One Day at a time

A good representation of The Barga Book Club met Wednesday December 21st in the village of Santi with Sheila as genial host. The book under discussion was One Day by David Nicholls. It was the story told of two principle characters’ lives over a period of 20 years with one day, St. Swithin’s Day, July 15th, as the marker. The book follows the lives of two characters Emma and Dexter, who connect at their graduation from University. It seems to have rained on St. Swithin’s day and continued for the following 20 years.

As per usual, opinions varied, widely. The dislikes outweighed the likes by a considerable degree.

Thematically it seemed to be representative of the disillusionment of life, its twists and turns and how the dreams of one’s twenties devolve. It was enjoyable overall only in retrospect when all loose ends were tied, but many were disappointed with the resolution. Some found the story contrived, artificial, manipulated. Other adjectives included banal and mundane.

On the other hand there were a couple of readers who did enjoy it thoroughly, and had real affinity for the characters and their circumstances. Everyone seemed to project his or her own experience into the reading and some found the characterization shallow and not credible and had difficulty identifying with them. It was seen as a story of the lives of two characters who were frustratingly inept or downright self destructive with no redeeming values.

The book we will discuss on January 18th at the home of Julie Flynn, is Black House by Peter May. The following month we will discuss Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and to lighten things up a bit, in March, we will read Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.

Thank you to everyone who participated, and for the delicious offerings and to Sheila for her most congenial hosting.