Customer Reviews

Starter for Ten: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.'

I like this novel compare to One Day. Nichols has a great ear for dialogue, and this is laugh out hilarious. I in fact, even though I knew the predictable ending, delayed the ending for as long as I could just because I love the writing.

I bought & read this after seeing the film of it. I kept thinking it wasn't much, but to be honest, I also kept returning to it until I'd completed it in only a few days (and I'm a very slow reader). Funny, entertaining, silly, gross, but never dull or unreadable. It's really much more focused on the lead and his life beginning college than the quiz show phrase that provides the title. A very good summertime read.

I loved this book. I read two of this author's other novels, and didn't enjoy them as much as this one. Coming of age in GB. Very laugh out loud funny in spots, and very sad in other spots. One of the few books that I can see myself reading again.

Hopefully the upcoming movie based on Mr. Nicholls latest novel, One Day, will spark an interest in his earlier works, such as this little gem. I have now read all three of his novels, in reverse order from that in which they were written. The one constant which has been present from the start is an underlying sweetness to his characters, even when they're behaving badly.

Brian Jackson is the goofy kid we all knew (or were) trying to make his way through his first year of college. Despite all his good intentions, and his ill-conceived attempts to become cool (or perhaps because of them), he still manages to offend and anger everyone who cares about him.

Mr. Nicholls makes us alternately laugh and wince as we watch Brian try to overcome his social awkwardness and woo the pretty girl who everyone knows is out of his league. Everyone, that is, except Brian. As painful as it is to watch, you find you just have to know what happens next. And just when you think poor, hapless Brian's situation couldn't possibly get any worse, it does. But he comes through it, hopefully having learned some valuable life lessons along the way.

There isn't anything deep or earth-shattering about this book. It's just a pleasant way to spend a few hours and reminisce about the follies of our own youth.

Starter For Ten by David Nicholls was a great read! I was surprisingly thrilled at how much I enjoyed this book. I laughed, I cringed, and I sympathized with the main character, Brian Jackson. The story is as old as old as time - nerdy kid trying to get the cool girl in a coming-of-age tale. But it is still a story worth telling. The characters are realistic and I can hear the conversations in my head as I read it. Great story.

Having read, and enjoyed, Nicholl's later book One Day I found this fare rather disappointing. He can write very convincing dialogue, I knew that from the other book, but like so often with this type of coming-of-age novel the male lead character is totally unconvincing.
What teenage girls 'see' in spotty puberal boys is not a new dilemma; it remains baffling. But here we're expected to believe that a gorgeous young woman would find this particularly unattractive specimen a tempting partner. Just a ridiculous concept.
In this way Starter for Ten reminds me of Murakami's Norwegian Wood, that also expects us to suspend our disbelief. That book may well have been better written than this one, but it was also nowhere near as funny.
If you like Starter for Ten, then you'll love One Day.

This is the 2nd book I read by Nicholls - first was One Day which I also highly recommend.

While I think I liked One Day more than Starter for Ten - I definitely liked Starter For Ten as well.

Easy read, very funny - and just all around a great weekend book!

Fun book - especially if you went to college in the 1980's. Book is based in England, but the story is universal.