Good Material

Good Material is a 2023 romantic comedy novel by British author Dolly Alderton. The novel follows Andy, a 35-year-old struggling comedian who is blindsided when his girlfriend of almost four years, Jen, unexpectedly ends their relationship. The story explores Andy's attempts to cope with and understand the breakup, while navigating the challenges of dating and maintaining friendships in his thirties. Good Material has been praised for its wit, insight, and ability to capture the complexities of modern relationships.

Plot
Andy Dawson, a 35-year-old struggling comedian in London, navigates the aftermath of his unexpected breakup with his girlfriend of nearly four years, Jen Hammersmith. Blindsided by Jen's decision to end their relationship with little explanation, Andy becomes consumed with understanding her reasons, believing that uncovering the truth might help him win her back. As he grapples with his emotions, Andy engages in self-destructive behaviours, excessively drinking and obsessively monitoring Jen's social media presence.

In the wake of the breakup, Andy moves out of the apartment he shared with Jen, briefly staying with his mother and then his best friend Avi and Avi's wife Jane, who is also Jen's best friend, before finding a new place with Morris, an elderly conspiracy theorist. Seeking support from Avi and Jane, Andy attempts to gather information about his ex-girlfriend while simultaneously struggling with feelings of loneliness and personal failure. Despite his friends' efforts to be there for him, Andy feels like a burden and avoids openly discussing his pain.

Andy's attempts to distract himself from his heartbreak, including a short-lived stay on a houseboat and hiring a personal trainer, prove ineffective. His obsession intensifies when he discovers that Jen has started dating a new man, leading him to fixate on her boyfriend's social media presence. Alongside his personal struggles, Andy's comedy career begins to suffer, punctuated by a scathing viral review that criticises his lack of effort and originality in his performances. He enters into a brief relationship with a 23-year-old woman named Sophie, though he ultimately ends the relationship upon realising her feelings for him are stronger than his feelings for her.

Andy and Jen reconnect at the birthday party of Avi and Jane's son and end up spending the night together. The following morning, Andy realises that their relationship is truly over, prompting him to reassess his life and begin the process of moving on. Andy starts to revamp his comedy routine, incorporating his breakup into his material. The new, more authentic approach resonates with audiences, and he receives positive feedback, including from Jen herself.

In the novel's final pages, the narrative shifts to Jen's perspective, offering insight into her side of the story. She reveals that her relationship with Andy was challenging due to his emotional struggles and lack of ambition. Although the breakup was extraordinarily difficult for her as well, Jen believes that being single is the best decision for her personal growth. The book concludes with Jen planning a year-long tour of South America in 2020, fulfilling a long-held dream, while Andy prepares to perform his new show at The Fringe Festival in Edinburgh that summer.

Themes
A significant theme in the novel is the exploration of heartbreak and modern relationships. The protagonist, Andy, struggles to accept the end of his relationship with Jen, leading him to engage in various self-destructive behaviours such as drinking before noon, cyber-stalking Jen, and entering a morally dubious relationship with a much younger woman. The novel delves into the complexities of these coping mechanisms and Andy's journey towards closure. Friendship and support are highlighted as crucial elements during difficult times. The novel addresses the challenges men face in expressing their emotions and seeking help from friends.

Style
Good Material is primarily written in the perspective of the male protagonist Andy, but in the final pages of the novel, Alderton employs a narrative shift, giving Jen a voice and allowing her to share her side of the story.

Background
Alderton started writing Good Material in 2020, in the wake of a painful breakup. To authentically capture the male experience of heartbreak and relationships, Alderton conducted extensive research, interviewing around 15 men of various ages, backgrounds, and personality types. Through these interviews, Alderton discovered a common theme: men often felt they lacked the language or permission to discuss their emotions in detail with their male friends. "They told her that when they spoke to their friends about their break-ups, 'they felt they were boring them. Some of them said they could talk for a while but eventually they would worry they weren't being entertaining enough or that their dignity was compromised.'"

Alderton's decision to write from a male perspective was also influenced by her desire to challenge herself as a fiction writer and to create a character that could not be easily compared to herself, as had been the case with her previous novel, Ghosts. In Good Material, Alderton aimed to "stretch herself" and "write about someone who couldn't be compared to [her]," allowing her to explore new themes and ideas.

While Good Material is not a direct sequel to any of Alderton's previous works, it does share some thematic similarities with her memoir, Everything I Know About Love, which chronicled her experiences navigating love and relationships in her twenties. Reviewers noted that "Good Material reads like the precursor to Everything I Know About Love. Before the wisdom, before the lessons, before the growth – Andy is the target demographic for the life advice Alderton offered up in her 2018 memoir."

Reception
Good Material received positive reviews from critics. Writing for The New York Times, Katie Baker described the novel as "deliver[ing] the most delightful aspects of classic romantic comedy — snappy dialogue, realistic relationship dynamics, humorous meet-cutes and misunderstandings — and leav[ing] behind the clichéd gender roles and traditional marriage plot." Hephzibah Anderson of The Observer noted that "Alderton excels at portraying nonromantic intimate relationships with tenderness and authenticity" and that the novel "showcases Alderton's knack for rich characterisation and zippy dialogue like never before." Michael Donkor, writing for The Guardian, highlighted the novel's "bouncy and very British comic sensibility", noting "the overriding impression it leaves is one of a writer comfortably settling into her groove, and very much in control of her material." Kirkus Reviews gave a more critical review, describing the novel as "an easy read for those with a soft spot for the hopelessly doomed romantic," while noting that "save for a couple of quips about Boris Johnson and the wealth disparity between Andy and Jen, the novel lacks any meaningful social commentary."

Daisy Lester of The Independent gave the novel a perfect 5/5 stars, calling it "a cliché-avoiding break-up novel" and praising its "whipsmart dialogue and relatable millennial themes." Clare Mulroy of USA Today awarded the novel 3.5 out of 4 stars, writing that "Alderton's writing shines its brightest in the last 60 pages of the book when she uses a surprising and sharp juxtaposition to put the story to bed. Her ability to create complex characters and tell the story with a varied perspective is masterful, giving Andy (and us as readers) the closure that's needed from this heartbreak." Anna Bonet of the i praised the novel, stating that "if only more books were as funny as this" and that "Alderton's take on the breakup novel showcases her knack for rich characterisation and zippy dialogue like never before."

Critics drew comparisons between Good Material and Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity due to their shared premise of a man dissecting a past relationship. Alderton's decision to write from a male perspective was seen as a bold choice that allowed her to stretch herself as a fiction writer. The novel's exploration of themes such as the power dynamics in age-gap relationships, the pain of unrequited love, and the experience of feeling eclipsed by a younger generation in one's mid-thirties was commended.