a child... and then the author killed her. As far as I can see that was entirely to complete Dexter's journey of redemption. From being such a strong presence at the start of the novel Emma became quieter and quieter until she was literally silenced by the author. It was a real pity - I really liked the start of the book, but it ended up being all about How Love Saved Me From My Addiction Hell, even if it wasn't phrased quite so blatantly. I'm not sure how I would have liked it to go, or how you could go 20 years without having something to end it - but surely they could have ended with them getting together? Or having the child? Or, I dunno, just becoming friends again? 20 year reunion? Anything?
There was a lot that I still liked about the book, and there were some amusing bits. It wasn't as funny as the quotes on the front would make you think, although that could be because I didn't live in the UK during the 1990s and therefore probably missed some cultural references. Overall though I ended up being really disappointed, and angry. The second customer review on the amazon page summed up a lot of what I was feeling, and did it a lot better than I am doing now. I'd be interested to see the film though - mostly to see if Emma manages to retain her voice in the second half better than she did in the book.
Then my sister gave me her copy when she came down to visit. So I read it. Somewhat slowly admittedly - I seem to have less time for reading than I did, mostly because it's impossible to hold a book and express milk from both breasts simultaneously. (And believe me, I've tried. Still DVDs are entertaining and ABC24 has a lot of stuff on I'm happy to watch.)
I started off really liking the book - Emma and Dexter reminded me of people I knew, and they were only a couple of years ahead of me in terms of when they were supposed to be going to uni and out into the world. I recognised the passion of uni students, the disillusionment of late 20s and early 30s, when all that you thought you'd achieve hadn't been realised and dreams started to be abandoned in favour of mortgages and compromise.
And yet the novel lost me somewhere in the middle. It took me a while to work out what it was that was losing me - I was having trouble getting motivated to finish, and was skipping large sections. Then I hit the ending, which really annoyed me and simultaneously clarified what it was that had changed.
Spoilers for the entire story including the end of the book and why it annoyed me below:
Basically the novel started out as two voices, Dexter's and Emma's. Both had equal time, equal space, different thoughts. They start out on the night of their graduation, having hooked up but not actually slept together. Emma's attracted to Dexter. Dexter's... not so much attracted to Emma. The novel then follows them on the same day every year for the next 20 or so years. During this time they form a friendship. Dexter becomes famous as a dire trendy TV presenter (I thought of Craig Charles in "Funky Bunker" as my model there). Emma teaches English in a secondary school. They form relationships with other people, but remain in contact and remain close friends. So far, so good. Then, somewhere along the line the author lost Emma's voice. She became more and more a construct to "save" Dexter, by remaining his One True Love. Her relationships were always second best - she couldn't fall in love, be happy because she was needed to be the saviour. And it irritated the hell out of me. Dexter could fall in love and marry, have a child - but Emma was still meant to be pining over a guy she'd had a crush on in uni. Even if they were still friends - and for part of the novel she very sensibly told him to go away as he was spiralling into addiction and being a complete arsehole - I just didn't see how she maintained the crush in the face of all available evidence. Then they finally did get together - just as she was becoming successful in a field she'd dreamed of - and got married and she changed her name. That really surprised me - it didn't seem to fit with the Emma who'd been in the entire first part of the novel, or even the Emma who was older and disillusioned with so much. And of course she was publishing a successful line of novels, so you'd think she might want to retain her name!! There was nothing in her voice to explain why she wanted to do it, other than her laughing over it. I could have accepted it better if she'd elucidated to be honest.
Then they started trying for a child... and then the author killed her. As far as I can see that was entirely to complete Dexter's journey of redemption. From being such a strong presence at the start of the novel Emma became quieter and quieter until she was literally silenced by the author. It was a real pity - I really liked the start of the book, but it ended up being all about How Love Saved Me From My Addiction Hell, even if it wasn't phrased quite so blatantly. I'm not sure how I would have liked it to go, or how you could go 20 years without having something to end it - but surely they could have ended with them getting together? Or having the child? Or, I dunno, just becoming friends again? 20 year reunion? Anything?
There was a lot that I still liked about the book, and there were some amusing bits. It wasn't as funny as the quotes on the front would make you think, although that could be because I didn't live in the UK during the 1990s and therefore probably missed some cultural references. Overall though I ended up being really disappointed, and angry. The second customer review on the amazon page summed up a lot of what I was feeling, and did it a lot better than I am doing now. I'd be interested to see the film though - mostly to see if Emma manages to retain her voice in the second half better than she did in the book.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-10-24 09:10 pm (UTC)When I first saw them they were home made out of an old bra, with a slit or hole to hold the pumping cups in place.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-25 12:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-25 10:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-25 12:21 pm (UTC)