Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
So, I haven't posted any book reviews in several months. I wish I had a better excuse than graduation followed by unemployment, but that's basically all I've got. In December I finally released my degree from captivity by passing my introductory statistics exam and writing an essay about climate change or something... honestly, I don't remember, nor do I care. Not 20 minutes after completing my statistics exam, I started playing Minecraft again, which is something I do only after the biggest of academic achievements (taking the SAT, transferring colleges, and graduating). Unfortunately, the inevitable end to a fun stint of staring at my screen, mining, and crafting, is deep and unignorable boredom. Minecraft, like Hamlet, is a piece of media that brings out the existentialist in me, because it forces me to ask the question, what's the point. But if you've been around here a while, you know that there is no point, and everything is meaningless, and that's what makes life fun and books worth reading.
So, after I stopped mining and crafting for several hours a day, and before I started applying for jobs and seriously considering moving to Brooklyn, I found myself with a lot of time on my hands, and there was only one thing to do: read.
Naturally, I picked up Dune Messiah, read fifty pages very quickly, and then discovered a new non-reading way to spend my time: look for jobs and apartments in NYC so I could leave the confines of my very generous parents' home.
Now, newly employed and living in Brooklyn, I am still slowly making my way through Dune Messiah. I've had to balance it out with some easier reads, though, which is where this month's first book comes in: Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld.
This book sure was a romantic comedy! And... well, that's kind of it. Did I read it in less than a day? Yes. Did I enjoy it so much that I couldn't put it down? ...Yes? I think? While this book wasn't particularly swoon-worthy or written in such a way that balanced romance and internal reflection, it definitely kept me distracted from my most recent habit of playing Mario Kart in any and all spare time. (I am nothing if not a girl with an addictive personality and the entertainment tastes of a 14-year-old boy.)
I enjoyed the premise, and as a fan of 30-Rock, I appreciated the continued recognition that women can be smart, funny, and fart a lot! What I didn't enjoy was the novel's premise, which is the unlikely romance between a pop star and a comedy writer. The female protagonist writes for a knockoff SNL and despises her male coworker’s tendency to date and even marry far prettier, far younger, far more famous women. The thing is, she falls for a far prettier, far more famous man, and he falls for her, and their only conflict arises out of her being insecure that he's more famous and hotter. There is not character development for either of them, despite there being great potential.
Unfortunately, this review has turned into a rant, and for that I'm sorry. Someday I will finish reading Dune Messiah, and I will have a more coherent, well thought out review for you. But for now, you get my formal complaint to romance novelists everywhere: if you're going to write a novel that contains the line "but that kind of romance only happens in the movies, and this is real life..." then do me a favor and make the novel feel like real life.
