I am feeling indignant and crazy. But still want to write.
When I picked up David Nicholls' One day I vowed to finish it with out breaks. Not because I have heard so much about the book, (or the movie for that matter) but I just wanted to finish it to prove a point to myself. And I did.. And I feel ... well I mentioned that already.
Well, I don't know what to say, I would like to say that I hate it, but I am still all teary. As much as I want to stay away from these kind of books they somehow find their way to me.
Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew meet on their graduation day and spend the night talking and kissing. They are both confused by the emotional intimacy they formed over the night ( and day - St Swithin's day apparently) they promise to keep in touch and stay friends, though both of them want to be more than that.
The book takes us though their lives in 20 years (or 17 years ) on St Swithin's day. They form a weird intense friendship and keep in touch as they promised through long 10 page letters, post cards from different parts of the world, weekly dinners when they both live in the same city, all the while longing for each other. We get the accounts of their parallel lives, him trying to make it into the big bad world of media, her struggling to stay true to the principles and following her dream ( on and off) to be a writer. He gets into an array of meaningless relationships, and a lifestyle of hard partying and drugs. She starts living with a man she does not love. Their life goes on like this, a sequence of 'odd timings' , each wondering what the other is doing while getting into infamous affairs, marriage and parenthood - all with other people of course.
Then one day Dexter finds himself divorced and broke and deeply aware of the fact that he is , was and always will be, deeply in love with Emma. Emma finally gets her book published. Though she has a steady boy friend at this point, Emma reciprocates his feelings. And they finally get together.
No, it doesn't end here. She helps him sort out the mess he made of his life. He opens his cafe and finally attains the stability he always lacked in his life. Emma gets along fine with Dexter's daughter and everybody is happy.
No, it doesn't end here. They get married and are still happy. Emma wants to have a baby and starts to worry about her biological clock. Well, she is almost 39 at this stage and he is 40. And then one day they have a small argument. They make up over the phone and agree to meet in the evening at the house they were planning to buy, but Emma has a bike accident on the way and dies !
No, it doesn't end here. The author takes us through three more St swithin's days where we see Dexter on different stages of getting over the tragedy. On the third anniversary, he takes his daughter to Edinburgh where he first met Emma. He reminisces his first St Swithin's day with her 20 years ago.
Wasn't it enough torture to read about two people pining , literally pining for each other for 14 years. How could she just die, when she was finally married to him? May be that's how life is. But I don't like it thrown to my face this way.
Why did I even start reading this. I hate it when writers intentionally make tragic stories.
