Monday Moments - Book Review - Romantic Comedy

 Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld is very obviously loosely based on Saturday Night Live - the long running late night Saturday comedy show on NBC. 

Sally is a sketch writer for the Night Owls that airs on Saturday nights.  She's long abandoned the search for love. 

cover blurb: 2018 Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation - he's a guest and host for a 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 if there might actually be sparks flying.  But this isn't a romantic comedy - it's real life. And in  real life, someone like him (super hot and famous) would never date someone like her...right? 

2020 - pandemic.  Noah reaches out via email to Sally. Communication turns into a trip to LA for her. Sparks do fly.  Is this real?  Is it "LOVE?"   

You have to read the book to find out, but the author does a great job with the neurosis-inducing and heart fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.  (cover blurb) 

I liked this book and was along  for the ride.  Well done. 

Book Review - You Think It, I'll Say It

Curtis Sittenfield hit the world with Prep, American Wife, and Eligible. Now her short story collection brings to life modern day characters with interesting flaws.

Cover blurb – Throughout the ten stories in You Think It, I’ll Say It, Sittenfield upends assumptions about class, relationships, and gender roles in a nation that feels both adrift and viscerally divided. In “The World Has Many Butterflies” married acquaintances play a strangely intimate game with devastating consequences. In “Vox Clamantis in Deserto” a shy Ivy League student learns the truth about a classmate’s seemingly enviable life. And in the “Prairie Wife” a suburban mother of two fantasizes about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome lifestyle empire may or may not be built on a lie.

I enjoy Curtis Sittenfield’s writing and she is quite deft in striking to the heart of an issue, stroking it with finesse, and completing the full story with grace. Her dialogue is current. Her characters are well developed. From the promise that was Prep, this author has emerged as a strong American writer who commands her art with wit and depth.

Book Review - Eligible

Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Prep (a darn good book) is out with Eligible – a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice.  From the cover blurb – equal parts homage to Jane Austen and bold literary experiment, Eligible is a brilliant, playful, and delicious saga for the twenty-first century.

I hear screams from Jane Austen fans, and I understand. Pride and Prejudice is a treasure. It’s the one. It can’t be duplicated.  I agree.

However, this is a clever interpretation with lively characters running amok in the twenty first century. Cell phone etiquette and first impressions, dating, and marriage, health and wealth. A lot of life doesn’t really change nor do goals of Mrs. Bennet. Unfortunately she can’t always get her daughters to do what she wants- i.e. get married.   And Chip Bingley is shallow. Fitzwilliam Darcy does not give a good first impression. And Liz Bennet is independent and shows pluck.

Eligible is a breezy read. It’s funny and tackles gender, class, courtship, and family issues.  I enjoyed the book, and it made me want to re-read Pride and Prejudice. Nothing wrong with that.