Sorority of Satire: Never Judge a Book by its Lover

For my last book club pick, I went with Curtis Sittenfeld's Eligible.  Not because I'm a Jane Austen fan, but because I'm a fan of Sittenfeld's Romantic Comedy.  Eligible is (probably?) the latest in the many modern takes on Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  Which gave me pause because -- and please don't send hate mail -- I've never liked that book.  I found Elizabeth Bennett kind of cold and Austen's writing tedious.  I know, I know.  It's a classic, not to mention the archetype for every romantic comedy ever.  Even the famously critical Sheldon Cooper couldn't argue its excellence when trying to denigrate things Amy Farrah Fowler loved on The Big Bang Theory, conceding, "He has too much pride, she has too much prejudice.  It just works."  That said, I was intrigued by Eligible as a pop culture comment on a novel that's never far from the zeitgeist.

And you know what?  It was a hoot.  This time Elizabeth is a New York City-based women's magazine writer.  Her big sis Jane is a yoga instructor and lives in the Big Apple too, and their three younger sisters Mary, Kitty, and Lydia are unemployed and live with their parents in a crumbling mansion in Cincinnati.  I always knew that Mr. and Mrs. Bennet were caricatures, but I never appreciated just how laughable they are until Sittenfeld reincarnated them as a health insurance objector and shopaholic hoarder.  Even Elizabeth's dislike for Darcy rings truer when she overhears him disparaging her hometown to his bestie and Jane's love interest Bingley.  Darcy, by the way, is an ER doc, a role that imbues him with all the arrogant pomp he needs to do his namesake justice.  Not only that, but he's still super rich and master of Pemberley.   

But it's not just the characters that emerge as more vivid.  I really enjoyed the language.  It's just dry enough, sharpened by wit and insight and, yes, heart to echo the vibe of the original in a way that doesn't, as I like to say, "stick in your throat."  Add some very present-day social scenarios, all of which reveal Elizabeth to, surprise surprise, be the most traditional as well as the most forward-thinking of the Bennetts, and you have a silken satire.

So hats (bonnets?) off to you, Curtis Sittenfeld, for softening my misinformed prejudice toward this timeless title.

Maybe I'm a little like Elizabeth after all.          

Pop Culture Vultures and Lovebirds

Can an average-looking girl land a gorgeous guy?  That's the age-old question posed in Curtis Sittenfeld's Romantic Comedy.  The "normie" heroine is Sally Milz, an Emmy-winning writer for The Night Owls, a sketch comedy so much like Saturday Night Live I wondered if Sittenfeld had once worked there.  This fascinating window into the workings of SNL is sure to delight any fan.  But it's the story-within-the-story of Sally herself that resonates.  Brilliant but socially awkward, she's sick of seeing her schlubby male coworkers snag the beautiful women who host the show.  She even goes so far as to write a sketch about it.  Then Top 40 It Boy Noah Brewster gets the gig.  He's not only hot but surprisingly nice, and he and Sally forge an unlikely but very real friendship.  That is, until she sabotages it.

Sharp and witty and just plain fun, Romantic Comedy spans the space of three years, including the pandemic, to find out, once and for all, if men really like -- no, love -- smart women.  Through the admittedly distorted lens of Sally's insecurities, Sittenfeld skewers romcoms even as she applauds what makes them great.  

And that's what makes Romantic Comedy great, too -- its willingness to laugh at itself.