George D

As a male comedian in his mid 30's whose attended the Edinburgh Fringe for almost a decade, whose career feels stalled, and is struggling with the most difficult breakup of his life, Dolly Alderton bringing out a book about a male comedian in his mid 30's whose attended the Edinburgh Fringe for almost a decade, whose career feels stalled, and is struggling with the most difficult breakup of his life, feels like the universe has given up on sending me subtle hints.

It's impossible to be objective about a book that has you saying things like “That's not what I did!”

But I'll try.

The book is funny with some good characters, you know exactly where the stories going but it's still fun getting there. Between both Andy and Jen's points of view, everyone whose gone through a breakup will be able to relate to something. Like technically, I was Jen (though also technically the exact opposite of Jen - a relationship confirmed all her opinions, a breakup made me sort out what I didn't know).

Dolly tries her best to be empathetic with the male experience, you can tell she's gone out of her way to do her research but, just like the standup comedy elements, it's very much written by someone on the outside looking in. While the comedian elements mostly work, the male emotional elements felt like cliches started creeping in.

The most glaring example of this is the way she describes the male friendship group dynamics after the breakup, which feel like the book was written in 1987. Sure in real life the group will go get drunk, that's a given, but they will definitely also have stories to share about the emotional difficulty of breakups, especially a group of guys in their mid 30's. You're going to have at least one guy wanting to talk about it too much, if anything.

What is lacking in the Andy POV narrative is actually taken too far in the other direction when Dolly writes from Jens perspective. I think Dolly made the mistake of being unable to separate herself from her character, she couldn't handle making Jen “the bad guy” or unaware in any way, and the point she was making suffered for it. From a narrative standpoint the choice Jen made should've been starker, like she was giving up something beautiful or betraying someone who didn't deserve it for the sake of what she really wanted, that way the choice has weight. As it stands its still nice to see this idea of being happy alone talked about, but the choice isn't exactly hard when it's not even a real relationship.

“You should choose to be happy alone rather than stay with a selfish whinger who slags off your entire family and doesn't support you emotionally, financially, or mentally” isn't quite the groundbreaking point it's made out to be.

Having said all that, the book helped me realise I've been floating in a limbo of impossible hopes for way too long, so whatever, 5 stars.

I'm a sucker for insanely vivid and viscerally detailed descriptions with the most brazen display of writing ability and that is Alan Moore's bread and butter. It's the closest you can get to seeing pictures while still reading words.

I see why the comics medium appealed to him in the first place.

Some of the stories in here are fantastically high concept, others are good old fashioned small town horror, and his takedown of the comics industry will leave you feeling suitably dirty afterwards.

I'm not one for swooning but that letter had my limbs feeling quite faint. What a moment. Loved it.

The book is a delight, Ann is a complex character packed full of doubts even as she exhibits the usual Austen heroine traits of good judgement, excellent decorum and refined taste. The characters around her are the classic mixture of good, bad, and hilariously horrible.

It doesn't tie everything off into a satisfying tight little package like Pride and Prejudice but that isn't the point of this book. The central plot is based around a decade old missed opportunity, add to that the unresolved economic situation, the character threads left hanging, the strange unexpected matches, and it becomes a novel about the randomness of life, the moments that are passed by or that happen to come together.

I rate that.

Biggest takeaway: Jane Austen is not a fan of children.

This is basically a rough draft of Pride and Prejudice. Inferior in most ways but can see how it would've been popular at release.

Found it weirdly judgemental, like Jane Austen hadn't yet learned to add nuance to her judgements, characters motives and actions are spelled out rather than shown.

Elinor is the one of the most fleshed out one dimensional character I've ever read. She's perfect and her only issues are dealing with a world that isn't ready for her perfection.

Loved every passage about a bachelor over 35 being tragically, desperately, over the hill.

I've never read anyone so perfectly convey their unbridled joy for the act of writing.

A book that's both brilliantly inspiring and brutally deflating. Write 2,000-3,000 words a day for 10 years to get good? But there's so many shows I'll miss on Netflix :'(

He writes with such passion about the pleasure of creation he almost manages to convince me to get started.

Almost.