One Day makes me feel like this...
Hmmm- One Day. As anyone who came to the meeting knows, this book threw me into a quandary- how could I have such a strong (negative!) reaction to such a seemingly likable, light-hearted book as this? I knew I detested it but couldn’t quite articulate why. Like the good book group leader that I am, however, I realized that incoherent hatred was probably not enough explanation to bring to the meeting; I had to a)come up with some sort of valid reasons for my opinions and b)needed a fellow hater to back me up. However, rather depressingly, I searched Google and found out that I am indeed THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD who doesn’t like this book….
So I came to the meeting feeling a bit confused. Could everyone else be wrong or am I just a miserable old curmudgeon? And, although admittedly almost the whole group also liked the book, I was overjoyed to find that at least one other member (THANKS KELLY!) is a fellow detestee- phew. Additionally, the meeting also helped me form a reasonable coherent critique of the book- so, here we go…. For what it’s worth I found this book both glib and unbelievable. I thought the characters lacked depth and were formed by giving the reader a list of the things they liked/ owned rather than giving any sense of real thoughts and emotions. This reminded me a bit of the people at school who think they can tell everything about a person from the bands they like. I thought the writing was cliche-ridden and hackneyed. I could go on but I think I’m done for now….
But it would be unfair to suggest this was the consensus view. Admittedly most people loved it, thought it was light and funny and true to life; basically the opposite of everything I though about it. And there we reached an in-pass; I couldn’t convince you and you couldn’t convince me (or Kelly) but we had a wail of a time trying. It was a lot of fun.
So, fingers crossed that October’s meeting lives up to the, ermmm, liveliness of September’s. I have high hopes. I know you wont agree but for me in therms of books it couldn’t really get any worse…
The Sunderland Book Group 