I dare say I’ve found my reading groove? I used to read a lot but since having kids (so around six years) I haven’t been great about it at all. I set a low reading goal for 2022 on Goodreads and miserably failed. But I’m back, baby!
The Author
This month, I started and quickly finished Curtis Sittenfield’s Romantic Comedy. I loved her book Prep and two of her other books (The Man of My Dreams and You Think It, I’ll Say It) have been hanging out in my to-be-read stack for what feels like forever. I thought this one sounded like an interesting read so was happy it was my book club’s May pick.
The format
To be on the fence on this one, it was a super quick read. One of the things I strongly disliked about the book might have contributed to that?!
The book is written in three chapters. Three very long, can’t-catch-your-breath style chapters. I’ve never really through about it before, but I really look for those breaks in the story to give me a chance of stop reading for the day. Without that, I had to stop in the middle and it was harder to pick back up the next time without missing some of the context.
The story
Avoiding spoilers, the story was focused on several things. The part I enjoyed the most was the first, which was about the main character’s experience working in a late-night show. It had a different name, but was very much something along the lines of SNL. Seeing this through the eyes of a female main character was fun and effective.
The second section though was all in emails and takes place during peak COVID. On one hand, I thought it was realistic that COVID would impact the storyline. However it was interesting the author chose to link the book to such a specific timeframe. I think with our world still impacted so much by COVID, I wasn’t quite ready for it to be part of the books I’m reading to escape. That paired with the email format (which started to feel tedious) made this part really hard for me to make my way through.
The final third was pleasant enough but didn’t wow me. I kind of knew where the book was taking us but I guess I wanted to know a little less going in.
Overall, I’m feeling a bit better on this one now that it’s been a bit since I originally read it. However, still not overall an absolute fave of mine. I kind of wish the first third was a standalone somehow.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
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