Book Club July 2024- Romantic Comedy
By: Curtis Sittenfeld
Published Year: 2023
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 309
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Sally Milz is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," the late-night live comedy show that airs each Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.
But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actor who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the "Danny Horst Rule," poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.
Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder whether there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy; it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her...right?
With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.
What I thought
I have had this book on my to-read list for a very long time so I was excited to finally have an excuse to read it.
Sally is a comedy writer for a show called “The Night Owls”. She writes a sketch about how attractive female celebrities tend to fall for mediocre looking men, but never the other way around. Then when famous musician Noah Brewster hosts the how and she starts to feel chemistry, she tarts to question everything she ever knew.
This book was a lot of fun but it is very much taken from Saturday Night Live. I think it’s supposed to be like a fan tribute, but it kind of came off a little lazy. The show is referred to as “TNO” just like “SNL”, has a news section, musical guests and celebrity hosts, as well as a Lorne Michael’s character who controls it all. I just wish that Sittenfeld had been a little bit more creative rather than taking directly from reality.
I liked Sally at the beginning, but she had a lot of moments where she was annoyingly insecure. I understand it’s hard to believe that someone famous/extremely attractive can be into someone who is average, but she is very self-destructive. She also doesn’t come off as though she’s a homely person, even if she does come off like a jerk sometimes.
The story is told in 3 parts which I thought was interesting. The first part is the week that Noah hosts. The second part is told in emails during lockdown COVID 2020, and the third part is told in the moment in 2020 with Noah and Sally reconnecting.
I did love the romance side of this story. Noah is amazing and I absolutely fell a little in love with him. Sally does have her moments. Overall, I thought this was a fun, lighthearted book, and I enjoyed it more once we got out of the SNL phase.
What Book Club Thought
Unfortunately, I was sick for book club so I never got to discuss this book as a group. I did ask what people thought about it because I was curious and it seems like everyone overall enjoyed the book. They agreed that the similarities to SNL in the first part were a bit distracting, but not so much that it ruined the book for us.