Conducting the same exercise I am left with significant gaps in my life story. One day a year is not enough to tell the story. Or is it?
David Nicholls, in One Day, explains the twists and turns of Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley’s lives. He illustrates the mundane and the extraordinary events that make up any lifetime. And he does it with one day a year.
On July 15th, just as Dexter and Emma are about to graduate university, they officially meet and enjoy one night of fun and love. Although there is a connection between them, Dexter has plans for worldly adventure and Emma has dreams of her own success so they part ways. Over the years, as told through phone calls, letters and live interactions, Emma and Dexter keep in touch.
It has become increasingly common to see the narrator in a novel change from one character to another throughout the story. Sometimes this method seems like the easiest, or even laziest, way to accomplish an end. But some authors, such as Nicholls, are able to use the different voices to illustrate depth that couldn’t come from just once voice.
Throughout One Day Dexter is easy to hate and Emma, although more sympathetic, is maddeningly accommodating of Dexter. While the reader may never overcome these feelings, empathy for each character is created when the story is told in their own words. During on stage of their friendship, Emma is dedicated to Dexter and regularly sends him long letters and books that are carefully selected to augment his phase of life. In return, Dexter sporadically sends postcards with no more than a few words on them. The reader knows from Dexter, though, that while drunk he is penning pages long letters to Emma that he never has the courage to send.
Because each chapter in One Day represents only one day, the novel is easy to read and easy to put down and pick back up again without losing your place. There are phases in both Dexter and Emma’s life that are incredibly frustrating to read about but they’re too likeable to stop reading about them.
But, when finishing down One Day, I’m curious if the reader is left thinking about either Dexter or Emma or if, as I was, they are too busy reflecting on how representative one day a year of their own life could be.
