David Nicholls: English novelist and screenwriter 30.11.1966 -
Starter for Ten: Novel, published in 2003

Just read this novel, and thought to put few words down about it.

First of all, I loved it. I loved the stand-up comedy stylish rhythm of it, I loved the characters and I loved the subtle political aspects of the story. The book has it's weaknesses, no doubt, but I read it eagerly. It's really not much else than "a boy meets a girl" story, the main character Brian Jackson does not show any progress during the story (you could even call it regress), the style of the book can be described as precocious and careless chattering and all the jokes do not hit the nail in the head. But no matter, the book is still great. The main character is one loveable loser and other characters are lively and most of the time you will have a wonderful time with them.

I picked the novel up pretty random from a review of our largest daily newspaper, which said that the book was "funny". And yes, funny it was, one of most most hilarious books I've ever read. Most of the time I read it smiling and sometimes even laughing which does not happen often these days. And the denouement of the story is so embarrassing that I had to hit myself with a palm in the forehead. Poor Brian, why did you do it!

The events take place in 1980s, in the environment of an english university. Brian Jackson is a literature student from Essex, born into working class,  and he falls in love with an upper middle class beauty. The era is depicted (very) lightly through music, clothing, politics and other small details. There is not much of a plot and when there is, most turns are predictable and obvious. But this shouldn't bother you a bit. The strength of the novel is in it's wittiness, rhythm and taste of life.

I myself, seem to have a weak spot for this kind of novels: short and easy to read sentences, first-person narration and with a main character, that is  more or less a poor loser. What this tells about me, I don't know. Anyway, I think that Brian Jackson takes his place in honourable group of indecisive, but, oh so self-adsorbed and arrogant characters, along with John Fante's Arturo Bandini and the main character of Knut Hamsun's 'Hunger'. And as always, one book leads to another. I quickly learned, that David Nicholls' real break-through is a novel called "One day" and it will surely find it's way to the top of my riding list. Nick Hornby has also been mentioned as a soul-mate and I should probably, at last, look into his works too.

Finally, apologises for all my  readers (which are probably none, but I like think that somebody, someday, might read these posts) for not updating this blog for a long time. I've been too  busy with my studies, work and family matters. Perhaps it was a bad idea start this blog in english anyway, because it takes five times as much effort to write a single post than it would be with my native language. But man has got to finish what he starts and I shall continue to write this blog in english. However, the posts shall appear sluggishly (which is probably a relief for everyone).

But enough about me...

"Starter for Ten" is a great novel and if you want a an easy-to-read, amusing and light summer reading, I couldn't think of a better recommendation than David Nicholls' "Starter for Ten".

Catchiest moment: Brian returns home and his best friend lies in hospital after loosing control of his  life and his car. He meets his second best friend Tone, who is really a complete jerk,  in a pub. Suprisingly this guy seems to have gotten a hold of a "normal" life: he is using suit, has  a new clean haircut, has been promoted and avoids too much alcohol. Which way should Brian go?

Blocker's Verdict: 5/5

Word of the day: Denouement = The denouement is the moment when all of the knots of a story are untied, But the denouement should not be confused with the end of a story.