Barbara is a small town beauty queen with acerbic wit, killer looks and a dream of being the next Lucille Ball. She ditches her crown and her name (Sophie Straw just sounds much more show business) and heads to London to find her big break. After selling cosmetics and performing at a string of horrible auditions, Sophie lands a role - a starring role! - in a brand new comedy show. The audience quickly falls in love with her. And what's not to love? Sophie is wickedly sharp, she has impeccable timing, and plenty of depth. She can ad-lib jokes and reads the audience with ease. She pushes her writers to create better material and her fellow actors to give more memorable performances.
Soon the show is being picked up for a whole series and Hornby goes on to follow Sophie as she transitions from small town nobody to star of the small screen. Funny Girl showcases the trajectory of Sophie's career and follows her and the rest of the cast into the “after.” What happens when people stop watching you every week? What happens after the red light has turned off? What happens when the studio is suddenly empty?
Hornby, as always, has the deftness and poise to consistently write flawed characters in the most fulfilling and realistic way. Funny Girl has a whole cast of personalities that each deserve their own story; Dennis the producer, Bill and Tony the writers, and Clive, Sophie's leading man on the show (and sometimes in real life). While the majority of the novel takes place in the 1960s, every character seems accessible and relatable- as if Sophie and her friends could walk in to any coffee shop today and begin talking of issues that are just as relevant now. Funny Girl, one would rightly assume, is a novel filled to the brim with jokes and comical anecdotes. Another line is always waiting in the wing to strike and stroke your funny bone. However, the novel is also pure and true in its observations of human nature.
“...Sophie didn't exist, not yet, and maybe not ever, not in the way
Lucy existed. She began to fear that she would always be greedy, all the time.
Nothing ever seemed to fill her up. Nothing ever seemed to touch the sides.”
We come to love the characters in Funny Girl not only for their talent but also for their ability to simply be themselves; quirky, hopeful, and, of course, endearingly funny.
Soon the show is being picked up for a whole series and Hornby goes on to follow Sophie as she transitions from small town nobody to star of the small screen. Funny Girl showcases the trajectory of Sophie's career and follows her and the rest of the cast into the “after.” What happens when people stop watching you every week? What happens after the red light has turned off? What happens when the studio is suddenly empty?
Hornby, as always, has the deftness and poise to consistently write flawed characters in the most fulfilling and realistic way. Funny Girl has a whole cast of personalities that each deserve their own story; Dennis the producer, Bill and Tony the writers, and Clive, Sophie's leading man on the show (and sometimes in real life). While the majority of the novel takes place in the 1960s, every character seems accessible and relatable- as if Sophie and her friends could walk in to any coffee shop today and begin talking of issues that are just as relevant now. Funny Girl, one would rightly assume, is a novel filled to the brim with jokes and comical anecdotes. Another line is always waiting in the wing to strike and stroke your funny bone. However, the novel is also pure and true in its observations of human nature.
“...Sophie didn't exist, not yet, and maybe not ever, not in the way
Lucy existed. She began to fear that she would always be greedy, all the time.
Nothing ever seemed to fill her up. Nothing ever seemed to touch the sides.”
We come to love the characters in Funny Girl not only for their talent but also for their ability to simply be themselves; quirky, hopeful, and, of course, endearingly funny.
Funny Girl is out February 3rd, 2015 from Riverhead Books.
Review by Caitlin Ek.
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