Sunday, August 01, 2010

2010 book 196

David Nicholls' One Day
This book has been getting buzz for months and has already been optioned for a movie that I'm sure I'll hate. Actually, I was sure I'd hate this book too--about a guy and a girl who almost get together but end up just as friends, and then the book checks in on them on the same July day for the next twenty years (there are lots of "When Harry Met Sally" comparisons). And I didn't really hate it after all, though found many of the plot twists to be ridiculously contrived, and I didn't much like the ending (my sister apparently disliked the ending too, though I suspect for different reasons--had it ended a few sections earlier I'd have liked it more). The characters are ok but this does at times read like it wants badly to be optioned into a movie. I'll give it a B, which is my default grade for when I have no idea how to grade a book.

2 comments:

Christina said...

I just finished this one, and I have to say you were kind with a B rating. I liked a lot about it, but I agree, if he was going to end it the way he did, he should have done it earlier. I did enjoy the premise until about the middle. I would say C.

Alicia K. said...

Yeah, I liked it pretty well up till towards the end, and couldn't decide how much to downgrade it for that--in retrospect a lower grade would probably have been more accurate. I think I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads (and I'm fairly generous with my star ratings).