Review

Sally is a writer for TNO (The Night Owls), an iconic SNL-like live comedy sketch show, and has been for nearly ten years. She comes up with a sketch called the Danny Horst Rule: that gorgeous female celebrities hosting TNO marry decidedly non-gorgeous TNO writers and performers, but hot male celebrities never get together with female TNO-ers. Her colleague Danny, who’s brilliant and hilarious but a bit of a schlub, is engaged to the divine Annabel, a famous young actor whom he met when she guest starred on TNO.

Then Noah Brewster, world-famous pop star and extraordinarily hot guy, comes to TNO for a week, preparing to be the musical guest and regular guest host. He seeks Sally out for some help revising and polishing a sketch idea of his. And Sally feels that… there’s chemistry between them. Could this be an exception to the Danny Horst Rule? Or is she just disoriented by his celebrity charisma?

*

I very much enjoyed this intimate and digressive exploration of contemporary relationships. In particular, I became very invested in Sally, our first person narrator, and extremely interested in/occasionally low key anxious about how her life would turn out.

The first half of the novel is set during the week leading up to (and including) Noah’s TNO guest host stint, which taught me a lot about how shows like SNL work. The third quarter is epistolary (emails) and was set three or four years later, during the Covid lockdowns, which have already faded so far into my memory that it feels like historical fiction to be reading about them and remembering all the fears and preoccupations of that time. The fourth quarter is also during the Covid lockdowns, but returns to its regular first person narration. And there’s an epilogue, which I always appreciate.

It’s very entertaining in a grown up relationships kind of way, and it’s literary, but in that low key, observational American way (i.e. would be hard for a student to analyse, not a lot of obvious literary techniques). An entertaining, engrossing, gently humorous read. Love the cover, love the audiobook. This is my first Curtis Sittenfeld novel! I’ve been meaning to read her forever. I’m glad I finally got there.

Year 10 & up. 400 pp.

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Dead mother (cancer – backstory); absent father (backstory); various characters experience romantic disappointments, including a divorce and a broken engagement – some on page, some backstory; medical content: a character contracts Covid and requires close home care, including bathing and toileting (situation resolves well); minor relationship tensions; a character has minor body & food issues; a character is sober due to a tragic alcohol related accident in their youth; comedic sketches involve some crudity; some sexual content later on — not extensive or graphic, but some realistic details included; at least one f-buddy relationship (related, not shown, but some nude pics briefly involved); swears: f-words, s-words, assorted vulgarities. Main & minor relationships are mlw.

*

Sittenfeld, C. (2023). Romantic Comedy (K. Sieh, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Penguin Audio

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