The plot of Romantic Comedy
In Romantic Comedy, Curtis Sittenfeld attempts to craft a story in reverse. There’s a phenomenon, proven in Hollywood, that beautiful women seem to date very ordinary-looking men. In Romantic Comedy, Sally Milz is a writer for TNO (The Night Owl), a reimagination of SNL, who discovers that she has chemistry with the guest starting that week, Noah Brewster. Noah is a teenage-pop-sensation-turned-middle-age-heartthrob.
She spends the entire novel both exploring and questioning this chemistry. As expected, Sally and Noah are given several attempts to find their footing. In the first couple of attempts, it’s Sally’s inability to believe that beautiful people could be anything but beautiful that spells their doom. When they do start to get vulnerable with each other, it’s over email. And finally, when they meet, it’s very hard to imagine their physical and sexual chemistry.
Romantic Comedy is a story about two people that see their own obvious flaws but can’t seem to acknowledge them in front of each other. And we, as readers, don’t get insight into their flaws until they start to act them out.
The Writing of Romantic Comedy
In this novel, Sittenfeld writes from the perspective of the main character, Sally Milz. We get insights into the entirety of Sally’s brain, very detailed explanations of the set of TNO, and some understanding of Sally’s neurosis.
It’s proved to be a little too much-added detail, almost veering the plot away from its point: that Sally and Noah don’t know yet how to choose love for themselves. It seems as if we get access to every single thought that crosses Sally’s mind. In a sense this allows us to have a holistic view of the characters. We know what she thinks about her work life (she adores it), her friends (they’re the best), and her family (she loves her stepfather).
What we don’t see from Sally’s stream of consciousness is any growth. Her friends seem to offer one-off lines of support. But other than Noah’s singular truth bomb to her near the end of the book (“Because you’re scared.”) no one else seems to be challenging her mindset. And so her mindset doesn’t really change.
I would’ve loved to see a progression of Sally’s thoughts and feelings. She seems to be grappling with something really big throughout the book — the feeling that she’s not good enough. It doesn’t seem like we have a journey into how she overcomes that feeling.
You should read this if…
You like to know and understand a character. Romantic Comedy is written from Sally’s perspective and we get to understand exactly why she acts the way she does.
You like novels where the main characters fall in love. While parts of the novel have a will-they-won’t-they feel, it’s obvious from the beginning (the title of the novel, for example!) that the characters are destined to fall in love.
You like to be completely sucked into the setting of a novel. Romantic Comedy puts us smack in the middle of TNO, a parody of SNL. We learn about the makings-of as well as the politics behind the scenes.