Good Material
Dolly Alderton
From the bestselling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: a story of heartbreak and friendship and how to survive both. Andy's story wasn't meant to turn out this way. Living out of a suitcase in his best friends' spare room, waiting for his career as a stand-up comedian to finally take off, he struggles to process the life-ruining end of his relationship with the only woman he's ever truly loved. As he tries to solve the seemingly unsolvable mystery of his broken relationship, he contends with career catastrophe, social media paranoia, a rapidly dwindling friendship group and the growing suspicion that, at 35, he really should have figured this all out by now. Andy has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story. Warm, wise, funny and achingly relatable, Dolly Alderton's highly-anticipated second novel is about the mystery of what draws us together - and what pulls us apart - the pain of really growing up, and the stories we tell about our lives.
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The last chunk of the book where it switches to the girlfriend’s perspective saved this for me. Otherwise it’s a no for me dog.
0This felt like fiction with a capital F. The premise is a breakup from a man’s POV. But it felt almost like Barbie had broken up with Ken. Because in what reality does a 35 year man acts this way after his girlfriend breaks up with him? A pitiful man with the emotional capacity of an amoeba.
Yet you get to the end and you’re like, oh! You can write a really good character. Those 2 stars are for the last chapter only which was great.
0This book took me a while to get into. I was excited to read from a male perspective, which I realized I don’t often, but I initially just found Andy to be a little too clumsy and sad. About 2/3s into it I did start to understand where he was coming from and why all of his insecurities had set him on this path. I do think it’s a good exploration of what it’s like to be a man who has no emotional outlet (ie. friends who make no attempts to meet each others emotional needs) and has to confront those feelings for the first time. He did show a lot growth by the end of the book that felt like we were heading towards a more satisfying payoff. However, the final chapter from Jane’s perspective was just so much more intriguing to me. While I could understand what Andy was going through, to me it took away from everything I had just heard from him to understand how he made her feel in that relationship. It was just so well articulated and reflective and was my far the best chapter. While I understand hearing both “sides” of the story it really just left me feeling like I wish I had a whole book about Jane. Neither character was perfect but her voice just came through a lot stronger
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