"One Day," by David Nicholls, tells the story of Emma Moray and Dexter Mayhew's friendship over the span of 20 years. The clever little catch? We only see this progression on July 15 of each year, starting in 1989 when they've just graduated from university.
I saw a lot of myself in Emma. She has the most promising future out of the two, but struggles for a long time before finding her way. In contrast, Dexter's success comes fast and easy, but he struggles later on.
There are years when they are super close and years where they've lost touch completely. But even when they aren't speaking to each other, they are constantly thinking of each other. They've known each other too long and have been through too much together to fully dismiss one another.
Obviously there are only two ways this can end: 1) They end up together, or 2) They remain just friends. Trust me, at different points throughout the book, you're going to hope for each outcome.
Nicholls could have ended it either way and I would have been satisfied, to tell you the truth. They truly love each other, so ending up together would be one of those "it's about time" things. They truly love each other, so not ending up together would be one of those "love you like family for the rest of my life" things. Either is lovely. (The late-teens, early-20s Stefanie would have been devastated if they did not end up together. The current Stefanie finds the second option equally wonderful.)
Instead, Nicholls delivers the most unsatisfying ending ever. It's written cleverly, but what happens comes very close to ruining the whole rest of the book for me. I understand it (as best I can, anyway), but I don't like it at all.
They're filming the movie adaptation as we speak. They're either going to have to change the ending or stop touting it as a romantic comedy, or else the audience is going to be severely disappointed. But Nicholls is adapting the screenplay himself, so who knows?
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