{"id":4409,"date":"2011-08-23T09:47:02","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T08:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/?p=4409"},"modified":"2012-05-29T21:43:58","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T20:43:58","slug":"one-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/2011\/08\/one-day\/","title":{"rendered":"One Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Remiss blogger alert. Me.
\nIt has been mad here.
\nSorry.
\nSomething very exciting is happening so I have had my head deep in the land of sensible but I will tell all when I am allowed. When you sign a Disclosure Agreement it is practically like having your mouth glued shut. Not good for the likes of me…..however
\nI did write an article for The Sunday Mail at the weekend about One Day. The book by David Nicholls and now the film of the same name which is the talk of the steamie. If you read the book you might like to read it. If not then have a read anyway I have pasted in a nasty comment some geezer left on The Sunday Mail website which you might enjoy. <\/p>\n

Here is the article.<\/p>\n

OK, I confess. My name is Alison Craig and I don’t absolutely love One Day.
\nThe world has gone mad for the book with the famous cover and now the film… but I don’t really understand why.
\nI read it ages ago and thought it was OK. Ish.
\nWhen I first heard the buzz about the imminent release of a film of a book called One Day, I even wondered if they were talking about the same one.
\nI am a complete book fiend and read lots. Not in a War and Peace sort of way but in a rollicking good plot, story and escapism sort of way.
\nI spend far too much money on books and hours perusing my next choice in book shops before devouring them with relish.
\nPart of the fun of finding a cracking book is sharing it with friends.
\nThe moment I finish a great one I rave and rant about it and pass it on within hours. I read One Day in about a week – not exactly unputdownable – and when it was finished I just kind of thought, yeah. Fine. Next.
\nSo hearing that readers around the world were being plunged into bouts of unstoppable sobbing and snottering puzzled me a little.
\nAm I a hard-hearted harridan? I don’t think so. The Kite Runner and Any Human Heart are just two recent books that were passed on to friends, warped by the excessive tears that fell as I wept my way to the last page.
\nWas it the subject matter? I am a middle-aged woman and the nostalgic references to music and politics of the day did evoke memories of a moment in time. Sadly, so did the male protagonist Dexter.
\nHe’s a self-centred megalomaniac who perhaps reminded me of too many men I worked with in TV who were exactly that. I just didn’t like him.
\nAlso having had many a friend mucked about by characters not dissimilar to Dexter and his personality disorder, I wanted the female protagonist, Emma, to get over him and get on with her life. I won’t spoil the ending if you haven’t read it. But, for one reason or another, she doesn’t.
\nThe overall theme was familiar, maybe too familiar. It seemed to be playing straight into the hands of the mid-life crisis crowd, that ‘Is this it?’ feeling.
\nThere were the questions, inevitably posed inwardly in the middle of the night. “Was the person I was madly in love with age 19 the one I should have stuck with after all? And, if so, would I be happier?”
\nAs an author myself, I understand how hard it is to write and finish a book. It is a labour of love and I would never detract from Nicholls’ talent as a writer.
\nI have read his other novels – Starter For Ten and The Understudy – and really enjoyed them.
\nBut, of the three, One Day is my least favourite.
\nThe cynic in me also thinks One Day got more attention because it was written by a man.
\nIf it had had a female author’s name on the front, it would have been slammed into the pigeonhole marked “Chick Lit” and largely ignored.
\nPlus if you want a geezer to write about relationships, I personally can’t see past Tony Parsons or Nick Hornby.
\nAnd now we have the film which can’t possibly live up to the book, which itself can’t live up to the hype.
\nBut, like everyone else, I will probably end up going to see it… one day<\/p>\n

And here is the charming comment a rather bitter little man left at the bottom of on The Sunday Mail website.
\nRichard1024 wrote:
\n“As an author myself ” hohohoho! One duff book about Aberdeen and a self-regarding book about your pregnancy doesn’t put you in the same league as the One Day best-selling author. Green eyed monster got to this one, for sure!<\/p>\n

Plus the idea that a female name on a dust jacket is a way of getting ignored should amaze Jacqueline Wilson, Alice Sebold, Lynne Truss, Patricia Cornwell. Josephine Cox…<\/p>\n

Do you think he sounds like a frustrated, unpublished, unhappy, writer? Yes me too.
\nFor his info I did not write any book, duff or otherwise about Aberdeen \u2013 so not only is he bitter but he is wrong too. Ah well\u2026..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remiss blogger alert. Me. It has been mad here. Sorry. Something very exciting is happening so I have had my head deep in the land…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,24,104,83,1161,77],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alisonsdiary.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}