One Day (David Nicholls)

I’ve been going through a phase where I’m reading books that other people have raved about…what some would call “modern-day classics.”  I usually focus on newer books on 1776books, but there are some novels on the aforementioned lists that I haven’t read yet.  A few months ago, I picked up Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go which I really disliked.  I saw David Nicholls’s One Day on the shelf at my local library and decided to give that one a go as well.  The numerous blurbs from prominent authors and publications made it seem like the second coming of The Great Gatsby.  So many people I talked with loved it and said Anne Hathaway’s movie ruined it.  Well, having neither read the novel nor seen the movie, I was looking at it with a clean slate.  And the one thing I took with me from reading One Day night after night…make my own darn decisions about the books I read.

One Day has a very interesting premise, following two people on the same day year after year beginning after their college graduation.  Dex and Emma, the reader is led to believe, are soulmates but do not know it.  No matter whom else they each happen to be with, Nicholls strongly makes the case that they belong together.  Each chapter describes the same day (July 15) every year, and the reader is responsible for filling in the other 364 days between.  This makes One Day a pageturner in a sense, as you want to find out if one person will recover from an illness or two people will stay together.

This novel was a solid 4 until the unbelievable massive turning point.  Then it got so irksome and boring that I just wanted to be done with it already.  Reviews of One Day are very interesting in that people usually give it the highest rating possible or the lowest rating possible.  You either love it or hate it.  I didn’t hate it, but I definitely wouldn’t read it again.  I’m giving it a 2 for solid writing but a pitiful ending.

MY RATING - 2

Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)

I truly can’t, for the life of me, figure out the mass appeal and popularity of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.  Blurbs on the book by renowned authors use words like anguish and heartbreaking.  I didn’t feel either of these things, perhaps because the characters were not appealing to me at all.  Oh well, to each his own.

Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy are three friends who are part of a group raised for a special purpose.  From a very early age, they are enrolled in a school led by the “guardians” and told that their art projects are sacred.  After graduating from their school, they go to live in the Cottages, a middle ground to prepare them for what is to come. 

Never Let Me Go is narrated by Kathy.  Ishiguro has a peculiar way of having Kathy state what she is about to tell you instead of allowing the story to unfold naturally.  While it has an important message…how science has the danger of going too far…it was just too predictable for me. 

So I was not one of the many people who will call Never Let Me Go one of the best books in recent times.  Predictability and unlikeable characters do not make quality literature for me.  To me, the mark of a great book is whether I can’t wait to pick it up again once I set it down.  Not the case for Never Let Me Go.

MY RATING - 2