Good Material

I've loved Dolly Alderton's other works and hadn't read any sort of synopsis and I found myself mildly horrified that this is written from a man's perspective. It turns out I haven't read any book from a man's perspective that wasn't a dual perspective romance novel for a year. I pushed through to find the writing as witty and insightful as ever. I would say it's quite bleak in regards to it's perspective on relationships and the male friendships were beyond belief and had me yelling in frustration. Never before have I been so glad to be a woman.

I listened to the audiobook and it's one of the best performed and produced audiobooks I have heard lately. Some audiobooks (even bestsellers) have editing errors like repeated lines after accidentally left in misspeaks, and narrators who sounds unnatural or is obviously reading. This one however is flawless.

I had a good time with this book, especially considering this is not a genre I'm too much into. It was a quick read despite being kind of long in terms of the number of pages and that made the story easily approachable.

Going through a breakup myself I definitely felt identified with some of the passages and thoughts from the characters, to the point that it even made me reflect on my own relationship, behaviors and attitudes toward love.

It was funny at times and I liked that at the end they didn't end up together, but instead they stayed true to themselves and followed each other's dreams. 
It lacked some punch, I don't know how to put it but that's why I'm only giving it a bit over 3 stars. I would recommend it but not like a must read whatsoever.

‘You don't let go once. That's your first mistake. You say goodbye over a lifetime.”

Honestly, who needs therapy when you read books like this one? I'm finding it hard to rate this fully as a piece of literary work because it was so incredibly relevant that I don't know if I can focus too hard on its literary merits (I'll give it a go).

Dolly has such a good talent for writing things in a non-pretentious way while still providing insightful commentary on life and relationships. Writing from the perspective of the man who got broken up with felt fresh and inspired. I also think it really captured how it feels to go through a break up when there's not a specific major issue, but rather realizing that a relationship isn't what you need anymore.

I would be curious to hear wether or not men think it's an accurate portrayal of the men psyche after a breakup (if my ex is reading this, let me know what you think of this book!). To me, it felt authentic, it was emotional, and funny. I recommend it!

There aren't many authors who could get me excited about a nearly 350 page deep dive into a modern-day breakup, but Alderton write with such an honest, relatable and beautifully ordinary touch that I'd probably devour, annotate and savour even her shopping list.

Good Material follows Andy as he navigates life after being broken up with by his girlfriend, Jen. It clicks off every classic breakup stage; denial, downward spirals, dabbing in new hobbies, drunk calls and rebound attempts - all from the perspective of a 35-year old man.

But, my favourite part comes near the end when Dolly lets us into Jen's mind, offering a fresh perspective that feels like a relief after being immersed in Andy's world for three quarters of the book. Honestly, I wish we had even more of voice, it was by far the most wonderful chapter in the story.

This book is tender, amusing so characteristically Dolly, ultimately lending to my choice of giving this 4 out of 5 stars.

As a male comedian in his mid 30's whose attended the Edinburgh Fringe for almost a decade, whose career feels stalled, and is struggling with the most difficult breakup of his life, Dolly Alderton bringing out a book about a male comedian in his mid 30's whose attended the Edinburgh Fringe for almost a decade, whose career feels stalled, and is struggling with the most difficult breakup of his life, feels like the universe has given up on sending me subtle hints.

It's impossible to be objective about a book that has you saying things like “That's not what I did!”

But I'll try.

The book is funny with some good characters, you know exactly where the stories going but it's still fun getting there. Between both Andy and Jen's points of view, everyone whose gone through a breakup will be able to relate to something. Like technically, I was Jen (though also technically the exact opposite of Jen - a relationship confirmed all her opinions, a breakup made me sort out what I didn't know).

Dolly tries her best to be empathetic with the male experience, you can tell she's gone out of her way to do her research but, just like the standup comedy elements, it's very much written by someone on the outside looking in. While the comedian elements mostly work, the male emotional elements felt like cliches started creeping in.

The most glaring example of this is the way she describes the male friendship group dynamics after the breakup, which feel like the book was written in 1987. Sure in real life the group will go get drunk, that's a given, but they will definitely also have stories to share about the emotional difficulty of breakups, especially a group of guys in their mid 30's. You're going to have at least one guy wanting to talk about it too much, if anything.

What is lacking in the Andy POV narrative is actually taken too far in the other direction when Dolly writes from Jens perspective. I think Dolly made the mistake of being unable to separate herself from her character, she couldn't handle making Jen “the bad guy” or unaware in any way, and the point she was making suffered for it. From a narrative standpoint the choice Jen made should've been starker, like she was giving up something beautiful or betraying someone who didn't deserve it for the sake of what she really wanted, that way the choice has weight. As it stands its still nice to see this idea of being happy alone talked about, but the choice isn't exactly hard when it's not even a real relationship.

“You should choose to be happy alone rather than stay with a selfish whinger who slags off your entire family and doesn't support you emotionally, financially, or mentally” isn't quite the groundbreaking point it's made out to be.

Having said all that, the book helped me realise I've been floating in a limbo of impossible hopes for way too long, so whatever, 5 stars.

3,5 ⭐️ The last chapters were so much more interesting than the rest of the book. I appreciated the friendships in this, and seeing the different stages after a breakup was interesting. I will surely read another book from this author, but this book was not that special to me. The group of friends gave me a little bit the feeling of watching the characters in a sitcom like Friends or How I Met Your Mother with less attachment to the characters.