I make a big deal about this because I rarely buy new books anymore, which is why I'm going to be the last person in the world to read Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3) or at least that's what it feels like when I'm No. 84 on the library wait list.
But back to One Day - I bought it because it's hard to escape it these days, whether it's a picture of Anne Hathaway as Emma in Entertainment Weekly or the New York Times raving about David Nicholls. Make no mistake about it, One Day is chick lit with a male author, but it's still a book you can't put down.
It launches in the 1988 as Emma and Dexter are graduating from university, ready to begin the rest of their lives. It follows them over the next two decades, visiting them each year on St. Swithin's Day, as they remain friends through different jobs, spouses, aging parents and a variety of other life challenges intrinsic to growing up. It's often very funny, whether it's a character describing how he wishes his baby would just say "Father, I have wind" or how a proposal of marriage can backfire. It's fascinating how many people in the U.S. have latched onto this book, which has not-so-subtle messages about class and wealth in England. However, there's enough of a universal theme about love, loss and time that it manages to strike a deep chord in readers.
What One Day is not is great literature, or as one reviewer called it, a "modern classic". But why must we demand everything of everybody? It's a fine book to read if you want something deeper than Emily Giffin but not as deep as John Updike.
