12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Much More Than '80's Retro, July 13, 2007
This review is from: Starter for Ten: A Novel (Paperback)
When I first found this novel while cruising a bookstore, I nearly passed it by without taking it off the shelf. I also nearly put it back on the shelf once I had it down. Why? Well, from the cover description, Mr. Nicholls' work sounds like yet another self-indulging shuffle back in time to when the author was young. Let's face it, too many writers go back to their youth and create a pseudo-memoir of how they wish it had been. I expected that's what this was.
But guess what? I was WAY off the mark and am so glad I didn't go with my first impression. Starter for Ten is an engrossing, funny, witty (NOT the same thing as funny) tale of Brian Jackson, a likable and problem-prone young Englishman from the year 1985. We tag along as he wades through the standard agonies of late adolescent growing pains and look on at his adjustments to an inundation of rapid changes to his life. His working-class past has not always been happy, but Brian emerges from it a relatively optimistic, if self-deprecating, figure and we quickly root for this charming underdog as he starts university with two major goals. Brian's first goal is to be a contestant on a collegiate quiz show favored by his late father; his second and more all-consuming hope, is he wants to gain the love of Alice Harbinson, a leftist, petite-bourgeoisie princess who is also a first-year student at Brian's college. Even while we want things to work out for Brian Jackson, we cringe on his behalf as he pursues the beautiful, flighty Alice, a girl surely he, like we, know is unattainable for a young man of his status (read social class) and personal aptitude.
That's the backbone of the novel's plot, but in among its 300-odd pages, we trek along on some endearing misadventures and cheer for Brian Jackson, wince for him, and want to console him more than a few times, even as we laugh for--or is it AT--him and his sincere efforts to make it on his very uphill climb.
I highly recommend Starter for Ten to anyone who wants to be touched by a fun, light read about beginning college life, while taking a trip back to the era of Thatcher's Britain of the mid-1980's.
Cheers!
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
David Nicholls knows his coming-of-age angst, April 19, 2007
This review is from: Starter for Ten: A Novel (Paperback)
David Nicholls' 'Starter for Ten' was originally released in the US as 'A Question of Attraction.' With BBC Films' cinematic release under the 'Starter...' title (starring James McAvoy of 'Last King of Scotland' fame), Villard is now re-releasing the book Stateside under its original title in order to capture some 'oomph' from the film tie-in.
Anyway, it's a nicely written and enjoyable tale by Nicholls, who surely knows his coming-of-age angst. One observation about the movie vs. book: Nicholls' book version of Rebecca Epstein is a lot more sharper-edged and grow-on-you pretty than Rebecca Hall's on-screen portrayal. Ms. Hall, by contrast, will have you at 'hello.'
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely worth starting, January 28, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. I came across it by accident but as a wannabee quiz show contestant myself was immediately attracted to the plot. While the quiz show element provides a novel descriptive device at the beginning of each chapter, and does feature as an element of the plot, the real joy in this coming of age story set in the late 1980s is the quick-witted, pimple faced, slightly neurotic protagonist Brian Jackson. The story is simple enough, following his first year reading english literature at a non-descript english university, with all the usual pitfalls (falling for the wrong girl when the right one is underneath your nose, drinking too much, studying too little) but what makes it such good reading is the author's insight into the mind of the slightly nerdy, too smart for his own good male teenager on the brink of adulthood. There are several truly comic scenes in this novel, in which i laughed out loud many times, and also a real heart. While prone to make light of most situations, often to his own detriment and embarrassment, by the time the story reaches its climax, Brian is forced to face the reality that some of the key relationships in his life which he has neglected since starting university - with his childhood friends and his widowed mother - are changing in ways he can't control. Starter for ten is a near perfect ten.
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