fiction - a (not very successful) stand up comedian Andy in 2019 London, England, UK copes with the sudden end of his 4-year relationship with Jen, who won't explain why she broke up with him.

Andy's not all that likeable (or funny), but he's not terrible either--mostly he mopes/whines about the breakup, and he is only tolerable because he knows he's wearing on his friends. Despite Andy's shortcomings, his story is mildly interesting, and as the months pass from summer 2019 to fall/autumn 2019, Andy's paranoid landlord/housemate Morris points out that something big is about to happen to the world; the pre-COVID timeline adds an extra layer of urgency. I liked the ending, but it was maybe a lot to drudge through to get there.

the twist at the end is that we finally hear Jen's side of the story, and she just does not feel the need to be someone's girlfriend, wife, or mother. With her home mortgage covered by tenant renters and having amassed significant savings, she decides to quit her high-paying job that she really doesn't like in early 2020 and plans to spend a year traveling the world in late March 2020 (!) as a 35 y.o. woman without the obligations to family/kids that her friends now all share. ( )

A story about a breakup mainly from the man’s perspective with some about the woman. The people around them were a bit more interesting. Set in England so the book was slightly more interesting. The stuff about comedians was fun ( )

A book club book, I forgot to record. Had its moments, but they were few and far between slogging through Andy, who for a comedian, didn't bring many laughs. Most of the other characters were more endearing. (I really liked his mom's view on the world.) ( )

Dolly, you are, as always, my literary hero 3 this book was SO SO sO SO SO GOOD! the way Dolly Alderton writes women's fiction without hating women is !!! and especially in this book where 99% of the book is written from the perspective of a man grieving a bad breakup. the most compelling part of this story is that Dolly manages to take the reader through the mania, the bargaining, and the desperation of searching for control in a situation that you did not choose to be in, and she does it without making us hate the woman who has caused the breakup. i think it was important to have a section from Jen’s perspective at the end of the book. it gives a lot of clarification to much of the breakup and pulls the reader from the typical pedestalization of a protagonist that inevitably occurs in fiction. Andy is not perfect. Jen is not perfect. the complexity of these characters on such a molecular level is stunning. and a huge shoutout to womanhood!! Jen’s struggle with wanting to exist outside of a relationship and the implication that all women want to have marriages and children struck such a chord to me. live laugh love Dolly Alderton ( )

Dolly Alderton writes amazing non-fiction, but I'm coming to the conclusion that her fiction isn't exactly my cup of tea. I didn't mind Ghosts and Good Material is the same kind of feeling - it's allllll rigggggggght but not incredibly engaging. The main character Andy isn't always likeable or sympathetic, which is fine, but there's not much to keep me wanting to pick up this breakup novel.

The story is of a breakup between Jen and Andy. They've been going out for years, live together but then Jen wants to call it quits. Andy really didn't see this coming (he thought that she was The One) and the story deals with their breakup in all its messiness. Andy is a standup comedian (and not a particularly successful one) but at the heart of it, he's just a lost boy making questionable choices. He's a sad character and while it's easy to empathise with him at first, it does wear off. There are only so many painstakingly written texts to Jen with just the right amount of casualness the reader can read through or awkward moments that turn to arguments.

Much of the story is Andy slowly coming to terms with his new single status when all his friends are part of a couple or have kids. It's not always the happiest book, although there are some light moments, some awkwardly amusing parts at Andy's expense and a mention of Mr Brightside's lyrics. The strongest part for me was towards the end of the novel where the reader gains an insight into Jen's version of the breakup. While it confirms some things that the reader had expected all along, it's also a good insight into how the past shapes us and that an individual's reasons for doing something aren't always clear to outsiders.

Alderton writes really well as always. She's on topic as always and the choice to write from the first person male pays off. While Andy is ultimately not the character you'd want next to you during a long journey, other characters are well crafted, interesting and refreshing such as Andy's best friend and his wife. The plot moves along at a decent pace and the insight from Jen is worth finishing the book for. It just didn't interest me all that much, perhaps because of Andy's insight about so many things. If more of the story had been written from Jen's perspective, it would have been much more fascinating for me - an insightful, modern look at relationships.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com ( )