You Are Here - December CC Book Club Selection

By request, our December book will be a little more light-hearted than previous selections: We will be discussing You Are Here by David Nicholls (whose previous novel, One Day, was on the Booker Prize longlist).

You Are Here tells the story of Marnie and Michael, two midlife strangers who end up on a ten day hike together through the English countryside. What begins as banter deepens into more revealing conversation—and romance ensues. Per the review in the The New York Times, “Nicholls’s dialogue is flawless (he’s also an experienced screenwriter) and even his descriptions of bogs and muck can enchant. The novel is sharp-tongued and irresistible, the most intelligent treat.”

"a witty and likeable crowd pleaser…a comforting antidote to the grimness of our grim world” - The Guardian

The Remains of the Day crossed with Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip … a real gift of a novel, and it deserves to join One Day on the bestseller charts immediately” - Sunday Times (London)

Discussion begins December 1st. Please join us!

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Kindle version currently on sale for 2.99

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I’m enjoy the repartee in this - thanks for the suggestion!

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I just finished the ebook. Now I have a hold on the audio version, hope to listen before discussion time. Read by two British actors – looking forward to that!

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I enjoyed this book, especially since my husband and I just had a trip last month to London (including a bus tour in the Cotswolds). Thanks to whoever it was who alerted us when there was a Kindle sale on this title.

I just finished too. Such a nice read!

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Just saw this interview with David Nicholls in The Guardian today. He talks about his process, his influences, how the book came together, but there are not really plot spoilers here, if that’s a concern.

He’s up for a comedy award in fiction, which will be announced Dec. 2. Nice timing for us!

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Yay, ebook just came off hold !

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Yay! I just picked up the book and hope to finish it and participate i. upcoming discussions.

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Stayed up past midnight (without realizing) and finished the book. It was enjoyable and a good read.

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It’s December 1st! Welcome to our discussion of You Are Here by David Nicholls.

This was a very pleasant read, with some of the smartest dialogue I’ve read in a long time. I think “banter” is surprisingly hard to write (think how bad so many Hallmark chick-flicks are :slight_smile: ), but Nicholls did a great job. Also, sometimes a male author writing a female character feels “off,” but I didn’t feel that with Marnie.

I could have done without the tragedy involving the older couple they met on the hike. I didn’t see the necessity and I think the incident stayed with me longer than it stayed with Michael and Marnie.

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If interested…

Discussion Questions:

1. “There is who we want to be…and there is who we are. As we get older the former gives way to the latter,” (page 5). Do you agree? Why or why not?

2. At this stage in their lives, Marnie and Michael both prefer to be left alone. How are their solitudes similar, and how are they different? How many different kinds of loneliness do you notice in the novel? And what is the difference between solitude and loneliness?

3. What do you think Marnie means when she talks about “engag[ing] in the messy, confusing business of other people,” (page 21)? Discuss how this theme arises throughout the book.

4. The novel takes place in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Marnie describes the time after the restrictions ease as an awkward one for her: “It was as if she’d returned from a foreign country and not let anyone know… Conversation required a warm-up now, time set aside to workshop smiles and responses, and she no longer trusted her face to do the right thing,” (page 38). Does this experience resonate for you? Why or why not?

5. How do the landscape and/or the act of walking itself play a role in the story? Would the same story have been possible if the characters had been thrown together in a different circumstance, like a cruise or a corporate conference?

6. How does Cleo’s ambition affect her relationship with Michael?

7. Discuss Michael’s observation that “encounters with other men always seemed pre-loaded with rivalry and suspicion, the handshake tight, the smiles too, and he wondered if, after a certain age, men could ever really like each other,” (page 43). He wonders if the same also applies to female friendship: What do you think? Discuss the ways this observation relates to interactions between characters throughout the book.

8. David Nicholls has called this novel his “funniest book yet.” Talk about the use of humor in the story and what it reveals about the characters.

9. What is the significance of the stones that Michael and Marnie carry? Do you find traditions like this meaningful?

10. Compare and contrast Michael’s relationship with Natasha versus his relationship with Marnie. Does one feel healthier, or more “true” as a love? Why or why not? Do you think Michael made the right decision to be honest with Marnie about Natasha, at the door of his hotel room in Richmond?

11. Both characters are very reticent about their feelings. At what point do you think Michael fell for Marnie? When did Marnie fall for Michael? Why do you think that was the moment for each?

12. Do you think Michael and Marnie would have ended up feeling the same kind of connection they have now if they had met earlier in life, before their first marriages? Why or why not?

13. Do you think Marnie and Michael are soulmates? Think about how you might define the term “soulmate” and if that definition changes over a person’s lifetime.

14. Why do you think the author chose to end the story where he did, rather than earlier or later? What do you think might happen to the characters after the end of the novel?

Finished this one about 3 weeks ago and enjoyed it quite a bit. I liked that it was a book that picked up steam as you read on. I also liked how the main characters became more self-aware as they progressed through their walk and the time subsequent to it.

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I could have done without hearing about the violent assault of Michael by the group of young men, particularly knowing about his pleas. I didn’t see the necessity for the inclusion of violence. Couldn’t have just slipped down steep granite stairs and ended up needing surgery/rehab? Anyway I ended up reading the assault part right before turning out my lights only to find it bothered me enough I couldn’t sleep.

I like the book but found so much of it sad: the loneliness, the failed marriages, the assault on Michael after he tried to do good, and so on. I also waited for the other shoe to drop with Natasha’s appearance. I felt the need to let Marnie know or, if nothing else, remind her he was still married.

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The Guardian reviewer wrote that the book was “a comforting antidote to the grimness of our grim world.” So maybe Nicholls felt that in order to fully appreciate the antidote, we had to see the grimness as well. Perhaps he didn’t want to sugarcoat things and pretend that no hardships exist; rather, he wanted to convey that we can suffer terrible things, but the love of other people pulls us through.

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Yes, in that respect, I was glad the story didn’t end with Michael and Marnie a happy couple at the conclusion of the hike. Both had serious baggage to be dealt with – especially Michael.

By the way, the minute I read this sentence (as Marnie was departing the hotel), I knew it was Natasha:

In Reception, she retrieved her rucksack from behind the desk just as the taxi-driver arrived, followed by a woman of about her own age, neat, carefully dressed and visibly pregnant.

I know Michael loved Natasha (and so did his parents), and she seemed nice enough, but I thought her reveal of her pregnancy to him was pretty unkind. I didn’t quite buy the “I wanted to tell you in person” defense. Michael’s half-joke of “So I guess it’s not mine” was so wistful.

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I loved this book. I was rereading the first chapters yesterday before they’ve even started hiking and was reminded about just how funny it was. Not slapstick humor just sly observations about life and funny lines. Some of the things that caught my eye:

  • Marnie’s ex, "Don’t you dare copy edit me”.
  • The slide show that made Marnie realize she had to get out of her shell.
  • “Something terrible happened to Michael when presented with a map.”
  • The kind of obsessive project that overtakes men in the middle of life, like marathon running or carpentry.
  • Marnie looking like a stuffed olive.
  • She was observing the hell out of things, remembering the power of a train journey to turn life into montage.
  • She had not attended an orgy, but she had copy-edited many.
  • Stop worrying about toilets! Look at the cliffs! Look at the sea

I have walked across England a year ago a little further north along Hadrian’s Wall and did a small piece of the southwest coastal path in October, and have another walk planned in the Lake District next spring where we’ll be covering some of the same territory in this book. So this book has a special connection for me. And yes, the rooms in most bed and breakfast places have names. We even ran into a couple where the husband had collapsed (not dead thankfully!), but clearly in distress. We weren’t far from one of the Roman forts where we found that the ambulance had already arrived and were preparing to fetched the guy.

At some point I hope we will discuss the music choices! Not just when they listen to each others playlists, but all through the novel.

I think meeting the death on the trail, kind of reinforced the idea that life is short and you should savor it.

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I really enjoyed this book too! The dialogue was so good - natural, flowed well, and was witty. I felt like I really got to know the characters, warts and all.

Also not too tidy of an ending which I appreciated.

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I read an interview they did of the author in which he said that Marnie gifting Michael the very nice shirt is a way of foreshadowing a “yes” from her. He said there will be no sequal but maybe a film or TV version of the book and said it was his best work.

I like that the relationship evolved and it seemed quite natural and unforced. I think the prolonged hiking together was a bonding that wouldn’t happen with just cruising or under less physical circumstances. The author is very experienced at drawing very good characters and making them believable and flawed, as we all are.

Yes, I loved the book and stayed up until 1am the night I got it to finish it. I had to look up several terms he threw in but it was an enjoyable read.

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I enjoyed this one, pretty predictable but a good comfort read.

I also was affected by the incident with the older couple, although I wouldn’t mind participating while doing something I love with my people there (ack, how to say that without spoilers?).

It does seem like an easy movie adaptation.

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