Oh I know that when Dex puts his hand inside his pocket, he will pull out his lavender scented invitation and I know that when I turn the page Emma Morley will guide their way through the maze. I know I will dread turning the pages once Dex reaches Paris.
What I don't know is why I come back to this book again and again. It begins as a casual read, something to pass these dull summer moments by and suddenly it turns into a mystery of known facts.
I suppose its Dex and Em that pull me to read, they seem like old friends now. People I once knew an its oddly comforting to read their story again. For here there is no pretence, just plain in your face honesty.
Finding me and relating myself to a character is what I did the first time I read the book, the third or the fourth time that I am reading it now, I am not able to identify with either because they seem like people I would know in real life.
I know I am like Emma, yet I know this too that I would not have the courage to do half the things she did. At times, the emotional daftness and the false vanity of Dex is like looking into a mirror.
At the end with Ian, Em knows in her heart that she loved him yet she was not in love with him. It makes me ponder and wonder every time I read it. It is such a difficult difference to make and yet it is one that makes all the difference.
The yearning and the desire that flows between them isn't what keeps the pages alive but rather it is the narration, its like being in the character's head. It almost seems an autobiography.
When I started the book, it seemed like a stiff upper lip British novel and I looked forward to chapters of annoyed phrases stacked together against each other and love and feelings described in single lines but instead I don't know when I fell for Em and Dex.
Em first and Dex later, you always fall for the playboy later.
The arrogance of Dex is hardly endearing but over time you discover that it conveniently hides the complicated person that he is. Em could be any girl, every girl.
As a reader you know when it is more than just a book that you are reading, it is when you feel that intense dislike for Dex or Em which lasts only until they explain, almost cajole you into understanding until you are unconsciously bobbing your head in compassion giving them permission to mess up further.
So what makes it special ?
Its not the love, their love story is highly unremarkable, cliched and predictable.
However, the journey is anything but. the ups and downs most importantly the friendship that continues irrespective anything.
This book teaches you about friendship, that bit about it which nobody teaches and nobody writes. Its about the bond, the bond between friends and the need, to discuss, for each other. It forms the foundation of it all and losing it will be fatal.
On page three hundred eighty two, Em says and I quote "Ridiculous, at thirty eight, to expect a song or book or film to change your life".
Well I am twenty one and this book though did not change my life but it did change the days of my life. Those days when I forgot everything and concentrated on the book. For if you read it, you know its not the kind that you read in chapters.
So here's to Em and Dex
and to One Day for being this brilliantly written book that I will always come back to.
(One Day by David Nichols is officially the fourth book to be added in the Forever Collection)
What I don't know is why I come back to this book again and again. It begins as a casual read, something to pass these dull summer moments by and suddenly it turns into a mystery of known facts.
I suppose its Dex and Em that pull me to read, they seem like old friends now. People I once knew an its oddly comforting to read their story again. For here there is no pretence, just plain in your face honesty.
Finding me and relating myself to a character is what I did the first time I read the book, the third or the fourth time that I am reading it now, I am not able to identify with either because they seem like people I would know in real life.
I know I am like Emma, yet I know this too that I would not have the courage to do half the things she did. At times, the emotional daftness and the false vanity of Dex is like looking into a mirror.
At the end with Ian, Em knows in her heart that she loved him yet she was not in love with him. It makes me ponder and wonder every time I read it. It is such a difficult difference to make and yet it is one that makes all the difference.
The yearning and the desire that flows between them isn't what keeps the pages alive but rather it is the narration, its like being in the character's head. It almost seems an autobiography.
When I started the book, it seemed like a stiff upper lip British novel and I looked forward to chapters of annoyed phrases stacked together against each other and love and feelings described in single lines but instead I don't know when I fell for Em and Dex.
Em first and Dex later, you always fall for the playboy later.
The arrogance of Dex is hardly endearing but over time you discover that it conveniently hides the complicated person that he is. Em could be any girl, every girl.
As a reader you know when it is more than just a book that you are reading, it is when you feel that intense dislike for Dex or Em which lasts only until they explain, almost cajole you into understanding until you are unconsciously bobbing your head in compassion giving them permission to mess up further.
So what makes it special ?
Its not the love, their love story is highly unremarkable, cliched and predictable.
However, the journey is anything but. the ups and downs most importantly the friendship that continues irrespective anything.
This book teaches you about friendship, that bit about it which nobody teaches and nobody writes. Its about the bond, the bond between friends and the need, to discuss, for each other. It forms the foundation of it all and losing it will be fatal.
On page three hundred eighty two, Em says and I quote "Ridiculous, at thirty eight, to expect a song or book or film to change your life".
Well I am twenty one and this book though did not change my life but it did change the days of my life. Those days when I forgot everything and concentrated on the book. For if you read it, you know its not the kind that you read in chapters.
So here's to Em and Dex
and to One Day for being this brilliantly written book that I will always come back to.
(One Day by David Nichols is officially the fourth book to be added in the Forever Collection)