Really Good, Actually (2023) by Monica Heisey
I came across Monica Heisey on Caroline O’Donoghue’s podcast Sentimental Garbage, in an episode on ‘Break-Ups’, and then found out that Heisey had been a writer on Schitt’s Creek, which I love enough that I wrote an academic chapter on it and still managed to love it afterwards. Really Good, Actually, does not at all have a Schitt’s Creek vibe, which is good! We love a versatile creative type! It’s about Maggie and her post-divorce malaise at the age of 28, and it is messy, but also funny–sort of a mix between Bridget Jones and Fleabag, I guess? Indeed, it’s hard for anything about a single woman in a diary format to escape the looming shadow of Ms. Jones, so it’s a bold move to go there, but Really Good, Actually, is…in fact pretty awesome in how it responds to a specific moment of millennial-ish angst (careers, online dating, online shopping, house prices, changing mores around marriage and relationships). Maybe a bit long, think the ending was dictated by genre convention rather than conviction, but there were a number of laugh out loud and “feeling seen” moments (a little worrying as I’m about 15 years past 28) and Maggie is an endearing addition to the canon of women in the ‘intelligent comedy of complicated feelings and life choices’ category. 4 stars.
Romantic Comedy (2023) by Curtis Sittenfield
I’ve never really watched SNL, but it fascinates me as a phenomenon, and as a cauldron from which fully-formed comedians who
have created some of my favourite shows and characters have emerged. I’m also increasingly interested in comedy as a thing, in terms of structure, and timing, and idiom, and individuality. And the trouble is, I think (not terribly originally, I’m sure), is that writing about comedy is hard because it involves writing comedy and if you’re not a comedian, then, well, it becomes dancing about architecture. So I guess it might be easier for comedians to write novels than novelists to write comedy? Although a lot of comedians are writing murder mysteries at the moment, at least in the UK–Richard Osman and Graham Norton come to mind.
All of this is a tangent that avoids discussing the fact that I haven’t finished Romantic Comedy and I won’t. The set up is that Sally, the writer of an SNL type show writes a sketch for hot musician Noah Brewster about how SNL-type show dudes get with hot women but the women, who might be cute but still average in the world of entertainment, do not. And the thing is, when you’ve watched all of 30 Rock twice and seen Tina Fey (who is extremely cute in real life) as Liz Lemon (who is cute despite the shows and Jack Donaghy’s attempts to persuade us that she isn’t!) date her way from Dean Winters to James Marsden via Matt Damon and Jon Hamm (and get to reject Michael Sheen and Conan O’Brien, even more bafflingly), then the premise for the sketch in Sittenfeld’s novel, and by extension the book itself, seems a little flimsy. Sally is nice and sharp enough, but popstar Noah Brewster is basically Astronaut Mike Dexter. The idea that people might get to know each other better during Covid lockdowns is a good one I guess, but it doesn’t really seem necessary here. Also the cover really annoys me–it’s very striking, and I love it aesthetically, but why is it of (presumably) the glamorous Hollywood woman and not the cute writer woman?
To be fair, I’m not usually big on the romance genre as a whole, especially a straightforward contemporary romance (I picked this up for the comedy aspect), but if you are, you may well find Sally and Noah’s journey fun. 2 stars.
Title quote from Taylor Swift’s ‘Invisible String’ (folklore, 2020)
