David Nicholls: Life, love one day at a time

David Nicholls' characters are easy to relate to. Photo / Supplied

The movie will be out soon but read the book first, says Nicky Pellegrino.

I've always preferred to read a book before watching the movie adaptation as I like to see the characters and places in my own mind's eye rather than being stuck with the director's vision. So with the film of David Nicholls' best-seller One Day, expected to be released next month I thought I'd better crack on and read the newly released tie-in edition (Hodder, $29.99).

I guess you'd categorise One Day as chick-lit - although that term often gets used in such a sneering, book-snobby way these days I've become reluctant to employ it at all. And this isn't a dumbed-down story, in fact, its structure is very clever. Spanning 1988 to 2007 the novel takes us inside the lives of its two main characters, Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, on July 15 of every single year.

When the story opens they are in bed together having a one-night stand on the night of their university graduation. Emma is bookish and quirkily beautiful, Dexter handsome and a bit of a player.

The pair of them are looking towards their futures, wondering where they'll be by the time they're 40.

A friendship develops rather than a romance. As the years pass, they strike out in different directions but always stay in touch. Serious-minded Emma has a flirtation with theatre then gets stuck in a dead-end job in a Tex-Mex restaurant. The more carefree Dexter goes travelling and ends up in television.

He becomes famous and TV's golden boy, before going off the rails. Conscientious Emma grows up and starts buying furniture. Despite their differences, the attraction between them simmers - never quite reaching full boil. Their relationships with others fail but their friendship somehow survives, their lives intersecting time and again as they head towards 40.

I'm against spoilers, so won't give away the ending, but I can say that there's a big jolt coming and I didn't expect it at all.

This is a story that could easily have been trite and corny. But Nicholls has done a brilliant job with it.

He unfolds the narrative at a leisurely pace, letting us get to know Dexter and Emma properly so that, although there's a fair amount of stereotyping going on, they seem like real and relatable people.

All of us have lived through stuff like this: we've had long friendships that have waxed, waned and shifted, have wasted time in the wrong jobs or in the wrong relationships.

Dexter and Emma's story seems real. Moving at times, always entertaining and often funny, it reflects the lives of a whole generation.

And I really liked the format - the regular annual date with the characters - which the author has described as being a little like looking through a photo album. If you've never encountered Nicholls' work before then I'd describe him as very much in the vein of Nick Hornby or Jonathan Tropper - both are known for their emotionally truthful, comic writing.

The movie version of One Day stars Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess and has the potential to be a stinker. The trouble is if you lose all the subtleties of the book, the offbeat humour and the sheer humanness of the characters then you'll lose the magic too. And what you're left with is a standard, light romantic comedy.

Having watched the trailer that's certainly what it smells like. So take my advice and read the book first.