Good Material by Dolly Alderton: A Review
4.0 stars
In January of this year, I read Dolly Alderton’s memoir, Everything I Know About Love, and I quickly fell in love with her writing style and vulnerability. So, when I saw her newest fiction release was coming out this February, I stopped at my favorite book store in DC and picked up my own copy.
Alderton’s newest novel, Good Material, follows the breakup from the perspective of Andy, a struggling comedian in his thirties who was completely blindsided by the split from his long-time girlfriend, Jen. The story goes through his life in the aftermath and how he struggles to move on. The book begins with an excerpt from a nonfiction piece called Why Elephants Cry, which describes how elephants grieve and bury their dead (keep this in mind for later hehe).
In all honesty, as I was reading, I genuinely disliked Andy and had a hard time empathizing with him. He is throwing a pity party for himself for most of the beginning of the book and takes out his insecurities by vilifying his ex. But, as I kept reading, I came to the conclusion that the annoyance I had for Andy was kinda the whole point? That even this unlikeable guy is complex and nuanced? And still deserving of love and happiness?
Anyone who has gone through a breakup with literally anyone, with a partner, a friend, or even a family member, can relate the feeling Andy experiences for the duration of the story (even if we think it’s insufferable when we see it through someone else). Andy is looking for any way he can to cope through the loss, because after all, going through a breakup is a grieving process. He gets buys bottles of Jen’s old perfume and throws it in the canal, moves in with an old man, and has a fling with a much younger woman. None of which fix the problem he is so desperately trying to get rid of. I think the reader maybe is supposed to have a proclivity to dislike Andy, because for a lot of us, his feelings are ones we’ve all felt before ourselves.
The star moment of this novel, however, was the last 50 pages or so, which were from Jen’s perspective. We get glimpses of her throughout the story, but never enough to understand her motives or the overarching question: why she broke up with Andy. Jen’s chapters take us back to the very beginning of the story and quickly recap the whole timeline of events we’ve seen up until now, but from her perspective. These chapters really ‘saved’ the book for me. This was the full-circle, ‘ahhhhhhhhhh’ moment I was waiting for. Jen’s thoughts and feelings I think represented the plight of the modern woman. As Jo from Greta Gerwig’s Little Women said: “ …And they've got talent as well as just beauty. And I'm so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I'm so sick of it. But I'm so lonely.”
Jen is so happy with her independence and her life as it is, she isn’t sure if Andy, or any man, will ever fit into it. But there’s still that longing and love left for Andy. It doesn’t just go away. At the conclusion, we see Jen visiting Andy at one of his comedy shows. This is where we get my favorite quote of the novel (remember those elephants from the beginning?):
“I could say that I’ve been doing what the elephants do. I’ve been scattering the bones of us and who were together. Reading all our old messages, throwing bottles of discounted Armani She into a canal, trying to re-create our memories, standing on stage and talking to you. It’s a weird kind of mourning and a weird kind of celebration, to examine the skeleton of something that was once so magnificent, before you scatter all the fragments of it out into the world to say goodbye.” OUCH. This is when the tears came for me.
Jen and Andy part ways here and the story ends. Overall, this book was witty, sweet, sad, and hopeful. My 4.0 star ranking only comes from my general distaste for Andy’s constant whining lol. I would definitely recommend this to any Sally Rooney lovers (like me) and anyone who needs a simple, low-stakes book to read on the train. I am definitely looking forward to reading more of Dolly Alderton’s books in the future.
