If you’ve ever had an office romance this one’s for you. The daily dance of emails and holding meetings with a crush, is the stuff of this funny and terrific new book Romantic Comedy. This is the latest from Curtis Sittenfeld the author of American Wife. This book review is in partnership with Penguin Random House NZ.
Our heroine, Sally Milz has long abandoned the search for romance, partly in favour of finding success in her career as a script writer for ‘The Night Owls’, an iconic late-night TV sketch show, and partly because she’s a little heartbreak shy; having once confessed her love to a fellow writer who went on to marry a beautiful pop star.
She’s also noticed that romances between stunning female A-list celebrities and her interesting but distinctly average looking male colleagues, seem to have become a trend. As she points out in a sketch she pens, the reverse of this trend never seems to happen for women. Except then she seems to catch the eye of the latest guest host on The Night Owls, Noah Brewster, a drop-dead gorgeous singer/songwriter, and while we’re caught up in the magic of mutual attraction the novel cleverly dissects the chemistry between them and adeptly explores the complexities of Sally’s character.
Romance is never straightforward these days and the intersections of physical attractiveness, talent, celebrity, and gender in the world are enjoyably examined in a novel that is fun, smart, savvy and a guaranteed good time. No wonder it’s a Reece Witherspoon Book Club pick.
Definitely a good book choice to have the gals around to unpack it all and deconstruct past flings at work. Confessions of the watercooler pash? You bet.
