Good Material: THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, FROM THE AUTHOR OF EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE
£9.50
‘Made me laugh while punching me in the gut. Loved this book’ AISLING BEA
‘This is the greatest. You’ll cry and laugh. I read it though the night. And I never, ever avoid sleep’ CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN
‘I award it 13/10 on my QWJ scale (stands for Queasy With Jealousy that I didn’t write it)’ MARIAN KEYES
—
Every relationship has one beginning.
This one has two endings.
Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy.
And he can’t work out why she stopped.
Now he is. . .
1. Without a home
2. Waiting for his stand-up career to take off
3. Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn’t looking
Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak at a time when everything he thought he knew about women, and flat-sharing, and his friendships has transformed beyond recognition, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of their broken relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him.
Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend’s side of the story.
From the bestselling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: a sharply funny, beautifully observed and exquisitely relatable story of heartbreak and friendship, and how to survive both.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Penguin (9 Nov. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 1708 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Not Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 342 pages |
by Julia Flyte
I was very excited to get my hot little hands on this, having loved Dolly Alderton’s debut novel Ghosts. And it DID NOT DISAPPOINT. I’m happy to report that Dolly’s most definitely still got it.
I’ve read a lot of books lately that fall into the “messy girl” genre – this is a “messy boy” variation and it works really well. It’s a bit like an updated version of High Fidelity and it’s both extremely readable and emotionally honest.
Our narrator is Andy. He’s in his 30s and he’s scraping by as a not terribly successful comedian, with the odd side gig to make ends meet. More importantly, he’s just broken up with his long term girlfriend Jen and he’s not taking it well.
It’s a book about heartbreak – or as Andy puts it, about “the madness”. Andy falls apart and makes bad decisions and I think anyone who’s ever had their heart broken can probably relate to a very large part of it. Okay I didn’t suddenly decide that living on a houseboat would be the answer to my woes but I did reassemble a letter that had been through a paper shredder which is pretty high on the demented ex tally.
Towards the end we get another perspective on what happened which allows us to see what some of Andy’s blind spots have been along the way. It’s a very satisfying – and realistic – conclusion.
I received an ARC from Penguin UK via Net Galley.
by Amazon Customer
Flew through this in a weekend and loved it, really enjoyed the flip of having the perspective through a man’s eyes. One minute it’s laughing at a funny madness of a breakup and the next a paragraph has you in tears. Unfortunately during I did start looking up my ex’s on social media so wouldn’t recommend that aspect!
Spoilers: The ending was a bit possibly a teeny bit too sweet for me. Also I was slightly annoyed Jen never shared that Andy was only ever out for himself (did enjoy that he was a bit of an unrealiable narrator in this aspect) with him, or in general never gave him the answers he so desired – as we all know they never give you closure but would have enjoyed his reaction. Also the timeline of the pandemic coming! Didn’t know if that was gonna be included seeing as the dates were so close, had me on edge ????
by Han Roseberry
I’d been looking forward to the release of this book for a long time. Its release sadly timed with my own breakup, which whilst amicable has been incredibly heart breaking as it’s very hard to decide that you’re better apart. Dolly has an amazing insight into how emotional minds work post break up, how interactions with friends who are starting new chapters of their own lives now you’re single are very differnt and how what can seem like a list of bad events post breakup are actually what leads both main characters to that new exciting section of their lives. This book just shows us how they move through the pain and how important that is. I just feel sorry for Andy and Jen knowing the timing of lockdown and their plans for their new lives. Thank you for a much needed read.
by Sophia Blackwell
In this comforting read, Alderton abandons her familiar voice for most of it and ambitiously takes on a male perspective. She’s not the first author to do this successfully (think of Lisa Jewell’s male romantic leads in her mid-career books, or Louise Wener’s ‘Goodnight, Steve McQueen’) but it’s always nice to see a gamble pay off.
Andy Dawson is a carb-loving stand-up comedian whose self-involvement and thin skin definitely ring a bell for me as a writer who lives with a stand-up comedian, and most of the book is told in his voice. The final eighth or so of the narrative is told by his high-achieving ex-girlfriend Jen.
I found Jen’s explanation for her life choices a bit less interesting than Andy’s delightfully Nick Hornby-esque adventures, though I completely agreed with everything she said (and most of Andy’s opinions too, including the ones about truffle crisps, which are disgusting, addictive and too often available at my local branch of Majestic Wine).
by barbera
Loved this book. Please write a follow up. It ends just as COVID is about to start which could change a lot. Couldn’t put it down.
by Amazon Customer
Really enjoyable, reminded me of Nick Hornby a bit. About a break up, London life, and life as a 30 something.
by LibraryGeek12
When Jen ends their relationship of several years, Andy is baffled. Why doesn’t she love him any more? He goes through the various stages of break-up- desperately hoping to get her back, going out and getting drunk, sleeping with someone else, trying to turn himself against her. He is also in that difficult stage in his thirties where his friends all have wives, children, homes and steady jobs, so though initially they try to help him but it becomes increasingly hard to get anyone to come out on a “lads’ night.” His career as a stand-up comedian is failing and he ends up lodging with an old man. Slowly, however, he begins to move forward, and as we hear Jen’s version of what happened towards the end of 5e book, both Andy and the reader come to a new understanding. Sad but also very funny, Alderton is brilliant at chronicling the modern dating scene and how it has been dramatically influenced by the advent of social media, changing social mores and different lifestyles. She is also really good at characterisation, with even minor characters emerging as convincing and memorable, including the children of the estranged couple’s best friends. It cannot have been the easiest thing to tell the story from a male viewpoint, but she pulls it off with panache. A worthy successor to the wonderful, heart-breaking “Ghosts.”