In the TNO boss’ office, people sit on “the surprisingly crappy furniture in the surprisingly unfancy space”. And Sittenfeld often uses bland descriptions that show us nothing. He once greets Sally with, “Those are great fancy shoes.” Danny and Annabel’s relationship is cliched even when it tries to draw us in: Danny loves to gaze into Annabel’s eyes on her bed with a million pillows “like in the fanciest hotel”. Noah, repeatedly referred to as “cheesily handsome”, often reads more like a cipher than a real person. On the evening of March 14th, Curtis Sittenfeld read to a full house at Randolph Hall, Alumni Hall. It shouldn’t smell floral when I’m getting oral.”Īnd while Romantic Comedy convinces readers of the connection between Sally and Noah, its characters and world often lack the texture of real life. I groaned at many behind-the-scenes barbs among the comedy writers, such as Danny’s: “It’s very demeaning that you think my vagina needs cleaning. A skit about dogs doing Google searches fell flat. She employed it beautifully in Eligible perhaps it helped to borrow the skeleton of the most popular romantic comedy of all time.Ĭomedy is subjective, of course, but I didn’t find the jokes in this novel very funny. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Wonderfully tender and hilariously funny, Eligible tackles gender, class, courtship, and family as Curtis Sittenfeld reaffirms. Sittenfeld can be a master of sardonic, devastatingly arch observational wit. But there aren’t enough of them in Romantic Comedy.

2016 novel by curtis sittenfeld