'Starter For Ten' by David Nicholls - Review

My rating: 8/10

I bought this book for a few pounds in the local charity shop that I volunteer at. Having read (and absolutely loved) One Day, I wanted to read Nicholls' next most famous novel to see if it had the same impact on me that One Day.

The thing that I loved most about Starter For Ten was the sense of humour that it carries all the way through. The unbearably cringe-worthy remarks that Brian comes out with made me have to put the book down for a minute because it was almost too painful to read on. It was like when you can't look at something on TV, but at the same time you just can't help looking - cringe humour at its finest.

The theme of social class is very well explored throughout the novel, particularly through the juxtaposition of the classes of Brian and Alice. When Brian visits Alice's house it's clear he feels out of place, given that he comes from a single-parent family living in a maisonette. It also seems that Brian's odd sense of humour is a device used to show the contrasting classes as Alice's parents, particularly Rose, are often perplexed or even appalled by the remarks Brian makes. On the contrary his best friends Spencer and Tone, coming from a similar background to him, are completely at ease with it.

Another feature of the novel that I loved was how realistic it was, making many readers (including me) able to relate to it. Brian's seemingly endless bouts of bad luck are something I'm sure we can all relate to. It is incredibly truthful of both the experience of being in love and also the experience of university from what I've been told by others with first hand experience, and that beyond all else is what a good book needs in order to be believed by its readers.

The end of the novel - during the filming of University Challenge - made my jaw drop. It was so tragic for Brian to have lost his dream in such a way and I wish that he would have had better look by the end of the novel, but nevertheless this shock ending was brilliant. One thing that made me more comfortable with plot-twist was the words of the final paragraph on the final page. Here, Brian recites the same words that he said at the start of the novel. By repeating the same words, this could either mean that A) Brian has finally grown up and now actually means the words he naively said at the start of the novel, or B) he has in fact not changed at all and is back to where he started. Upon finishing the novel I'd thought that scenario B was the case, explaining the need for him to start over at university, dubbing the past year an almost 'lost year' of his life. However, if anyone disagrees with that I'd love to hear your comments about it below.

A hugely entertaining, funny and realistic novel, Starter For Ten is a must read for both teenagers and adults. The only, and I mean only criticism I could possibly think of, is that I felt that the very end was quite short. I would have liked to have seen a little more of Brian and Rebecca together, but that is more of a personal opinion rather than a literary criticism. Overall, I thought Starter For Ten was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a lighthearted, coming-of-age novel.

While I'm on the topic, I thought I'd do a mini review of the film adaptation of the book too. I've never reviewed a film before so I'll make this brief!

I was apprehensive to watch the film at first, mostly because when I watched the One Day film adaptation I was slightly disappointed. However, I think the plot of this novel was much more suited for a film adaptation. The casting was very well chosen; Benedict Cumberbatch in particular was excellent in playing the role of Patrick.

On a more negative note, it was a shame how much of the plot was altered in the film. I understand that to some degree it was inevitable because of the length of a film compared to the book, but some of the more drastic changes made certain characters be viewed in a different way. For example, I didn't like how it was shown that Spencer was the one to fool around with Alice, because it portrayed Spencer as completely different to in the book. Nevertheless, I've accepted that plot changes were inevitable and that the changes made were also made to add more "drama" to the film, which Spencer fooling around with Alice certainly did. Despite all this, I really enjoyed the film, and if I'm judging it without comparing it to the novel, I'd probably rate it 7/10.