For some reason, I thought I had read at least one book by Curtis Sittenfeld. It turns out, though, that I was confusing her with someone else. (Correction: I just looked, and I have read one other book by her. I thought I looked that up before I wrote this.)
Romances are not usually my genre, but I can sometimes enjoy them. Romantic Comedy was so popular that I decided to give it a try.
Sally is a comedy writer for a TV program called The Night Owls, a thinly disguised Saturday Night Live. She loves her job but after an embarrassing incident with a co-worker, has given up on romance.
Her spots usually have something to do with feminism, and for the week in question, she is working on one sketch called “The Danny Hurst Rule,” named after her office mate and friend, who is engaged to a famous, beautiful actress. The idea is that beautiful celebrity women might date average-looking men, but the reverse never happens.
For that show, the guest host and musical guest is Noah Brewster, a popular musician. Sally finds herself terrifically attracted to Noah as she helps him write a sketch, but since she considers her looks average, she can’t believe he would be interested in her. He obviously is, but at the after party she makes a crack that drives him away.
Two years later during quarantine from Covid, Noah sends her an email. This starts a chain of correspondence.
I think Sittenfeld was attempting to write a smart, witty romantic novel. I have realized I am out of step with modern humor (proved by the fact that I haven’t considered SNL funny since the 80s, and I’m waiting for younger folks to realize that fart jokes are not funny), and I did find some of the lines witty, but I found the rest of the novel only moderately interesting and was a bit bored by the string of long, heart-felt texts.
The most interesting to me was the research Sittenfeld put into the operation of SNL, the preparation and behind-the-scenes stuff. Otherwise, I was kind of meh. Although I did find both main characters sympathetic, Sally is so hung up on her preconceptions that she creates a lot of problems, and Noah is too perfect.
Also, I have an objection. Why do most modern romances involve a woman ending up with someone wealthy? Although there is certainly a long history of that, it used to be that sometimes two ordinary people could make a romance.
What? Me Read? 
I can enjoy rom-com in a film, but it almost never works for me in books, unless you count Georgette Heyer!
I totally agree.
<sigh> Sounds like she was trying to be clever and original, and then ended up falling for the old cliches and familiar tropes. So far, I’ve yet to want to read anything by her.
Some of the dialogue was clever, but the plot was fairly predictable. But then, that’s romantic comedy, isn’t it?
I guess… still… I’m not into romance. That said, I just started reading Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid and it is called “a love story” which I think isn’t the same as romance. Hopefully.
She pretty much writes romances, in my opinion, although they might have other aspects.
I agree with your objection! That said, I think I enjoyed this one way more than you did – may have had something to do with the fact that I read it while on holiday in Hawaii and it was the perfect, light beach read.
That could be it, but usually romance isn’t my genre, with the exception of one or two authors.
I enjoyed this but agree Noah was impossibly perfect and Sally unnecessarily crude. I do think with the right cast it would make a good movie and have checked a couple of times to see if the movie plans are progressing. I have started but not finished Eligible.
Sometimes I think some authors are writing purely with the hope of a screenplay in mind.