And your starter for ten is: who wrote popular 2009 novel ‘One Day’?
Did you know the answer? It was, of course, author and screenwriter David Nicholls, who is best-known for his third novel ‘One Day’, which I do own a copy of but haven’t yet got round to reading; ‘Starter for Ten’ is his first book and was recently available for free on iBooks.
What’s it about?
‘Starter for Ten’ is a romantic comedy in which the protagonist’s seduction technique consists consists of trying to show off his general knowledge, so you know there’ll be more comedy than romance.
It’s 1985 and Brian Jackson is starting out at university. His plan is to star in ‘University Challenge’ in a kind of homage to his dead father…and as a way to ‘get’ girls. Joining the team, he is instantly distracted by wannabe actress Alice Harbinson, whose lack of interest in Brian is only obvious to other people. Can he win The Challenge? And will be get The Girl?
What’s it like?
Mildly humorous; this is the kind of material that will garner a wry smile rather than a loud chuckle. Very early on, when writing about his 16 year old self’s reaction to his O level results, Brian tells us that it was “a long, long time ago. I’m eighteen now”. And that’s the standard set for the book. Soon after he describes the kind of lifestyle he hopes to magically slot into by sheer virtue of becoming a student and concludes: “That’s what I imagine it’s going to be like anyway. The University Experience. I like the word experience. It makes it sound like a ride at Alton Towers.” O-kaaay. Intelligent at trivia but baffled by emotions, it’s clear that Brian has a lot to learn: the difference between knowledge and wisdom; the many ways a girl might subtly (and not so subtly) reject you; and what being a socialist might really mean.
“I was the kind of adolescent who deliberately flunked his eye test in order to get glasses; enthusiastic but a bit dim, glib and overconfident and incapable of an original thought.” – Guardian interview 31/10/06
I enjoyed the humour but ultimately found this a little disappointing. It just seemed too predictable. There are two love interests: the flighty and flirty, upper middle class, aspiring actress Alice and the scathing socialist right-on Rebecca. The mystery is what either of them see in Brian, who is mostly pretentious, oblivious, twit-ish and awkward. Although Brian isn’t unlikeable, he isn’t very likeable either. He’s a poor friend to his pals back home, a largely absent son and just a bit spineless really. To look at him more kindly, he’s just a regular Joe trying to find his place in the world and work out what his values really are. In an interesting interview with The Guardian Nicholls draws several parallels betweeen himself and Brian, arguing that “Unless you’re writing in the serial killer genre, it’s a safe bet that first novels will have a strong autobiographical element”.
This a lightweight debut which might particularly appeal to men who were in their late teens in the 80s.
For me the story hit a big snag in chapter 28 when Brian and his friend Spencer seem to arrive at the same party twice. They arrive, then the narrative switches back to earlier that day – fine – but then we’re back to the moment they arrive and the characters have different thoughts and different things are happening. I did wonder if I’d missed something somewhere but a quick reread of the relevant chapter has let me just as confused. If this was a self-published work I’d think it was an editing error.
More problematically, unlike most novels and therefore my expectations, Brian’s character doesn’t seem to develop much and the ending felt like more of the same. The conclusion to his romantic interests is both predictable and unconvincing and as this is a key part of the storyline in the last few pages I found the ending vaguely unsatisfactory too.
Final thoughts
With apologies to anyone who dislikes this kind of categorisation, I do feel this is a bit of a guys book. There’s a lot of information about the bands Brian and his friends like, which is clearly meant to indicate something about them (as well as set the 80s scene) but it’s all a bit meaningless to me. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this more if I were more musically literate. I found this sufficiently entertaining to read on my phone over a series of nights spent settling my daughter to sleep, but when I had other opportunities to read I found myself reading something else.
Ultimately this is a lightweight debut which might particularly appeal to men who were in their late teens in the 80s. I’m still hopeful that ‘One Day’ will appeal to me more than this did but won’t be rushing to read it anytime soon.
Have you read ‘Starter for Ten’? Am I simply missing the spark?