Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
BOOKCLUB PEEPS DON’T READ!
“A third child inspired in me more gratitude for my own circumstances than envy.”
“’If it sounds like I haven’t been in enough therapy, it’s because I’ve chosen Midwestern repression instead.’”
“’The point of life is to find the thing you’re good at and enjoy doing, and to do it for other people.’”
“’Real life is just awkward.’”
Romantic Comedy is about Sally who is a writer for a comedy sketch show. She has been writing sketches for years. She has had varying levels of success and some recurring sketches. On one show they have this musician named Noah Brewster who also acts as the host. He has been singing for years as well. Noah is described as very attractive with a good body. They meet, collaborate on a sketch, and then go to a bar with everyone for an after-party. They talk but that is where they part ways. A couple of years later the pandemic hits and Sally gets an email from Noah. They conversate. Is this real life or a romantic comedy? Will Sally think of herself as worthy? Will a relationship develop? Is Sally worthy of Noah?
Curtis Sittenfeld wrote this book while watching SNL on one screen and a generic romantic comedy on another during the height of Covid, it seems. I mean I don’t know that but that is the way it came across. The first thing I noticed when reading the jacket was the fact that it was an exact copy of SNL. Like couldn’t you move the show date to a Friday or not have the name be three letters? Alter it a little bit. Then the script that was presented as a movie was like a total rip-off of The First Wives Club. I didn’t like Sally as the main character. She was very whiny and insecure. She did some things that I didn’t understand and couldn’t fathom having a reason for. Her ex-husband was an ass. I also didn’t like how the book was arranged. There were like 3 chapters total and 1 was entirely made up of emails. That took up a lot of space without a lot of words. Emailing multiple times a day? Within a few minutes? I was surprisingly thrown when the font changed from the email chapter to the next chapter. It was weird. One thing I did like was the sprinkling in of commentary on the unraveling of our Democracy into Autocracy because of the 2016 election. They were nods to reality and something I felt deeply about and agreed with. “’Remember on election night, when it was like, the worse could happen? And then all of a sudden, it was like, Oh my fucking God, it’s happening. And then it had happened.’” Oh and the author lives in Minneapolis…where I am from! And there was mention of Duluth, MN as well as hot dishes…such a Minnesotan thing! There was also a very sweet moment about Jerry and a guitar. Noah was described as very hot with a great body so maybe a movie version with a hot guy could lift this story? The words that I picked up on when I came across them were vacuous, anodyne, axiomatic, piquant, facile, cloying, epistolary, and obsequiousness. I was not impressed with this book and thought it was generic and bland. It was frustrating and stupid. This is exactly the type of book that an alien could read and understand all romantic comedies ever.
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Tag: NYC
The Fear Of The Secret Hand And How Racism Kills
The Black Hand: The Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History by Stephan Talty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Black Hand is the true story of a dastardly, crime centered Society of the Black Hand and the detective who lost his life in the battle to bring peace. It centers on NYC in the early 1900s but the strength of this group was far reaching. The Italian immigrants were fighting for their lives daily and trying to survive against extortion, kidnapping, bombings, and murder. The powers that be did nothing to help as the racism of the United States was rearing its ugly head again. This is something that we have seen time and time again throughout this country’s entire history. It is very upsetting and aggravating. The author weaves a very engaging and engrossing tale that I did not want to put down. The level of details and the depth of research is evident. This is a part of history that I had no knowledge of, and it was fascinating. The Black Hand was like a precursor to the mafia here in the states. It was cool to learn about Joseph Petrosino and his attempts to eliminate this shadowy group. He did all this amazing work in the face of such opposition, even within he ranks of his fellow members of the police force. Society at the time was unraveling and the public was petrified across the country. In sad similarities to how some people think today, Italian immigrants (specifically people from the south of Italy) were treated horrifically. The corruption in the powers of the city and the reluctance to view the immigrants as equals led to continuation of this horror long after it could have been stopped. There was a scene where the funeral was being described that had me at the edge of tears. It was beautifully and heroically described. The one thing I didn’t like (at no fault of the author) was how people got away with things, especially people in power. Accountability and consequences were lacking which is fundamentally infuriating to me. People were trying to live their lives but they had to worry about the wicked actions of their fellow countrymen. It is heartbreaking. Joseph, the great detective of his time, deserved better and he should be remembered. This book is a great step and I wish more people would read it.
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