I enjoyed this book. It seemed real and possible. I loved the humor and the banter. Both main characters, flaws and all, were very likable. Of the two, Marnie was my favorite.
My husband and I visited and hiked in England’s Lake District many years ago. I always enjoy reading novels that take place in areas that I know. My past travels enhanced the book for me!
I enjoyed this book and may recommend it down the road to our zoom book club. Timing was excellent since we had an autumn trip to London, including a bus daytrip to Cotswolds/Oxford. It’s fund to recognize some locations, train stations etc.
Don’t worry about spoilers, the assumption is we have all read the book.
Oh for sure – the gift of the shirt was preceded by some kissing, so that pretty much sealed the deal in my mind. But as @momofboiler1 said, it was “not too tidy.” I was actually caught by surprise by the ending, reading on my kindle. I rarely monitor the page or percentage and suddenly–boom!–the book ended.
Yes, I’m happy when ending isn’t TOO unrealistically tidy, especially when we know the characters have varying amounts of baggage and obstacles to overcome.
@mathmom , thanks for your comment, especially the list of witty lines. I like humor that doesn’t whack me over the head … I might be moving on to the next paragraph before a quip “hits” me, and then I appreciate it all the more.
I enjoyed how grounded in reality the book seemed, and how the characters were gradually revealed, to each other and to us. The hard walk seemed the perfect setting for true colors to come out. Even lesser characters, like Cleo and her son Anthony, seemed human and believable. (Though I thought both Marnie’s ex and handsome Conrad were facile stereotypes.)
I read the book more than a month ago, then got the audiobook yesterday and spent 8 hours devouring it again! The two readers have the perfect voices, with more posh “Londony” Marnie and more rough “Yorkshire” Michael. I’m not steeped in British accents enough to be sure those were right, but they seemed right to my American ears.
Having spent a career as a copy editor, I identified with Marnie especially. (I never got to edit an orgy, though – not that I’m jealous.)
One line that struck me was on page 73.
“Apparently, there was meant to be beauty in cracks, cracks were how the light gets in but, more importantly, they were how the liquid gets out. No one really wants a leaky cup.”
Certainly the practice of kintsugi (the Japanese art of repairing cracked pottery with gold or other substances) can create a thing of beauty (both in the physical and metaphorical sense), but I’ve been mulling this perspective as well.
Marnie’s reflections on that particular project were pretty funny 
. @jollymama, did you find her path to copy editor believable, i.e., gradually falling into it with no college degree, and earning a living (albeit meagre) through freelance work?
Yes! The title of that chapter was “Kintsugi” and I’d never heard of it – had to look it up. I think “beauty in the broken” is an underlying theme of You Are Here.
That quote is a good example of how the writing flows in this book: a subtle reference (to Cohen’s “Anthem” – “cracks were how the light gets in”), a dash of humor, and a substantive idea, all rolled into one sentence.
I really did love the book. It was so beautifully written. I don’t think that they would have come to develop the relationship that they did if they had just met at a party or a pub. The walk allowed them to reveal themselves in a way that a dating situation would not have. They saw each other when they were not at their best- wet and dirty. Since they were not thrown together as a potential match they allowed them to just be themselves.
Yes, absolutely. And the author weaves all those strands together just “effortlessly” – ha. That’s art.
People get into copy editing in a variety of ways. It’s more a matter of what you can do than of formal credentials. And Marnie’s path was entirely believable to me.
I had the good fortune of starting my career at a newspaper, back when newspapers had copy editors! They did care about my degrees, but mostly they cared that I aced the “copy editing test,” a tricky torture devised by other copy editors.
I have a friend who’s full-time freelance, after years of corporate work. Like Marnie, she takes work with her on vacation. Turning down an assignment, or being late, could mean losing a client. Unlike Marnie, she has numerous reliable clients who pay well … she owns two houses.
I finished reading on Saturday and then totally forgot the discussion started yesterday! I also liked the book a lot, for many of the reasons others have mentioned, including great dialogue, humor, etc. That said, I found Marnie somewhat annoying, especially in the early part of the book. (Minority opinion, I know.)
I agree with @Mary13 that Natasha was “unkind” in hiding her pregnancy from Michael for as long as she did. She wanted to tell him in person? What if he hadn’t happened to have been on this walk that brought him close to where she was living? When was she going to tell him?
I was OK with the ending, but thought it was very abrupt. I also read on a Kindle, and when I swiped for the next page and it wasn’t there, I was really surprised.
Finally, a small vent about one of my personal pet peeves in writing – bad grammar. As well written as this book is, I found two instances that jumped out at me. (1) On page 74 (per my Kindle) Michael says, “Yeah, me and my wife used to --” (2) On page 120 Cleo says, “But the thing is Anthony and me are heading home tomorrow morning …” This particular grammar error is like nails on a chalkboard to me. 
Checked out this book from the library about 3 weeks ago, but with a few busy weekends and holidays with family visiting, I could not finish it, unfortunately. I will try to eventually complete the book and then enjoy all your comments at that time. I am hoping to be able to participate in the next book discussion.
Oh I wanted to smack Marnie at the beginning of the book when she’s being so incredibly awkward and trying too hard to be funny. It was lucky that we’d been introduced to a more genuine version of her earlier or I would have had no patience for her at all!
At least one of those “Me and …” also grated on me and I wondered if it was intentional. Maybe part of a British dialect with different connotations than it has for me?
ETA from When to Use "Me" and "I" | Britannica Dictionary so maybe more okay than I thought?
It is very common for native speakers to use “me” in subject position and “I” in object position. This is fine in casual speech but should be avoided in formal writing. The following examples are some ways people might use “me” and “I” in speech.
Me and Anne went to the corner store for drinks. The teacher gave the books to Jenn and I to hand out to everyone else. Me and my mom are going to see that new movie tonight. The president of the college called Robert and I to thank us.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. For a short while in the first chapter, I thought, oh no, another depressing book. But it got entertaining very quickly and I liked the protagonists. I think the ending was a bit abrupt but yes, the gift shirt was a message. They both knew there was a strong attraction, but they both knew (especially him) that there were internal issues to resolve before that could move forward in a healthy manner.
I never save quotes, but this one early on just rang for me.
Private, intimate, a book was something she could pull around and over herself, like a quilt.
Perfectly describes the immersive feel of reading.
Great to see how many people enjoyed this book! Your comments helped me remember this book I read a month ago, and have forgotten so much about it. Everyone has expressed my feelings about the book, so nothing new here-
Loved the Light snappy dialogue, as a “ walker “ I could relate to hiking challenges.
Remember disliking the pregnant wife, and the abrupt ending, but appreciated the nuance about the shirt, a sure thing they would meet again.
The death of the fellow walker, seemed shocking , but as stated above, emphasized, “time is fleeting “ and “ life is short”, and will be. A dramatic climax in the upcoming movie/tv version,
I will enjoy seeing this book on screen.
Here’s who beat David Nicholls for the comedy fiction prize I mentioned earlier. Another “delightful” novel – who knows, we might want to read it!
Of the examples you listed, the sentences using “…and I” incorrectly are so common in casual speech that I barely notice them. But the examples that start "Me and … " really grate! Reminds me of Cookie Monster. Me want cookies. 
In any case, I’m sure it’s a dialect thing for the characters and not any grammatical mistake on the part of David Nicholls.
There is one thing about Nicholls’ writing that became a little distracting after a while: I’ve never read so many similes! Fortunately, most of them land well (such as @Marilyn’s quilt example). But really, there is quite a barrage.
“He was neat and trim, and easy access to moisturizers had given him extraordinary skin, a smoothness untouched by time and life, as if he were his own action hero.”
“Tentatively, they lowered their hoods, like astronauts removing their helmets.”
“The pool occupied a flimsy half cylinder, like a polytunnel used to grow lettuce in winter.”
“It was difficult, too, to sulk off when covered with foam, but she did her best, dripping dirty suds, like a poorly rinsed roasting tin.”
“She showered, put on clothes as if dressing a mannequin, walked downstairs sideways, placing her feet gingerly one step at a time, like a marionette, to the bar, which smelt of beer and fish.” (She gets to be both a mannequin and a marionette in the same sentence. 
)
“In these moments, it was as if he were walking within some transparent bubble, like the clear jelly around the black dot in frogspawn.”
Those are just a few of many! Granted, they are often amusing, but also as countless as the stars (dang, it’s contagious).
I think grammar mistakes in dialog are intentional, to reflect casual conversation.
I have to balance my above critique with a compliment:
I loved the various allusions in the novel that Nicholls didn’t bother to explain. I know I didn’t get them all, but I appreciated the fact that he assumed I could.
For example, the chapter titled simply, “Mark Rothko.” it’s only a page, and it describes the seemingly inexplicable photo that Marnie receives from Michael, “an abstract vertical image, horizontal bands of industrial grey and black.”
I would never have gotten this joke if we hadn’t read The Latecomer together.
I get that some authors use incorrect grammar to reflect casual conversation – I’ve certainly seen it in a number of books. I still find it annoying, though, and most likely always will. I agree with @Mary13 that the use of “Me and …” grates on me the most; as I said, nails on a chalkboard. I must have been paying attention to grammar lessons, LOL!
