Romantic Comedy
Ratings130
Average rating3.4
more like 2.5?
This was pretty cute for the most part but honestly, I did feel like I was reading right out of a Twitter thread at times and it feels Too Soon to read about Covid and relive pandemic times
Not romantic. Not a comedy. Kudos, though, to Curtis Sittenfeld for doing her research on Saturday Night Live so she could portray a typical week in the creation of a SNL-like show; that process was more interesting to me than the dull, poorly plotted, unconvincing love story.
(Insert rant here about the scores of romance authors who regularly publish rom-com books that are ten times better than this one, but who do not have the benefit of the marketing and publicity machines available to a “literary” author like Sittenfeld.)
I was a big fan of Sittenfeld's debut ([b:Prep 9844 Prep Curtis Sittenfeld https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386925666l/9844.SY75.jpg 2317177]), apparently didn't think much of her first romance novel as I rated it one star ([b:The Man of My Dreams 72622 The Man of My Dreams Curtis Sittenfeld https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924531l/72622.SY75.jpg 978325]), and then thought her other one was fun but rather silly ([b:Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice 25852870 Eligible A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice Curtis Sittenfeld https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1460477855l/25852870.SY75.jpg 26428236]). But now she totally won me back with this book. I absorbed it within 24hours, and thought it funny, warm and really excellently written. There seem to be so many romance novels out there were character's insecurities are the unrealistic roadblocks thrown into the narrative to elongate the angst. Yet they are constructed so feebly all you do is roll your eyes. Sally and Noah - the protagonists of this novel - also come with insecurities that pose obstacles, but they at all times feel genuine and realistic. So, is it all just in the quality of the writing? The protagonist at one point proclaims she wants to write “non-condescending, ragingly feminist screenplays for romantic comedies”, which she would achieve mainly by the quality of the writing, and the character development. No cutesy female characters with flour on their nose from baking cookies, no messy disaster characters. She wants to write about people who aren't flawless but aren't ridiculous or incompetent at life. Well, mission achieved. And some. I also really enjoyed learning about the day-to-day mechanics of the SNL-like sketch show, even without being a fan of SNL. And I might have cried some tears about Jerry.
