Description
Life is (not)* a Romantic Comedy...
With a series of heartbreaks under her belt, Sally Milz - successful script writer for a legendary late-night TV comedy show - has long abandoned the search for love.
But when her friend and fellow writer begins to date a glamorous actress, he joins the growing club of interesting but average-looking men who get romantically involved with accomplished, beautiful women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch, poking fun at this 'social rule'. The reverse never happens for a woman.
Then Sally meets Noah, a pop idol with a reputation for dating models. But this isn't a romantic comedy - it's real life. Would someone like him ever date someone like her?
Skewering all our certainties about why we fall in love, ROMANTIC COMEDY is a witty and probing tale of how the heart will follow itself, no matter what anyone says. It is Curtis Sittenfeld at her most sharp, daring and compassionate best.
With a series of heartbreaks under her belt, Sally Milz - successful script writer for a legendary late-night TV comedy show - has long abandoned the search for love.
But when her friend and fellow writer begins to date a glamorous actress, he joins the growing club of interesting but average-looking men who get romantically involved with accomplished, beautiful women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch, poking fun at this 'social rule'. The reverse never happens for a woman.
Then Sally meets Noah, a pop idol with a reputation for dating models. But this isn't a romantic comedy - it's real life. Would someone like him ever date someone like her?
Skewering all our certainties about why we fall in love, ROMANTIC COMEDY is a witty and probing tale of how the heart will follow itself, no matter what anyone says. It is Curtis Sittenfeld at her most sharp, daring and compassionate best.
Review
Not too keen on this one until the last 25%!
I wanted to read this book based solely on the fact that it was written by Curtis Sittenfeld, as I loved Rodham. Unfortunately I found the first half of the book far too detailed to be enjoyable. The minutia of the off air production team for a comedy show at TNS was not appealing to me. We got to go through the writing, then the run through, then the show - too much. Unless you want to live vicariously through the book and experience real life comedy writing for live TV.
I wasn't really engaged with any of the main characters at this point. I did like the female friendships and some of the slick comedy lines, but I was struggling with it. I read advance reviews that said to stick with it as the second half was so much better. So I did.
Then came into the storyline Covid, so if you are uncomfortable about revisiting that time this might not be the book for you. I was ok with it but not with the dialogue being through emails. I am not a fan of this style of writing so the next 25% wasn't too good for me either but fared better than the first 50%.
Finally the last 25% of the book was pure genius and I loved it. I felt that I finally got the characters and was really engaged with the story. The writing is certainly intelligent and observational. I'm pleased I didn't stop reading, but I think a lot of readers may not get to that last 25% as the first half is so bogged down in detail.
I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars.
The book is published on 6 April 2023. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.
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