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A review by amyvl93
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I love Curtis Sittenfeld so I was quite sad that this didn't hit as much as I was willing it to.
Romantic Comedy follows Sally, a resolutely single woman in her late 30s who writes for the regular comedy sketch show The Night Owls (aka SNL), who meets very famous pop singer Noah Brewster when he is the host and music guest one week in 2018. They appear to connect until they don't; before reconnecting during the pandemic. But famous hot men don't date normie women...right?
The normal person/famous person couple is a trope that is hugely popular in romcoms, and one that I usually enjoy but unfortunately for this book I just didn't feel the chemistry between Noah and Sally until fairly late in the novel. This may be because we're in Sally's head, but I also didn't feel that their conversations and even emails felt that flirty and romantic. Also whilst Sally was a times irritating, she did feel like a nuanced character - Noah had no shades of grey to him, which made him a slightly uninteresting character to root for.
There's also a whole lot of inside baseball about the making of comedy sketch shows which did feel a bit too detailed for my tastes, and whilst Sittenfeld definitely captures the anxiety of Covid-19 very well, there were a lot of topical references that felt a tad on the nose, although that may be because we're still very close to these events.
What worked well for me was the supporting characters; the rest of the writers & performers at The Night Owl, Sally's stepfather and beagle, and the entirely believable celebrity universe that Sittenfeld creates that sits around the characters.
I could see this being a, ahem, romantic comedy fluffy film but it didn't work overly well for me as a novel.
Romantic Comedy follows Sally, a resolutely single woman in her late 30s who writes for the regular comedy sketch show The Night Owls (aka SNL), who meets very famous pop singer Noah Brewster when he is the host and music guest one week in 2018. They appear to connect until they don't; before reconnecting during the pandemic. But famous hot men don't date normie women...right?
The normal person/famous person couple is a trope that is hugely popular in romcoms, and one that I usually enjoy but unfortunately for this book I just didn't feel the chemistry between Noah and Sally until fairly late in the novel. This may be because we're in Sally's head, but I also didn't feel that their conversations and even emails felt that flirty and romantic. Also whilst Sally was a times irritating, she did feel like a nuanced character - Noah had no shades of grey to him, which made him a slightly uninteresting character to root for.
There's also a whole lot of inside baseball about the making of comedy sketch shows which did feel a bit too detailed for my tastes, and whilst Sittenfeld definitely captures the anxiety of Covid-19 very well, there were a lot of topical references that felt a tad on the nose, although that may be because we're still very close to these events.
What worked well for me was the supporting characters; the rest of the writers & performers at The Night Owl, Sally's stepfather and beagle, and the entirely believable celebrity universe that Sittenfeld creates that sits around the characters.
I could see this being a, ahem, romantic comedy fluffy film but it didn't work overly well for me as a novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Death of parent, Alcoholism, and Sexism