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This is my third David Nicholls book and definitely the deepest and most clever of his that I've read. One Day was the first, I liked the form and the love story, Starter For Ten was my second, I loved the era and found it hilarious..Us is a different kettle of fish though. It's told in an interesting format; a family reconnecting and travelling around Europe, a tragi-comic story about the bitter-sweet ingredients that make families the way they are and comes across as incredibly heart-felt.
Conventional and scientific to a fault, Douglas Petersen can't believe his luck when he starts dating bohemian, attractive artist Connie. Set up by his sister, they unexpectedly gel. Connie helps Douglas to relax , socialize and learn about art. Douglas, is a sensible, reliable antidote to the men that Connie usually dates. Their love story gets increasingly complex over time as they marry and set about starting a family together. However, can they make each other truly happy ir will these differences pull them apart long-term?
They decide to give their relationship one more go on a trip around Europe together with their eighteen year old son Albie, a kind of grand tour, and it ends up being a coming of age story for all of them.
Douglas is a really funny narrator whose unique world view is so scientific but also very endearing and touching. I loved seeing the world (particularly Europe) through his eyes but did sympathize with the other characters at points. That search for yourself, particularly in relation to others and amongst the minutiae of family life. There was a great symmetry in Albie's yearning to define himself as different from his father, which Douglas had also struggled with. There was also some interesting open-ended questions posed in the book about how we were parented and how this affects our parenting style. Is it better to be a creative, free-spirited parent like Connie or scientific, careful and academically focused like Douglas? On the surface the book is light but it touches on a lot. Infant loss is a theme in the book and this is handled sensitively but is a real gut punch to read about. However this is still a book that you can read quickly and is enjoyable on many levels which I think is masterful. I loved how it went back and forth in time. I did find it amazing how David Nicholls can describe normal English lives and situations so succinctly and make the ordianry literary, interesting. I could really see the type of people the characters were supposed to be and the lives
For me the main question running through the novel, was 'can we change?' and optimistically, I read it as yes we can :)