On "Starter for Ten"

Starter for Ten by David Nicholls
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are a lot of reasons for me not to give this book a five. Yet in the end, it's the overwhelming weight of empathy that I have for most of its characters that prevailed.

It's incredible really, how important this book seems to me now, what with turning 19, and going to university, and trying to move forward from a point in your life while trying to compensate for old friends who assume that you're deliberately forgetting them, when you're not.

I agree with most reviews that while Brian is the awkward nerd, to which most of us would wish to relate, it is kind of difficult to root for him. But then I think that that's the point of his character. Evidently, he believes himself to be a self-deprecating prick, and at some point he had wanted to run away from that. But in trying to get ahead, he ends up making the wrong choices, and ultimately fails himself (and everybody else around him).

It's actually kind of sad what happens to Brian in the end. The last paragraph sent me goosebumps, especially when I realized that if I read the book over again, the entire story is only Brian's thoughts cycling around this period of his life - reliving it, as if his whole life stopped there.

Cheesy as it may sound, I could almost believe that there's an actual Brian Jackson in some corner of the world. Perhaps he's still confused or has yet to really get over the simple tragedies of life. Now I don't like Brian, but out of all the characters, it's him with whom I empathize the most. Every other element could only fall so perfectly into place. I think that's what got to me.