Review
This was Nick Hornby's first novel since Juliet Naked, which is one of my absolute favorite books, so I was fairly excited about finally getting my hands on Funny Girl. (I even went so far as to order it from Amazon UK so I could read it well in advance of the US release date in February.)
Alas, my feelings toward it can best be summed up as "meh." The titular Barbara was likable enough, but the whole story read like a buildup toward a conflict that never came.
I was expecting a story about an aspiring comedienne who had to claw her way into the industry and then deal with stereotyping and prejudices in order to stay on top, and finally seeing what sort of compromises she would have to make regarding family life. That is not what Funny Girl is about. It's about a small town beauty queen who can't stomach the idea of life in a small town, so she ditches it and her beauty crown to see if she can make it in London. Once there, Barbara essentially had everything handed to her.
It wasn't bad, it just was not at at all what I expected, and sadly too lackluster in comparison to what I thought it would be.
Alas, my feelings toward it can best be summed up as "meh." The titular Barbara was likable enough, but the whole story read like a buildup toward a conflict that never came.
I was expecting a story about an aspiring comedienne who had to claw her way into the industry and then deal with stereotyping and prejudices in order to stay on top, and finally seeing what sort of compromises she would have to make regarding family life. That is not what Funny Girl is about. It's about a small town beauty queen who can't stomach the idea of life in a small town, so she ditches it and her beauty crown to see if she can make it in London. Once there, Barbara essentially had everything handed to her.
It wasn't bad, it just was not at at all what I expected, and sadly too lackluster in comparison to what I thought it would be.
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