Good Material by Dolly Alderton | book review
One-sided perspective of a breakup that left me wanting more
As a big fan of both Everything I Know About Love and Ghosts, I was so looking forward to Dolly Alderton’s latest book, Good Material. I was also excited to read about a breakup from a man’s perspective, which is fairly rare in contemporary literature. (There is also a certain thrill about the reversal of a woman writing from a man’s perspective about love.)
However, this didn’t quite live up to my hopes. I enjoyed some of the book from Andy’s perspective, but it suffered very much from a sagging middle. We are stuck in a thick fog of Andy’s perspective, and I have two contrasting opinions on this:
This is very real. When we’re going through a breakup, it can be all-consuming and selfish. It’s hard to see out of it, and fundamentally, this is largely Andy’s book. He deserves to wallow and rot and bemoan his lost love. He is human.
LET ME OUT OF HERE. Good Material felt very one-sided, and I was itching for another perspective, whether from Jen (the ex who broke his heart, ruining his life), his friends, or his mum. In contrast, Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey never felt stuck even though it also focusses entirely on one character post-breakup. At some point, I just lost some empathy and patience for Andy, especially when we can see, even from his version of history, that he made fundamental mistakes in the relationship and isn’t behaving very well in the present day, even accounting for his broken heart.
We do get another perspective right at the end—Jen’s. I’d anticipated this from a review and was hoping for a big twist, but it let me down and I clocked out. I understand the feminist message of Jen’s reasoning, but her entire piece seems to be an exculpation of Andy. She mentions some of his faults, and we can see them from Andy’s part of the book (a wonderful example of ‘show and not tell’!), but she does not assign him any responsibility. He was perfect, she says, and though she also notes that he’s not quite husband material, Andy bears no fault, no blame, no responsibility.
I eagerly await Dolly’s next book.
Book information
Title: Good Material
Author: Dolly Alderton
Published: 2023
Length: 345 pages
Book description
Andy's story wasn't meant to turn out this way. Living out of a suitcase in his best friends' spare room, waiting for his career as a stand-up comedian to finally take off, he struggles to process the life-ruining end of his relationship with the only woman he's ever truly loved.
As he tries to solve the seemingly unsolvable mystery of his broken relationship, he contends with career catastrophe, social media paranoia, a rapidly dwindling friendship group and the growing suspicion that, at 35, he really should have figured this all out by now.
Andy has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story.
Warm, wise, funny and achingly relatable, Dolly Alderton's highly-anticipated second novel is about the mystery of what draws us together - and what pulls us apart - the pain of really growing up, and the stories we tell about our lives.
I just finished this and felt that Jen portrayed Andy as far from perfect for her, blaming him for things like not being a good listener, a thoughtful gift giver, or being nice to her family. I dive deeper into this in my upcoming blog post. I thought the plot twist wasn’t just that she wanted to be alone, but that he wasn’t at all what she needed—especially with the timing of the ending.
i like dolly alderton’s writing but her books do feel pretty surface level to me? i think they’re really popular because they’re accessible, which isn’t a bad thing, but i agree, i’m always left wanting more.