Author Patricia Nicol reveals the best books on: Romantic comedies
Author Patricia Nicol reveals a selection of the best books on: Romantic comedies
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I asked a man I know well if there were any romantic comedy books he might recommend. ‘I really don’t read that sort of thing,’ he spluttered, laughing nervously.
And from the shifty speed with which he backed out of the conversation, you might imagine I had asked for help scoring drugs on the dark web – or something even more nefarious.
But I think he has read romantic comedies. Surely, Martin Amis’s The Rachel Papers and Nick Hornby’s About A Boy, which he adores, both qualify? Also, an intellectual failing like having never read Pride And Prejudice is nothing to boast about.
Though reader, I did marry him. We all aspire to love and be loved, so why are romantic novels so often snootily dismissed as generic guilty pleasure ‘women’s books’, when what they reflect is a universal yearning?
In my experience the best of them are often better plotted and written than thriller or crime novels, yet those authors command higher respect — largely, I feel, because more men read them.
Its protagonist, Sally, is a comedy writer on a show similar to Saturday Night Live who forms a rapport with a celebrity rock-star guest, Noah. But is his niceness performative?
American bestseller Curtis Sittenfeld’s Romantic Comedy, out on Thursday, is funny, endearing and immersive, with knee-trembling romance. It also, cleverly and playfully, examines the rom-com form.
Its protagonist, Sally, is a comedy writer on a show similar to Saturday Night Live who forms a rapport with a celebrity rock-star guest, Noah. But is his niceness performative?
Are Sally’s archetypal ideas about looks and celebrity as constraining as a Regency heroine’s income?
Emily Henry’s novel Book Lovers was one of my most joyous reads of 2022
Another American writer who I think punches much higher as a writer than her Barbie-paletted book covers suggest is the globally bestselling Emily Henry. Her novel Book Lovers was one of my most joyous reads of 2022.
In the UK, Beth O’Leary is doing tremendous rom-com work. The Flatshare, now a TV series, was a triumph of screwball pacing and plotting. But underlining it was a serious issue: that young essential workers can’t afford rental prices.
These are perfect companions for the holiday weekend ahead.
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