Good Material: THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, FROM THE AUTHOR OF EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE

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I think it was very important to have a section from Jen’s perspective at the end of the book. It gives so much clarification to much of the breakup, and pulls the reader from the typical pedestalization of a protagonist that inevitably occurs in fiction. Andy is not perfect. Jen is not perfect. I see bits of myself in both of them. Which, as a writer, I know is very very very difficult to accomplish. The complexity of these characters on such a molecular level is stunning and inspiring, to say the least. She enlightens readers about “The Flip” (the change in power that occurs in every relationship doomed to failure) Always used to boast about how she’d reject an OBE if it were offered to her because of her apparent lefty republican values but would never know why she’d be offered an OBE in this fantasy when I asked her.

In addition to following the progress of Andy’s recovery and meeting some very good characters along the way (Ari and Jane‘s children are hilarious for example), there are some excellent music references, some hair obsessing and hair envy, some other ventures where Andy tries to reinvent his 35-year-old self, with limited success. Like so many twentysomething women, I have turned to Dolly Alderton’s writing for solace… Written from the perspective of someone recently heartbroken, but this time it’s a man… The detail is luscious… Radical.” I award it 13/10 on my QWJ scale (stands for Queasy With Jealousy that I didn't write it)’ MARIAN KEYES This is the greatest. You’ll cry and laugh. I read it through the night. And I never, ever avoid sleep Claudia Winkleman His lovelorn misadventures will prove to be the making of him but the novel closes with a short section told from Jen’s point of view. It’s a clever way of tying up loose ends that also accentuates the extent to which this affable, satisfying tale is out to defy some of the most stubbornly conservative tropes of romantic fiction.Heartburn by Nora Ephron. I find new meaning in it with every year I get older. I give it to anyone with a broken heart. Whatever. No point discussing it any further.’ I can’t find my footing in this conversation – I lurch from desperation to indifference. I want her to know how much I love her and I also want her to think that I don’t care about our relationship any more. I don’t know what the desired outcome is. I wish I hadn’t had three beers. ‘I don’t think these phone calls are helping us,’ I say. Genuinely laugh-out-loud funny – with characters straight out of a Richard Curtis film – whipsmart dialogue and relatable millennial themes (Alderton’s forte) mean there’s never a dull moment ... Thought-provoking and wise The Independent, Best New Books to Read This Autumn When digging into modern day manhood, meanwhile, there is perhaps a trace of gender stereotyping – Jen’s female friends take her for a spa weekend to help her deal with the breakup, while Andy’s own blokey friends arrange a night out at the pub, followed by KFC. Yet something about it rings true.

Because at the beginning I used to delete your number all the time, so I ended up accidentally memorizing it.’ Dolly Alderton knows a thing or two about mining life’s most intimate moments for creative material. Her hit memoir Everything I Know About Love distilled lessons learned the messy way in her 20s about romance in all its guises, and when she later published her debut novel, Ghosts, its plot felt tantalisingly autobiographical, centring on a successful young writer’s app-enhanced attempts at finding a lasting relationship. Good Material is her second novel and it allows Alderton to reflect on heartbreak-as-muse while simultaneously propelling her into a more definitively fictional realm, narrated as it is by a male protagonist.Talked too much and too smugly about coming from a big family, as if it was her decision to have three siblings. I really like Dolly Alderton‘s writing and this is another very well written novel. We first meet Andy when in 2019, he lists the reasons why he is not good with Jen. Yes, Andy I get it, she does sound pretty awful, but inexplicably, she breaks his heart when she dumps him. However, hold your horses, this is Andy‘s point of view so let’s just rein in the sympathy for now. The pair meet in 2015 at his best friend Ari’s birthday bash and all seems well until an ill-fated trip to Paris. Andy tells us his “progress” in a sort of journal form as he negotiates the different stages of the break up. Just as she did in both her memoir and her 2020 debut novel Ghosts, Alderton explores friendships beautifully, probing the anxieties around being left behind while other friends reach milestones, and the bittersweet pain of seeing a friend’s career soar while your own is flailing (“I’m pleased for him,” Andy notes when spotting a five star review of a fellow comic’s show. “I can’t read past the fourth sentence”). The End of the Affair. I didn’t read any Graham Greene until I was 30 and I fell in love with his writing. Your therapist suggested that I “write a letter to my ego”, so I’m sorry if I’m not gagging to hear whatever she advised.’