Yorkshire working class girl Emma and born to money Dexter get together on graduation night at Edinburgh University. Emma has secretly been in love with Dexter for a while. This appears to be a one night stand, but they keep in touch, Emma with long impassioned letters full of exclamation marks and underlinings, Dexter with self conscious short postcards from his globe trotting ramblings about what an amazing time he's having, as they follow their separate paths. Dexter becomes an annoying tv presenter, drinks far too much, becomes something of a celebrity, crashes and burns, falls in love with a very beautiful woman, marries, has baby, marriage lasts until reality of parenthood hits while Emma drags herself through the reduced expectations of wage drone life in a London theme restaurant, a dismal relationship, teacher training and an equally dismal relationship with a married man, a miserable existence lightened only by the summer holiday Dexter pays for both of them to holiday in Greece and her own sense of humour. To begin with I though it fairly vapid but I wanted to know more and this very ordinary story of two people over 20 years of their lives had me utterly in its spell by the end. My life followed a similar route, I too have been in love with the wrong person and Nichols' evocation of life over the decades 'Em and Dex' travel, the fashion and society horrors of the 80s and 90s, are brilliantly deliniated.
No comments:
Post a Comment