Gej, Uyg, Uh, Ghyi
This novel spans a couple of decades but takes place on a single date - 15 July, St Swithin's Day, destined to be the anniversary of several key events in the lives of the two principals. They are Emma Morley - spiky, non-U, from Yorkshire; and Dexter Mayhew, very confident, very handsome, large parental home in the Cotswolds.
Конец формы
Emma and Dexter first meet on 15 July 1988, the last day of their studenthoods in Edinburgh, when they sort of get off with each other and first exchange banter, if not too many bodily fluids. Thereafter, the novel catches up with them every subsequent 15 July, the annual updates charting the course of their lives and their continuing though not always flourishing friendship.
When that first date turns out to have been a one-night stand, the very unpromiscuous Emma has to work harder at coping with the platonic nature of their friendship than the bed-hopping Dexter. She also has to work harder at coping with the disappointments of post-university life and several years as a waitress in a ghastly Tex-Mex restaurant in north London.
Dexter, on the other hand, doesn't have to work hard at anything, as a couple of agreeably hedonistic gap years give way to an agreeably hedonistic life in TV and a job presenting an early-90s late-night youth programme.
While Dexter enjoys as many drugs, cocktails and women as he can get his hands on, Emma continues to serve up noisome nachos in Kentish Town. But things gradually pick up for her. She escapes her Tex-Mex hell to become a teacher and eventually acquires a boyfriend, Ian, a magnificently hopeless stand-up comedian.
Dexter's TV career, meanwhile, soon peaks and almost immediately plummets, barely pausing at cable before reaching rock bottom. Having done for his job, Dexter's drink-addled selfishness also threatens his increasingly fraught friendship with Emma. On a disastrous night out on 15 July 1995, she tells him that she loves him but no longer likes him. The next few 15 Julys see
Конец формы
Emma and Dexter first meet on 15 July 1988, the last day of their studenthoods in Edinburgh, when they sort of get off with each other and first exchange banter, if not too many bodily fluids. Thereafter, the novel catches up with them every subsequent 15 July, the annual updates charting the course of their lives and their continuing though not always flourishing friendship.
When that first date turns out to have been a one-night stand, the very unpromiscuous Emma has to work harder at coping with the platonic nature of their friendship than the bed-hopping Dexter. She also has to work harder at coping with the disappointments of post-university life and several years as a waitress in a ghastly Tex-Mex restaurant in north London.
Dexter, on the other hand, doesn't have to work hard at anything, as a couple of agreeably hedonistic gap years give way to an agreeably hedonistic life in TV and a job presenting an early-90s late-night youth programme.
While Dexter enjoys as many drugs, cocktails and women as he can get his hands on, Emma continues to serve up noisome nachos in Kentish Town. But things gradually pick up for her. She escapes her Tex-Mex hell to become a teacher and eventually acquires a boyfriend, Ian, a magnificently hopeless stand-up comedian.
Dexter's TV career, meanwhile, soon peaks and almost immediately plummets, barely pausing at cable before reaching rock bottom. Having done for his job, Dexter's drink-addled selfishness also threatens his increasingly fraught friendship with Emma. On a disastrous night out on 15 July 1995, she tells him that she loves him but no longer likes him. The next few 15 Julys see