Book Review: Romantic Comedy is polished - but lacks chemistry
Romantic Comedy
- Romantic Comedy
- Curtis Sittenfeld
- Doubleday, £16.99
Curtis Sittenfeld has made smart, funny and accessible literary fiction her trademark since the publication of her first book, the boarding school novel , memorably described by one journalist as meets .
Her next novel, , a clever reworking of the genre formerly known as chick-lit, was followed by , a brilliantly rendered fictionalisation of the life of former US First Lady Laura Bush (don’t let this put you off, it is a book I still foist on people 13 years after its publication).
Given that she pulled off the blend of fact and fiction so spectacularly in , Sittenfeld couldn’t be blamed for continuing in the same vein with her next book, , a novelisation of the life of another former US first lady, and political powerhouse in her own right, Hilary Clinton.
Unfortunately, I found it hard to love (it’s hard to avoid the admittedly cheap joke that the US electorate felt similarly) maybe because had set such a high watermark. This slightly tempered my anticipation of Sittenfeld’s latest book, and seventh novel, . Although, as someone who laments the decline of the classic rom-com at every opportunity, the title had me at hello (fellow rom-com fans will see what I did there).
Sittenfeld once again takes some real-life inspiration as a starting point for this book. Protagonist Sally Milz is a 30-something writer working on a legendary TV comedy sketch show called The Night Owls. The parallels with are obvious but it was another TV show and character that I couldn’t mentally escape from when I was reading this book — and its perennially put-upon showrunner Liz Lemon, memorably portrayed by Tina Fey, who mined her own experience as a writer and performer on in the multi-award winning comedy.
Sally, divorced after a brief marriage, is feeling stuck in her job and is sick of being overlooked for promotion in favour of mediocre men. She is additionally frustrated by seeing ‘schlub’ colleagues hooking up with young and beautiful female celebrities. As she says, it never works the other way around — until Noah, a pop idol with a reputation for dating models, enters the picture, and takes a shine to Sally.
The book is divided into three chapters, the first of which goes behind the scenes of the show, and delves into a little bit too much detail at the expense of the plot. The second chapter is devoted entirely to long email exchanges between Sally and Noah, a conceit that drains the book of narrative momentum. In the third chapter, we discover if we get the desired romantic pay-off.
In any romantic comedy, the leading man doesn’t need to be perfect — like the grit in the oyster that makes the pearl, there needs to be some light and shade. (See the great Harry Burns of : “When I get a new book, I read the last page first. That way, if I die before I finish I know how it comes out. That, my friend, is a dark side.”)
I kept waiting for Noah to reveal his dark side so there could be some friction in the plot — and while on one level, it was pleasing that Sittenfeld subverted this expectation it also made him far less interesting as a character. In addition, the implication that it’s somehow weird that Noah is attracted to the accomplished and whip-smart Sally gets tiresome after a while. It would also have been good to see more of the supporting characters, who remain woefully undeveloped.
As a huge fan of Sittenfeld’s work and craft, I acknowledge I hold her to a high standard, and there are many good things about , not least the engaging and fluid prose, and the sharply observed insights about being a woman in a predominantly male workplace. But overall, it didn’t quite achieve the fizzing chemistry vital to all good rom-coms.
