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Summary
Summary
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK * From the New York Times best-selling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: a story of heartbreak and friendship and how to survive both
"Like Nora Ephron, with a British twist....Delivers the most delightful aspects of classic romantic comedy--snappy dialogue, realistic relationship dynamics, humorous meet-cutes and misunderstandings--and leaves behind the clichéd gender roles and traditional marriage plot."
-- The New York Times
Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy. And he can't work out why she stopped.
Now he is. . .
Without a home
Waiting for his stand-up career to take off
Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking
Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story...
In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.
Author Notes
DOLLY ALDERTON is an award-winning author, screenwriter and journalist based in London. She is a columnist for the Sunday Times Style magazine and has also written for GQ , Red , Marie Claire, and Grazia. She is the former co-host and co-creator of the podcast The High Low . Her books include Ghosts, Dear Dolly, and Everything I Know About Love , which was a New York Times best seller, won a National Book Award (UK) for Autobiography of the Year and was made into a TV series.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Alderton (Everything I Know About Love) delivers a flat anti-love story focused on flailing comedian Andy Dawson and his ex, the "annoyingly loquacious" Jen Bennet. The action kicks off with Andy making a list of justifications for ending the relationship, including Jen's smugness, snobbery, and childishness. He continues to obsess over Jen during bouts of day-drinking and comedy gigs in London, vacillating between fond memories and frustration. Despite his insecurity about his career and his growing bald spot, his treatment of the breakup is awash in arrogance and selfishness. Over several months, Andy and Jen separately come to terms with the direction their relationship was headed (the latter's perspective is provided later in the novel). Andy wanted children and to pursue his artistic dreams, while Jen didn't want a life centered on being a mother or wife. Alderton stitches in attempts at zany humor, such as Andy's brief stint living on a houseboat and his interactions with his best friend's children, but the jokes don't quite land. While the subversion of the typical love story intrigues, the unpalatable characters extinguish its charm. This misses the mark. Agent: Anna Stein, CAA. (Jan.)
Guardian Review
Dolly Alderton knows a thing or two about mining life's most intimate moments for creative material. Her hit memoir Everything I Know About Love distilled lessons learned the messy way in her 20s about romance in all its guises, and when she later published her debut novel, Ghosts, its plot felt tantalisingly autobiographical, centring on a successful young writer's app-enhanced attempts at finding a lasting relationship. Good Material is her second novel and it allows Alderton to reflect on heartbreak-as-muse while simultaneously propelling her into a more definitively fictional realm, narrated as it is by a male protagonist. His name is Andy and he's a 35-year-old jobbing comedian who was still awaiting his big break when Jen, his girlfriend of three years, 10 months and 29 days, dumped him. Or as he puts it, "smashed my heart like a sinewy pinata". She says it's because she wants to be single but he doesn't believe her, and is convinced that if he can only determine the real reason, they may yet reunite. She enlightens readers about "The Flip" (the change in power that occurs in every relationship doomed to failure) As he engages in some high-level cyberstalking while obsessively monitoring his bald spot, trying to kickstart his career, and navigating the daunting practicalities of living in London unaided by Jen's corporate salary, Alderton entertains with observational quips about thirtysomething life. Like how you always feel as though you've turned up at the very worst moment when visiting friends who have young children. She conjures up some plausible maxims, too, enlightening readers about "The Flip" (the change in power that occurs in every relationship doomed to failure) or the 90/10 rule (rebounders will invariably gravitate to people who embody the crucial 10% that was missing in their otherwise fine exes). There's a distinctly Hornbyesque charm to her well-meaning characters and their relatable dramas. The dialogue is excellent throughout and the prose, consistently solid, sometimes gleams. Here's Andy recalling the moment Jen kissed him for the first time: "I felt tiny and enormous; like I was her toy and her king." His lovelorn misadventures will prove to be the making of him but the novel closes with a short section told from Jen's point of view. It's a clever way of tying up loose ends that also accentuates the extent to which this affable, satisfying tale is out to defy some of the most stubbornly conservative tropes of romantic fiction.
Kirkus Review
A struggling 35-year-old British comedian navigates a breakup with his long-term girlfriend. With unmissable echoes of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, Alderton examines Andy Dawson's excruciating inability to accept the fact that Jen Hammersmith no longer wants to be with him, which leads to various self-destructive behaviors--drinking before noon, cyber-stalking Jen, and embarking on a morally dubious sexual relationship with a woman in her early 20s. Andy is a man who suffers simultaneously from an enormous ego, poor self-confidence, and little self-awareness--character traits that combine to produce mortifying moments. His relationship with Avi, his long-suffering best friend, brilliantly captures the stereotypical male reluctance to express platonic love and to retreat to the pub in times of need. Andy's mum--a single mother who isn't keen on displays of emotion but will readily offer up a medicinal whiskey--deserves more airtime. Pep talks from a more successful comedian friend and an overzealous personal trainer provide a respite from the monotony of Andy's misery, which begins to bore his closest friends and the reader alike. Echoing her earlier novels, Alderton examines how bewildering it can be for single people to find themselves alone in a crowd of married friends who suddenly have more pressing commitments than another pint of lager. But save for a couple of quips about Boris Johnson and the wealth disparity between Andy and Jen, the novel lacks any meaningful social commentary. The way the book makes a late switch to Jen's perspective might remind readers of Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies, but Alderton lacks Groff's mastery and Jen's point of view is dull. While the book is hardly original, it displays a quintessentially British sense of humor (ironic, self-effacing, coarse), and Alderton has a talent for depicting love, flaws and all. An easy read for those with a soft spot for the hopelessly doomed romantic. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In award-winning Alderton's latest (after her advice-column collection, Dear Dolly, 2023), comedian Andy's long-time girlfriend, Jen, has recently broken up with him, seemingly out of the blue. Andy finds refuge at his best friend's house while trying to get over Jen. This proves to be a little difficult, since his best friend's wife is also friends with Jen. Not only is Andy newly single and in need of a new place to live but his lukewarm career as a comedian takes a hit after he bombs a show. While Andy tries to work through his breakup with booze, self-loathing, and stalking Jen on social media, he finds himself lonelier than ever. Readers are taken along the emotional roller coaster that Andy is on, and they will get a front-row seat to all of the questionable things people do when their hearts are broken. This warm and relatable novel about relationships and heartache will please Alderton's many fans.
