A Book Review: Us by David Nicholls

By: Elizabeth Redhead Kriston

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Because I drive alone for hours each day, I rely on audiobooks to entertain and teach me. I rely on them to keep my mind active in the humdrum of mind-numbing daily commutes. I want to laugh away the hours, ponder life, learn about new people and cultures, and maybe, even feel what it is to be someone else for a bit.

“Other people’s sex lives are a little like other people’s holidays: you’re glad that they had fun but you weren’t there and don’t necessarily want to see the photos.” ― David Nicholls, Us

The perfect audiobook should be well written, keeping my attention without requiring deep thought and close attention to minute details in order to follow the story line. Driving requires that I be able to navigate through traffic, down unfamiliar roads, and obey traffic laws.  I want to get to where I am going without getting lost, sans tickets, and injury free. A book that fits this bill is hard to come by.

Happily, my latest driving companion, Us by David Nicholl’s, met and exceeded all my requirements. This delightful story about a family and the various relationships between its members was told from the perspective of Douglas, a flawed man, father, son, brother, and husband. It is so well-written, that the depths of the story were easily digestible as I multi-tasked between driving and immersing myself into the Peterson family’s life. I knew I hit the jackpot when I anxiously anticipated my solitary, daily journeys across the neighboring counties.

Nicholls masterfully entwined laugh-out-loud humor into his tale along with his perfect imagery and clever storytelling. He made me care about the characters while I chuckled at their quirks and foibles. I was able to feel empathy and sadness without feeling despair or hopelessness. Just as tears pricked my eyes threatening to blur my vision, Nicholls change the tone morphing my sob into a guffaw. 

The Peterson family, a family of three individuals with diverse personalities and life paths, became my friends as I journeyed with them through the trials and tribulations of their complex relationships and their holiday through Europe.

“There’s a particular grubbiness that comes with travel. You start showered and fresh in clean and comfortable clothes, upbeat and hopeful that this will be like travel in the movies; sunlight flaring on the windows, heads resting on shoulders, laughter and smiles with a lightly jazzy soundtrack. But in reality the grubbiness has set in” ― David Nicholls, Us

The scenery became a character with a role as important as the people. I loved spending time with the Petersons in their home country, England, as much as I relished visiting Amsterdam, Paris, Venice, Madrid, and Barcelona with them. I rode trains and walked the streets of Venice with Douglas. My feet ached when his feet ached. Along the way, Nicholls unearthed beautiful paintings and sculptures that Douglas described with insight and intellect most of which he gleaned from tour books and Wikipedia. This caused me to yearn for endless days exploring the great museums of the world.

“There may well be a scientific paper to be written on why walking in an art gallery is so much more exhausting than, say, climbing Helvellyn. My guess is that it is something to do with the energy required to hold muscles in tension, combined with the mental exertion of wondering what to say.”  ― David Nicholls, Us

Navigating Douglas’ relationships and joining him as he began to realize how he could have been a better father and husband was enlightening. It led me to reflect on my own relationships and ponder on how I could be better too. Nicholls never allows the reader to delve into feelings of depression. Douglas has too much humor and hope for that.

David Haig narrated this audiobook perfectly. He created nuanced performances for each character. He delivered both the emotional sentiments and the humor seamlessly. A well-acted performance is critical when listening to audiobooks. It is painful when the narrator is flat and unemotional, when the narrator can not morph into the characters. Good audiobooks are much like good theater or movies, you become immersed in the fantasy.

Nicholls has a gift that, as a writer, I envy and admire. This is the kind of book that leaves you with a sense of loss when you realize it has ended, but grateful you were able to be lost in the words, the stories, and the imagery for a period of time each day. I look forward to reading more by Nicholls soon.