Although flawed by an inconsistent main male character and a disappointing ending that is more bitter than sweet, “One Day” is an intriguing, realistic story of undeniable love.

“One Day” is a quintessential just-friends story told in a fresh way with a yearly snapshot of the relationship between Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew. The entire novel takes place on the same date, revisiting the anniversary of when they met and allowing author David Nicholls to tell a 20-year love story without writing a novel the size of a dictionary.

Beginning on July 15, 1988 after their college graduation, Emma and Dexter’s almost-romance quickly evolves into an unlikely friendship.  Their characters are exposed through a third-person narrative, revealing Emma as an opinionated individualist and Dexter as a carefree narcissist.

While Emma’s life goal as a college graduate is to change the world, even if it’s “just the little bit around you,” Dexter aspires to be rich and to have fun. Dexter’s privileged, self-absorbed demeanor makes him a character difficult to like. Drunk or drugged for the majority of the 435 pages, Dexter’s one redeeming quality is his friendship with Emma. Her passion and outspoken personality carry this novel.

Nicholls’s unique format makes “One Day” a quick read, but not because it lacks profound writing. The annual peek into their lives reads almost like a diary, an intimate portrait created despite a third-person narrative. His insightful writing accurately portrays the lost years after graduation and the unavoidable change that a young person goes through.

During Dexter’s substance-abuse years of fame as a television announcer, he treats Emma as an old jacket that he has outgrown.  Dexter is a one-man wrecking ball as he destroys any meaningful relationships in his life.

Accurately referred to as “the most odious man on television,” Dexter’s career crashes and burns, the embers extinguished by Sylvie, his wife who doesn’t laugh because she doesn’t like what it does to her face. Dexter emerges from their short-lived union, naturally falling back on Emma.

The eventual union of Emma and Dexter as a couple is not a spoiler because it is so inevitable in such a book. However, after all of the anticipation built up by Nicholls, roughly only 30 pages of the book are devoted to their life together.  This ridiculously insufficient amount creates an anticlimactic, unbalanced story.

Although anticlimactic and at times depriving their relationship of substance, the novel’s wry humor in the bleakest of situations creates a realistic, readable story.

Cara Reilly is a copy editor for the JCpatriot and JCpatriot.com