PositiveThe Sydney Morning Herald (AUS)If there was an award for best title of a novel, send it to David Nicholls. Sweet Sorrow perfectly evokes the wistful longing for years long gone when the world was different, and so were we ... Sweet Sorrow, is remarkable for the emotional life that Nicholls gives to Charlie. His catalogue of firsts —love, sex and the growing awareness of the realities of life — has a real resonance. The line between sweet and twee is thin, but Nicholls mostly walks it and Charlie\'s story is heartfelt without being sentimental ... The plot is predictable and Sweet Sorrow isn\'t really a big enough story to justify its close-to 400 pages. It would have been a fine thing without the baggy middle and drawn-out ending, as a slimmer, razor-sharp novel: a little more Julian Barnes, a little less Nicholas Sparks. But there\'s pleasure in the leisurely pace ... This is a comfort read, a long soak in a warm nostalgic bath. Adolescence, that bittersweet minefield of discovery, is something we\'ve all had to navigate and David Nicholls is a rare beast, a Booker longlistee...who writes crowd-pleasing bestsellers ... That makes him the perfect guide for revealing the sweet sorrow of Charlie\'s adolescence, thereby prompting his readers to remember their own.
